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January 5, 2012 By News Staff
A report released Tuesday, Jan. 3, by the California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group threatens to permanently derail plans for a network of 200 mph trains in the Golden State.
The group, which exists by state law and was directed by the California State Legislature to conduct the report, concluded that “moving ahead on the [High-Speed Rail] project without credible sources of adequate funding, without a definitive business model, without a strategy to maximize the independent utility and value to the state, and without appropriate management resources, represents an immense financial risk on the part of the state of California.”
Presently the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) intends to use $9 billion in voter-approved bonds — as well as $3.5 billion in promised federal funding — to construct an initial 130-mile segment of the railway between the cities of Chowchilla and Bakersfield in the state’s Central Valley. However, with that 2008 bond vote came the requirement for the California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group to green-light the feasibility of CHSRA’s plan prior to the State Legislature issuing bonds. The group, headed by former CalTrans director and current Orange County Transportation Authority chief Will Kempton, advised via the report that the state Legislature shouldn’t fund the increasingly-criticized project.
The CHSRA authority immediately responded, saying that “while some of the recommendations in the Peer Review Group report merit consideration, by and large this report is deeply flawed, in some areas misleading and its conclusions are unfounded.”
The CHSRA contends the report includes “egregious errors and unsupported assertions” that “would have been avoided with even minimal consultation with the CHSRA.”
The report nonetheless likely deals a serious blow to Gov. Jerry Brown’s support of high-speed rail in California. Brown said as recently as late December he intends to ask the state Legislature to issue bonds. Yet the governor’s spokesman, Gil Duran, waved off suggestions that the reports put a stop to the rail plan. “The peer review report will be evaluated by the Legislature, but it does not appear to add any arguments that are new or compelling enough to suggest a change in course,” Duran said, according the San Francisco Chronicle.
Brown is slated to introduce his budget proposal on Tuesday, Jan. 10. Update: Brown will be introducing his budget Thursday, Jan. 5 at 2:30 pm PT
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California legislature...dumbest of the dumb
$12.5B for 130 miles? That's $96M per mile if I did my gozintas correctly. Doesn't sound fiscally responsible to me!
Fiscal responsibility, intelligence, integrity and accountability are unknown in the Kalifornia legislature. Mindless Socialism.
The California Hish Speed rail system is another waste of money pushed by a blind belief in the greenness of rail and by the "consultants" who will milk this for billions before a single piece of track is laid. No one outside of our bankrupt state government will invest in it, and if built, no one will ride it. Perhaps if we cancel this farce now, Governor Moonbeam can take these funds and put it towards te education and public safety programs he threatens to cut.
In Government circles, a ying without a yang is a very dangerous thing. Thank God for the Peer Review Group!
Brown can't be governor, can he? Thought the CA Constitution said, "No Governor may serve a third term." Didn't he also throw $65M toward free illegal alien education (Dream Act)? Where is he getting all this loot? This guy is nuts.
Yeah, I agree fellas. I mean - it isn't like traffic is bad enough in Cali to justify rail construction. Further, I see absolutely no need to pull hundreds of cars a day off the road. Especially when considering most of the State will be on fire by this summer. Folks not being evacuated from burning homes will no doubt be asked to stay inside. I really wish these mindless liberals would start thinking things through.
I always thought they should have made the first leg of this system from LA to Las Vegas. That would have paid for itself is no time. Can you imagine a trip from LA to Vegas in a couple of hours without having to sit in traffic?
Uh... you think this inital leg will include some trains too right? Laying track and buying the land to do so is only part of the cost. Do you have any idea of what real estate prices are in California? Even in the depressed economy they are steep.
Chris, you're a liberal tool. . . . If you dont like the traffic GET OUT OF CALI. Anyone who was around to see Cali with no traffic is dead and gone, so know what you get while you live there. Second, if you don't like the wild fires and risk to your home GET OUT OF CALI. It is not the responsibility of the taxpayers to foot the bill for your idiotic decisions to live in a place where these things are so prevalent. That said, this high speed rail would be SO expensive to ride (without and unaccounted for GOVT subsidy) NO ONE will be willing to leave their cars behind. It's amazing how you can claim that the "Liberals have thought of everything" when you have thought of nothing but trying to further a B.S. agenda that you have swallowed hook line and sinker. . . . You are a Sheep.
p.s. the best thing that could ever happen to this country would be for California to be severed at the San Adreas Fault and fall into the Pacific. . . . . (not too much differently than the scene from 2012)
The United Stated is far behind on High Speed Rail. Those who opposed it are opposing the future and it would only damage our hopes of progression. This high speed train will not only take millions of cars of the road thus relieving traffic and relieving gas prices but also will bring thousands of jobs and give many families financial relief at the gas pump and saved time that would other wise be spent commuting that can now be spent with their families. There are also plans to join the rail to Las Vegas so those of you who think that no one is going to ride it are sorely mistaking.
@Bill Derofstuff, you're a fool. Do you think the traffic situation is going to get better? Its like a disease spreading that needs relief. Are you so insane that you turn a blind eye to a serious problem that is bleeding many Americans dry of time and money? Come to grips sir.
Chowchilla to Bakersfield...wow, they'll probably have hundreds of thousands of riders every day on that route. Worth every billion dollar burned on the boondoggle.