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View Full Version : Calif High-speed rail project derailed



Little-Acorn
11-26-2013, 04:50 PM
This has always been the White Elephant project of all White Elephant projects. A hundred billion dollars, spent to benefit a very few people, at a time when California already has adequate road and air transportation, and is under staggering debts with its liberal politicians pouring on more and more.

Not sure what Obama has to do with all this, aside from the fact that massive Federal funds were coming in to help pay for it, even though most of the country would never had ridden on the train.

Then, to everyone's surprise, a judge actually announced that California had to obey the law.

That brought everything to a screeching halt.

Hopefully the second sentence of the article is correct.

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Obama's High-Speed Rail Plan Loses Big in California Court

Conn Carroll | Nov 26, 2013

California Gov. Jerry Brown can not spend state bond revenues on President Obama's signature transportation project until the state can identify how they will pay for the entire $68 billion project, a California court ruled Monday. The decision almost certainly spells death for the project.

This August, Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny ruled that the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) “abused its discretion by approving a funding plan that did not comply with the requirements of the law."

That law would be Proposition 1A (the “Safe, Reliable, High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century”), which required the CHSRA to identify “sources of all funds to be invested in the corridor” and complete “all necessary project level environmental clearances” before construction can begin.

At the time, Democrats sold Obama's high-speed rail plan as a $40 billion project. But that number quickly skyrocketed to more than $100 billion, after California voters approved it, of course.

Thunderknuckles
11-26-2013, 07:26 PM
Man, that guy is an idiot. This thing goes waaayyy back to 2004 when it was originally scheduled to be placed on the ballot but Schwarzenegger delayed it because of our budget woes. It wasn't until 2008 that it made it to the ballot and was approved by Californians, the same day Obama was voted into office. How this guy made it Obama's High Speed Rail Plan is anyone's guess. Maybe Tyr can provide some insight since everything is Obama's fault in his eyes :p

The rest of the article is correct in that the issue is being taken to the courts. Aside from vastly misleading the public on the price tag, the current plan isn't even "High Speed Rail". It was revised, AFTER being approved, to use a "blended" approach that uses a great deal of existing conventional rail with yet to be built high speed rail.

Thankfully, I was wise enough to vote NO on that project. It stunk to high hell from the start.