Court Ruling

There is a new song being sung after the most recent court ruling: “It’s My Time to Gloat”.  Meanwhile the opposing side is singing an old song: “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.”

The board remains steadfast with blind determination; pushing politics to maintain the quickest pace to exhaust the legislated allocation of $2.5billion and shoveling the cost of the antique behemoth onto the suffering public.  “Business as usual” was the quote used as the comment regarding the latest episode from the ongoing HSRA court battle as published in the Fresno Bee September 3. 

While a majority of the project opponents claim it is a “boondoggle”, this author; closely following the proposed project since 1993, refers to it as merely a political process having little to do with transportation.  

New financial figures haven’t been flowing as liberally as they were a year ago.  During the summer of 2012 the proposed HSR project boasted expenditures of nearly $800million.  It is currently unknown by this author how much the figure has increased at the summer of 2013.  With the cost of the first 20+ mile segment basic infrastructure at $1.5 billion, it can be assumed the running tally for money spent to the consultant now approaches $1billion spent?  It gets the politically connected and his wife nice Christmas cards. 

Six Months Gone

Six months has passed since the previous post.  What has transpired to the politics of California's HSR?  In a word: nothing.  The fighting continues; the supporters are delusional and the opponents are forced to accept the mandates of deception.

Yesterday one of the local radical political proponents posted a Facebook rant against California Congressman Jeff Denham for his act of fiscal responsibility in calling for the federal dollars to go to the Northeast corridor Amtrak instead of the blindly planned CA HSRA.  The ludicrous language used on the Facebook page written by the project support supporter is sustained by his followers with avid glee.  The post was filled with rage against the Congressman.  Jeff Denham is chairman of the railroads subcommittee in the House of Representatives.  As the June 7, 2013 article reports, posted at McCarthyDC.com; the greater need for federal money is in the Northeast Corridor.

The vitriol and contempt of people that support CA's proposed HSR is built upon ignorance.  It is sad to read comments filled with incorrect information.  The mass deception amounts to strengthening lies.  CA's HSR is nothing more than a continuation of the corrupt political process for building a monument to the way things are.

As the title of this blog states, the author is interested in the future of transit.  The 150 year old technology proposed by the CA HSRA is, to say the least: outdated.  A look at society's current transportation needs has to consider social patterns.  We, as a culture have grown more socially independent than where culture was 150 years ago when the train allowed urban growth.  Today people are more independent and our transportation demands are no longer centered at central station locations.  Los Angeles, for example, covers a very large geographic area but, the proposed train services this huge area with Union Station, which was built about 100 years ago.  This leads to the question: has LA grown in 100 years?

As society grows, so do the transportation needs.  Government was not the source of growth in the US.  The growth and expansion came from private enterprise.  What is different in our culture today that seems to require government be responsible to build transportation infrastructure.  The infrastructure of roads are synonymous to automobile centric urban growth.  With the automobile being wholly unsustainable, any culture whose foundation is based on an unsustainable source: that culture is doomed to decline.  Sustainable urban growth requires sustainable transportation.  

The people who blindly support the notion of California needing a transportation system to replace the unsustainable nature of the automobile must embrace practical solutions that afford sustainability.  There are many viable technologically advanced transportation systems.  One is ET3, here is an article from June 8, 20013 at Boomsy.com.

Many technologies are available to supply sustainable transportation alternatives to meet society's modern transportation requirements.

Let The Fighting Begin

According The Fresno Bee article today (January 14, 2013) the HSRA goes to the Public Works office today for approval to purchase property.  This is essentially the process of condemning privately owned property for all the people who don't have a desire to sell their property.  This is where the attorneys get involved and sue the State action.

The biggest issue against the project in terms of being realistic is that there is no plan from the State on how to pay for the proposed project.  There are various figures used by the HSRA as to how much the federal government is allocating, generally that figure ranges around $20billion.  Add the $9billion from the manipulated 1A bond legislation passed in 2008 and the figure comes to nearly $30billion from public taxation (public sources means people paid taxes).  The private sector is expected to pay for the remaining $38billion except that, according the the HSRA, no private entities are willing to obligate $38billion.  It is understood that the private sector will invest into a project that brings a profit but, where will the profit come from?  Current procedure for building projects of this type are only built with government guarantees, this, of course, means that the HSRA will have to obligate its projected annual operations and maintenance budget towards a private contractor.  This means that the government will 'lend' the money to a private contractor for the contractors participation.  Again, this is bond money, or money that the government borrows.

A good article for the financing arrangements can be found at California Common Sense in an article by Christopher Knight in July, 2012.   It explains specific details about the proposed CA HSR project.

Having followed the procedure and policy of the proposed HSR project, one finds the political force pushing the project is very strong.  It is very clear that the will of this very strong political force does not comprehend what is good for the people of California but, it seeks expensive contracts which bring profit to these elite politically connected organizations who find their profit at the expense of the taxpayer.  Again, the proposed CA HSR project has nothing to do with transportation; it is only the political process of high level income generation for the politically connected.