High-Speed Rail Archives

Republicans call on DOT to explain its largesse to CA HSR

May 30, 2024 June 2, 2024

The best thing to have come out of Washington D.C. in decades: A letter from Committee Chairs (or Ranking Members) in the Senate and House asking Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg to explain why his Department gave CA HSR a $3.2 billion grant, despite its inability to show how that project will ever be useful to anyone: Congressional Letter to Sec. Buttigieg on HSR This letter bears a striking resemblance to TRANSDEF’s analysis from a decade ago as to why CA’s HSR project can never work. We also remind everyone that HSR would be running now if the CHSRA had not…

NewsGroup papers call for an end to California’s HSR project

February 23, 2023 February 28, 2023

The Mercury News and East Bay Times published an editorial today entitled “California should cut its losses on high-speed rail.” The key parts: The reality is that the project has never been realistic. Fifteen years after it was put before voters, there’s still no path to completion. Costs keep rising, and now ridership projections for the system, if it ever opens, are declining sharply. It’s time for state and federal officials to cut their losses, to stop throwing money at a project that probably will never be finished. The following letter was published February 27th in the Times: Thank…

Supreme Court passes on reviewing Tos decision

March 22, 2022 March 22, 2022

On March 16, 2022, the California Supreme Court denied the Tos appellants’ Petition for Review. This marks the end of a very long fight–one that started back in 2011. The tenacious litigants (John Tos, Quentin Kopp, the Town of Atherton, Patricia Hogan-Giorni, Anthony Wynne, Community Coalition on High-Speed Rail, Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund, and California Rail Foundation) persevered despite the unlimited legal resources available to the other side. The Petition for Review The Answer by the State of California and California High-Speed Rail Authority The Reply to Answer

Court of Appeal issues disappointing Opinion

December 1, 2021 December 1, 2021

On November 30, 2021, the Court released its Opinion in Tos v. California High-Speed Rail Authority affirming the lower court ruling. This was a tremendous disappointment, given the ten years of litigation leading up to this moment. Here’s the background: On December 13, 2016, the California High-Speed Rail Authority, CHSRA, met and gave preliminary approval to submit funding plans seeking $3.2 billion in HSR bond funding for the San Francisco to San Jose Peninsula Corridor project (the Caltrain Electrification project) and Central Valley HSR project. The same day, four individuals, three non-profit organizations, the Town of Atherton and Kings County filed a lawsuit,…

TRAC comments on HSR Business Plan punch hard

June 1, 2020 June 11, 2020

The Train Riders Association of California, now led by TRANSDEF’s President David Schonbrunn, filed comments on the 2020 HSR Business Plan. It identified the infeasibility of building anything beyond the Governor’s proposed Merced-to-Bakersfield line, and identified far worthier rail investments instead of building that. Interestingly, the Transportation Committee Chair of the State Assembly has introduced HR-97, a resolution that would instruct CHSRA to not sign any contracts for track, signals and electrification, or a vehicle procurement, prior to getting funding approval from the Assembly. The bipartisan cosponsors make up more than a majority of the Assembly, so it looks like…

CHSRA puts out puff piece instead of business plan

April 9, 2020 April 9, 2020

TRANSDEF’s President was recently promoted to become the President of the Train Riders Association of California (TRAC). He wrote the lead article in the latest issue of California Rail News about the future of the HSR project:

HSR case fully briefed

February 11, 2020 February 11, 2020

The final brief has been filed in the Tos II appeal. The case awaits the assignment of a hearing date. Appellants’ motion seeking calendar preference was denied by the Court of Appeal.

High-Speed Rail releases Project Update

May 3, 2019 May 23, 2019

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) just released its 2019 Project Update Report. This $20 billion plan would provide HSR service between Bakersfield and Merced. That’s $15 billion more than the $5 billion that have already been spent. These numbers goes so far beyond the world of ordinary transportation projects as to verge on self-parody or an extremely elaborate hoax. TRANSDEF does not consider the Project Update Report to be a credible transportation plan. No rail professional in Europe or Asia would ever present a proposal so over the top. Here are TRANSDEF’s observations after a quick read of the…

Tos II Heading to Court on Slow Boat

April 22, 2018 January 28, 2019

The current major lawsuit against CHSRA, Tos II, had a Case Management Conference on Friday. An October 26 court hearing was set for a motion by Plaintiffs seeking a declaratory judgment that AB 1889 is facially unconstitutional. A judgment to that effect would trigger a request by Plaintiffs for an injunction blocking any use of Proposition 1A HSR Bond funds for construction. CHSRA will seek judgment on a cross-motion that AB 1889 is constitutional, so that CHSRA can rely on it in seeking bond funds to continue construction of its HSR project. This case has been delayed by CHSRA for 17 months. Two demurrers were…

Takedown of the HSR Business Plan

April 21, 2018 September 14, 2018

Edward Ring of the California Policy Institute offers a striking challenge to the financial assumptions in the High-Speed Rail Authority’s 2018 draft Business Plan. He offers a more conservative set of assumptions that result in a negative cash flow for operations out to the year 2059. A project like that simply is not financeable. While TRANSDEF does not agree with the author’s assumptions about boarding and travel-to-station times, we very much agree that this HSR project will not be affordable for commuting. We are convinced that the promotion of HSR as the solution to the commute woes of Central Valley…

Category: High-Speed Rail