Caltrain vs. CEQA

You all count on the Voice to add the behind-the-scenes story and no where is that more true than on high-cost rail and Calectrification.  The Times ran a piece a couple of days ago that was pretty much a down-the-line echo of the Caltrain pitch.  It included this assertion

Ackemann said Caltrain is committed to pursuing mitigation measures outlined in the environmental report. But the agency also says that, if the environmental report is challenged in court, it has the authority under federal rules to claim an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act. Ackemann said this is merely an option.

"Caltrain has no option at this point but to move this project forward as expeditiously as possible," she said. "Right now many of our trains are running at 120 percent capacity or more."

Electrifying the Caltrain corridor will allow the agency eventually to share the system with the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which has committed to spending $705 million on Caltrain's electrification as well as new signaling and train control systems.

This CEQA issue has a number of well-informed citizens' eyes on it.  One of them notes the following:

This is intentionally misleading, and designed to "hide the ball." As a commuter railroad not involved in the interstate transportation of passengers, Caltrain is NOT directly subject to the jurisdiction of the STB or the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Rather, it is covered by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) which assists local commuter transportation agencies.. No one claims that the FTA  preempts CEQA's application of Caltrain's electrification project.

But there are two possible bases for STB preemption of CEQA, each of which raises other problems for Caltrain which it would rather not mention:

1. Caltrain's  electrification project is an integral part of the California HSR project (Caltrain swears it is not), or
2. The use of Caltrain's electrified right-of-way by Union Pacific will involve transportation of freight involved in interstate commerce. (Caltrain and UP have not been able to resolve their differences over changes to the right-of-way, over which UP has virtual veto power.)

The important take-away here is that it should be UNACCEPTABLE politically for OUR Caltrain to try to exempt itself from the California Environmental Quality Act, the most important environmental protection law for Peninsula communities. Why would we let OUR representatives on the JPB do this to our communites?

So we will see how the hide-the-ball strategy plays out!  I hope our Council is keeping an eye on the ball.

Comments

[Bruce Dickinson]

Folks, my secretary just put this across my desk. Yes, it's a complete insult to injury, but the winning bid for the first segment of HSR is exactly:

$1,234,567,890

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/that-winning-bid-for-californias-high-speed-rail-is-it-too-low/383737/

Guys, they don't even care any more and are flaunting this nonsense in our faces!! Get ready for WAR!!

[Jennifer]

SERIOUSLY-- Is this for real?!? I notice the "Appalachian Revival" blurb at the top, so one has to wonder...

So they design only 30% and make it up as they go along? Somebody help me out, here. YIKES.

[Bruce Dickinson]

Jennifer, it's Code Red at the Dickinson house, and yes, it is for real. Your interpretation of the way this contract works, appears to be correct and the quotes are direct and verified. My people will be on this tomorrow, but my secretary has cut and paste the following links:

http://www.hsr.ca.gov/docs/Programs/Construction/CP2_3_Authority_Announces_Bid_Results_on_Next_Segment_of_Construction_in_the_Central_Valley_121114.pdf

http://www.hsr.ca.gov/Programs/Construction/Design_Build_Construction_Pkg_2_3/index.html

Don't mean to be a kill-joy but I am alarmed at the state of affairs, in particular the blatant disregard for the public and all forms of propriety, it's like the Hail Mary Pass of government projects as this comes out right after the Fed agency ruling and with a 1234567890 cost. This is an Enron-like Ponzi scheme in the making except with a grotesque public display of legislated looting. What an insult!

[GBI, HSR, Delta Tunnels, ABAG, Agenda 21, and construction contracts...oh my!]

Bruce,

Haven't you heard?

"Green" is the new Red.

And, Red China and Red USSR wasn't just about controlling the masses via hard core, evil dictatorship and slaughtering dissidents by the millions - IT WAS MOSTLY ABOUT GETTING RICH OFF THE BACKS OF THE LABORERS. At least with capitalism, individual rights are protected as much as rule of law can be delivered. Communism is just another way to control the people and for the leaders to get rich.

You should hear the very interesting perspective from my top business school professor friend's wife. She's very nice, well educated, etc, but her grandfather was the 2nd in command of the Communist party in China...and now they own an entire city block of Class A buildings in both Hong Kong and Manhattan - they're billionaires.

She said, "A vote for Obama is a vote for China. No other president has done more to help China than Obama."

I like Chinese people, but does Obama realize that he's the president of The U.S.?

So, how does this relate to High Speed Rail, The Bay Bridge Fiasco, The Grand Boulevard Initiative, The Delta Tunnels, ad nauseum?

Green is the new red. Sure, some people are really into the environment, but at its heart, its about making money for Jerry and his outfit. You know that Diane Feinstein and her husband are one of the main owners of CB Richard Ellis, right? Funny how they get all the government brokerage business. Diane's such a watchdog for The People (more like for her personal bank account).

