It has been almost three months since our last real High Cost Rail post, but our centennial post is a rare bit of good news on the costly boondoggle thread. As reported by our intrepid colleague at Examiner.com one of the anti-HSR lawsuits has been cleared to proceed. Kathy Hamilton writes
Michael Brady, co-counsel on the Tos/Fukuda/Kings county case commented on the court’s action on April 15, 2014: "The plaintiffs are gratified by the court's ruling; this will allow us to proceed to an actual trial on important remaining issues, such as:
*The Authority will be unable to meet the mandatory requirement of Proposition 1A that the trip from LA to SF must be made in less than 2 hours 40 minutes;
*The project will be unable to operate without a state, local, or federal subsidy, which it is required to do;
*The Authority is planning to use the bond proceeds for purposes not authorized by the bond Act (1A), and this violates the state Constitution.
*Any of these (and other) violations means that the project is INELIGIBLE to receive Proposition 1A bond funds, our contention from the beginning."
The best way to strangle this boondoggle is by closing the wallet on it. Let's hope that comes to pass.
Alas, I have been too depressed about the latest ruling from a judge from whom I had high hopes:
BY DAN WALTERS
[email protected]
California’s highly controversial bullet train project dodged a bullet Tuesday when a judge declared that opponents had not proved that it would violate provisions of a 2008 bond measure.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny, whose earlier ruling favoring opponents on another aspect of the project had been set aside on appeal, more or less punted in his latest decision.
While the High-Speed Rail Authority “does not have sufficient evidence to prove that the blended system can currently comply with all of the bond act requirements,” he wrote, “the authority may be able to accomplish these objectives at some point in the future (and) there is no evidence currently before the court that the blended system will not comply.”
The “blended system” to which Kenny referred is a decision to merge the high-speed system with an electrified commuter rail service on the bucolic San Francisco Peninsula, aimed at quieting resistance among its affluent residents.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article64834937.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Posted by: Joe | March 10, 2016 at 07:12 PM