A Word About This Site

Important Note: This site is designed to be a one stop shopping place for information relevant to the HSR project, the potential impacts to our communities and how to participate in the process. Since this is an all volunteer effort, a lack of funding relegates us to using the freeby sites. With no perfect fit available, this site is being treated like a hybrid blog/website. Like a blog, it is not stagnant, but like a website, information is categorized. Therefore one should not treat it as a blog by always looking for only the latest entry, yet periodically refer back to older posts for updated information. To make it easier, HSR-PREP has a newsletter designed to be used in conjunction with this site. If you wish to be notified of new information appearing on the site, it is recommended that you sign up for the HSR-PREP Newsletter. Another way is to create an RSS link on your homepage.

Spread the word. Be informed. Get involved.

Spread the word. Be informed. Get involved. If you have any issues at all with the high speed rail project as it exists, if you say and do nothing, it means you agree 100%. We are all busy in our lives. This cannot be used as an excuse later. If you have issues, you must participate in the process or forever hold your peace. Call, email or write your legislators. It takes 15 minutes using their websites. Participate in the public input opportunities with the High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA). But don't wait.
Spread the word. Be informed. Get involved.

HSR in CA Dwindling Down - Plan B

November 29, 2010. Is this is what the promised SF to LA HSR system is coming down to? The private investors have yet to step forward, the full amount of federal money is not materializing. Because of a lack of funds, it seems the HSRA Board can only consider building 65 miles of elevated, pseudo HSR track connecting not two major cities, but two small towns without stations in the central valley. Optimists call this the beginning of something big, while others call it a bridge to nowhere and a major boondoggle, and others still call this an indication that the end is near. Meanwhile republican legislators such as Californian Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis are looking at defunding what little federal funding there is.

The HSR Board will decide on the corridor they will start with at their next board meeting scheduled for December 2, 2010 in Sacramento. See CARRD's preview of the HSRA's Plan B here.

Congressman demands investigation into California high speed rail authority. After learning of the choice for the first section to be built, California Democratic Congressman Dennis Cardoza sent a two-page letter Tuesday to the heads of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) calling the idea a "gross misuse" of taxpayer funds. Cardoza's letter argues that it "defies logic and common sense to have the trains start and stop in remote areas that have no hope of attaining the ridership needed to justify the cost." See this Mercury News article for the full story by Mike Rosenberg.

December 2nd Update. The HSRA did not clear the legality of the initial segment selection with their counsel before voting to approve it. Their attorney, George Spanos, did not think it met the terms of the bond measure, namely that it meets the requirements of a "usable segment". See the video here. The full December 2, 2010 board meeting can be viewed here.