One of the [Bad Guys] in Burlingame recently told me, "Live by the sword, die by the sword."

I said, "I don't live by the sword..."

He said, "Your pen is your sword."

Hmm. He must think that he's back in the old country.

Now, do you understand the whole $^%#sandwich that IS the Democratic party and the BIG High Speed Rail supporters?

Time to wake up to California's reality.

Here's the Neo-Communist Inspiration for it all -- The Venus Project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=nm0SzUolYAU

[Bruce Dickinson]

Bruce Dickinson goes from one poop post and steps into another porta-potty splattered with diarrhea. Guys, how can one even compare China and the USSR to the US? There is something called checks and balances, and did Bruce Dickinson not mention the Courts/the Supreme Court and the Legislature (purse strings) as the two obvious checks to executive branches, not to mention the Federal government vs states rights?!? So basically two levels of checks at the state level and two at the Fed level and finally if you include voter initiatives, such as in California, if my math is correct, there are 5 levels of checks to power. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time I checked (no pun intended), Communist governments' checks on power equal something that starts with Z and end with an O, as in ZERO. One would think that I am practically speaking Chinese, so poor is the reading comprehension. Either that, or we have some paranoid, yes, perhaps unstable readers that may need some assistance.

Some folks really need to spend some time outside the safety zone of the USA and in a communist country. Among my far ranging global travels, in a different era, I spent time in East Berlin, Poland, Yugoslavia, the USSR, and Venezuela, on various recording projects in my illustrious career. And let me tell you, despite the protections afforded to someone of Bruce Dickinson's stature, some situations that me and some of the artists got tangled in were downright scary. A couple of interrogations and holding cells come to mind, as well as the imprisonment of one of the artists within a month of our recording, where we had to send in the master tapes back to the government as an exchange for the prisoner's release. So please, don't come to me preaching about how bad this country is because trust me, you in comparison have been born with a silver spoon in your mouth or else such nonsenses would not be uttered from anyone in the know. So take it from Bruce Dickinson, miscarriages of justice in this great country can be addressed, without violence, and this is utopia compared to other places in the world!

[fred]

If they're going to put speeding trains through the town they should just elevate the tracks to prevent deaths and end the train horns. The big fight should be to keep it to two tracks and making it more aesthetically pleasing than a concrete slab.

[hollyroller@hotwire.com]

Thank you Fred for you contribution.
However this is exactly what "The Red's" want us to spend time debating.
I bet that at least 80-90% of people reading this do not even know that electrical power id generated from Coal. Electrical powered Mass Transit is not clean power. In fact it is most likely the single most dangerous fuel used by the Third World Counties.
Respiratory disease, water pollution, and Global Warming.
Just because we do not see these huge coal energy factories that are settled on a Disproportionate amount of Native American Land, and other out of the way places does not mean its not there.
I know this comment will sound horrible coming at this point in my rant, but you know what...
Nuclear Power is not so bad when compared to the archaic forms of power generation the world relies on to "raise the standard of living for everyone."

[The Dark Heart of Jerry's HSR Outfit]

In case you didn't understand The Dark Heart that's driving the High Speed Rail and the rest of Jerry Brown's decision making...

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie9&q=labor+racketeering&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7TSNP_enUS504&gws_rd=ssl

If you don't believe me, let me explain what the 2 guys told me when they beat me unconscious with a bottle, and left me with a concussion on the sidewalk recently.

When I came to, I couldn't walk or talk for several hours.

Vote accordingly.

[Bruce Dickinson]

Call me prescient, but Bruce Dickinson sees no one biting the bait from the poster above. If you're gonna fish, make the bait credible and relevant. Next….

[Joe]

From today's Daily Journal --kudos to Atherton:

Despite a recent lawsuit questioning the integrity of Caltrain’s environmental review of its plans to electrify the regional tracks and high-speed rail’s involvement, the local transit agency plans to stay the course in its $1.5 billion overhaul.

Several citizens’ groups and local governments filed two lawsuits Monday aimed at seeking more environmental review under California law for operations related to the state’s future high-speed rail system.

The town of Atherton, the Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund and the Community Coalition on High-Speed Rail lodged the complaint against Caltrain in San Mateo County Superior Court.

It asks the court to order the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which runs Caltrain, to revise a Final Environmental Impact Report, or FEIR, prepared under the California Environmental Quality Act for the planned electrification of 51 miles of track between San Francisco and San Jose.

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2015-02-11/caltrain-faces-lawsuit-over-electrification-californias-high-speed-rail-support-environmental-review-questioned/1776425138204.html

[Jennifer]

STB ruled July 2, 2015 that the electrification project must follow the California Environmental Quality Act. (CEQA)
http://www.examiner.com/article/stb-says-caltrain-must-comply-with-ceqa

Thank you to all those who have worked so hard, for so long on this very important issue.