The Empire Strkes Back

07/12/12 Filed in: High-Speed Rail
The LA Times’ story on the French National Railways, SNCF, presentation has stirred up a hornet’s nest of reaction. CHSRA apologist Robert Cruickshank’s site CAHSR blog carried a scathing condemnation of the LA Times story, along with the exclusive release of CHSRA Board Chair Richard’s letter to the LA Times editor.

In response to the stunning levels of vitriol and bad faith, TRANSDEF posted these comments:

After first responding to the SNCF story with a deer-in-the-headlights "No comment," CHSRA is now in full damage control mode. The sheer number of slurs and easily disprovable allegations in Richard's letter indicates panic over this story. As second fiddle in CHSRA's attack machine, Robert resorts to making stuff up, too.

The vehemence of the combined response says we've struck a nerve. That's a tacit admission that SNCF made a proposal that somehow threatened the status quo.

Consider this one point: If the proposal was even a quarter as bad as alleged here, why would the Authority have clamped such a tight lid of secrecy on it? It just doesn't wash...

Readers of this blog are invited to check out the other side of the story on our website: transdef.org (Robert could even add it to his blog roll!)

BTW, note that 'the significant controversy over SNCF's role in the Holocaust' arose only after SNCF made its proposal, potentially disrupting the CHSRA's happy family of consultants. Did Bob Blumenfeld suddenly wake up one day, outraged by the injustice? Or was this a commercial counterattack, disguised as the voice of conscience?

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