"Stop throwing good money after bad"

Gary Reyes, Bay Area News Group

A message from the Community Coalition on High-Speed Rail:

The state's proposed High-Speed Rail project has been getting some well-deserved bad press. In this message we are providing you with some links to the most important stories and editorial statements. If you haven't seen these stories, then click on the links and find out how newspapers around the state are finally reporting on what is really going on.

Here is the bottom line: Reality is closing in on the state's High-Speed Rail Authority and its mismanaged project. Even the legislature has now recognized that an audit of the project is absolutely necessary. Maybe, when that audit is filed, the legislature will take action to stop wasting more state and federal dollars...

The "vision" of a High-Speed train linking the state from north to south has always been attractive. At some point though---and we may be there---our public officials need to compare the "vision" to the actual facts in the real world, and to realize that the people of the state have been sold on a "vision" with no reality to back it up.

That kind of analysis is what the press is now doing. Public scrutiny has led to the recently mandated state audit, and here is what any fair audit is going to discover: the authority has ignored the requirements of the law, has tried to wish away the facts, and has wasted the money that both federal and state taxpayers have made available. The authority's proposed project cannot be completed as promised, so every additional dollar spent will be wasted...

You can read all about it by clicking these links:

On January 21, 2018, in a very well researched article, The Los Angeles Times' reporter Ralph Vartabedian says the proposed project is facing an "existential crisis," because it doesn't appear that the project can be completed, period.

On that same day, January 21, 2018, a letter to the Mercury News accurately noted that the "high-speed rail project is raiding highway funds," as the governor and the authority scramble to avoid the total collapse of the project.

On January 22, 2018, an article in The Business Journal outlined all the problems and said, "we're all on the hook."

On January 25, 2018, in a strong editorial, the San Jose Mercury News says, "it makes no sense to continue wasting billions on a high-speed rail system that will probably never be completed and certainly will never live up to its billing." The Mercury News started out supporting the project, but when it became clear what was going on the paper deemed the project a "fraud." In this editorial, the Mercury News called it a "fiasco," and said the state "should stop throwing good money after bad."

On January 30, 2018, as reported in The Sacramento Bee, an official audit of the project has been ordered on a bi-partisan basis. Until this moment, no Democratic elected official has ever been willing seriously to question what's going on.

On February 4, 2018, in another article in The Los Angeles Times, Ralph Vartabedian documented what he called "a painful spectacle up and down the Central Valley." The Authority has bought up more than 1,272 parcels which they are not even close to using, creating "a 119-mile corridor of abandoned commercial buildings, vacant lots, dying orchards, boarded up homes and construction sites," which are now "an eyesore and a magnet for criminal activity that is affecting the surrounding areas. It has put stress on already hard-luck communities that grapple with poverty, homelessness and crime."

Los Angeles Times

It may just be that the end is near for the state's proposed High-Speed Rail project. It is great to have a "vision," but that's not enough. Actual performance is always the bottom line. CC-HSR will definitely keep you posted. We will let you know about our pending court challenge, too, which is now scheduled to be heard this month. 

As a final news story, read this analysis from The Almanac by CC-HSR Board Member Mike Brady, who documents some of the outstanding issues about the Caltrain electrification project, pointing out that viable alternatives to the current project can reduce costs up to 80%.[Rob's note: The comments to this op-ed are interesting]

Rob's comment:

From the beginning, this group has done the most thorough analysis of every issue on this dumb project.

To make a credit card donation, please go to the CC-HSR website and find the "Donate" button. Or, you can just click here. Credit Card donations will go 100% to CC-HSR.

To contribute by check, please send your contribution to:

Community Coalition On High-Speed Rail 

2995 Woodside Road #400

Woodside, CA 94062

If you would like most of your contribution tax-deductible, please make your check out to CC-HSR, but mark the memo line as follows: "75% Tax-Deductible." You should mail that check to CC-HSR at the address above.