Judge: Calif high-speed rail violates initiative
Well, well. It's always darkest just before dawn.
The California high-speed rail people have been ramming their initiatives throught the system here, making promises impossible to keep and bulling ahead anyway, for years now.
And now a judge has finally called them on it.
It's not clear if the judge has the authority to acually halt the funding and stop the project, but at least he called a spade a spade. Now it will be harder for the thugs to keep going without answering a lot of questions people want answered.
One of the most spectacular promises the thugs made, is agreeing that each segment of the railroad, when built, would fully pay for itself (i.e. would support its own operating expenses, interest payments etc.) before the next segment is built... specifically including the very first segment.
That first segment is to be built from a point in the middle of nowhere in California's Central Valley (near Madera, pop. 61,000), to another point in the middle of nowhere (near Wasco, pop. 25,000). To my knowledge, very few people in either Madersa or Wasco want to travel from their town to the other town at 100mph (and wind up in a strange town without a car to get around after they arrive). See the green segment of the line in the map below.
People from large populations centers such as San Fran/Oakland/San Jose, or Los Angeles/San Diego, would have to drive their cars a hundred miles or more, through the usual traffic jams, to get to the train station, wait for the train, and take the brief "high speed" ride for 1/3 the trip, and then find another way to get from the end station to their actual destination, without a car for the last part.
Yet the thugs assure us that enough of them will go through all that, consistently enough, to let the first segment of CHSR pay for itself. The idea that PRCalif taxpayers are likely to wind up paying the entire huge cost themselves if it doesn't come true, is never mentioned.
Well, this judge finally mentioned it.
He'd better stay away from small aircraft, isolated parks, and railroad tracks (new or old) for the next few decades, is all I can say.
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http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/16/565...-violates.html
Judge: Calif. high-speed rail violates initiative
By JULIET WILLIAMS
Associated Press
Published: Friday, Aug. 16, 2013 - 4:57 pm
Last Modified: Friday, Aug. 16, 2013 - 7:56 pm
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A Sacramento County judge dealt a major blow to California's high-speed rail project Friday, ruling that the agency overseeing the bullet train failed to comply with the financial and environmental promises made to voters when they approved initial funding for the project five years ago.
Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny said the California High-Speed Rail Authority "abused its discretion by approving a funding plan that did not comply with the requirements of the law" and has failed to identify "sources of funds that were more than merely theoretically possible."
Yet he declined to immediately halt funding for the project, saying it was not clear that he had the discretion to do so and he will hold another hearing to determine what happens next. A date has not yet been set.
The 2008 initiative, Proposition 1A, required the rail authority to specify where the funding would come from for the first operable segment of high-speed rail and have all the environmental clearances in place. Kenny said the agency did not comply with either of those mandates, but Proposition 1A appears to leave it up to lawmakers to decide whether the funding plan is sufficient to warrant funding.
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
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