High Cost Rail - Part 66 - A Do-Over? No, thanks just do your job.

The Field Poll about high cost rail has been well-covered this week including here by the SacBee who write

For all the questions about its management and cost, this much is clear about high-speed rail: Californians who authorized the project three years ago want a do-over, according to a new Field Poll, and by a wide margin they want to vote "no."

Opposition to the multibillion-dollar project crosses party lines and includes more than a third of voters who previously favored the state's plan to build a high-speed rail system.

The problem is at this point we shouldn't have to have another vote.  The pols in Sacramento should just kill the thing and move on.  They would have to face down various labor unions, but isn't it really time for that anyway?  C'mon, just do your jobs.

Comments

[Joe]

From today's SacBee

MERCED – Perhaps no project in California needs an image lift more than high-speed rail.

But after trying for five months to hire a public relations company to help with that effort, state rail officials elected Tuesday to go without, at least temporarily.

California High-Speed Rail Authority board members told staff in Merced to put on hold the authority's effort to replace its current, $9 million contract with Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, which has been winding down since Ogilvy announced this summer it was quitting.

The authority plans to let the Ogilvy contract expire next week while rail officials consider handling public relations in-house.

The decision follows a report by The Bee this month that the rail authority, in addition to its payments to Ogilvy, was spending millions of dollars on regional, outreach-related subcontracts embedded in engineering contracts. Last fiscal year, the authority spent $7.2 million on those outreach contracts, and it budgeted about $2.6 million for regional outreach this year.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/14/4121215/california-high-speed-rail-authority.html#ixzz1gWNQlhZ5

[jennifer]

Hearing-Mica Committee, Dec. 15, 2011
Elizabeth Alexis CARRD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgcRMIcZgKk