Public Comment Essential to Ensure California High-Speed Rail is Built Right
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By Alan Kandel
I have never known there to be as much attention – media or otherwise – paid to rail – high-speed rail (HSR) or otherwise – at any time in history as there is right now. What all this coverage (the good and bad) tells me is that it’s crucial that California get HSR right the first time. There is no doing this over.
Those in the know are fully aware that the 60-day public comment period regarding the California HSR Draft Merced-to-Fresno and Draft Fresno-to-Bakersfield Environmental Impact Reports/Statements is in full swing. The comment period provides those who publicly want to weigh in on the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s plan the opportunity to do so. (Additional information on the public comment process is included at the end of this op-ed).
There is no hiding that there is controversy regarding what, if built, promises to be California’s biggest public works project ever. That there is disagreement is only natural and it’s expected. At the center of the controversy are issues on ridership and fares, rights-of-way acquisition and selection, financing as in where the money is going to come from to pay for the project, high-speed rail project management oversight in terms of who should be the regulating body in charge, and on whether or not high-speed rail in state should even be built. Now’s the time to have your voice heard.
In addition, this is an opportunity for the California High-Speed Rail Authority Board to really listen, keep an open mind and consider constructive commentary from informed individuals and groups, commentary having the potential to guide improvement. No doubt valuable public input will be delivered to the Authority. It’s imperative the Board listen attentively and closely. At the end of the day common ground needs to be found. All those who agree that HSR is needed I hope agree.
For those who do agree a fast-train system is needed connecting northern and southern California via the San Joaquin Valley but who may differ on how and where and what should be built, that is nonetheless a positive. Getting beyond this stage and working through the various differences is what is going to take work and where public input can be extremely helpful and valuable. First and foremost, we must remember this is a transportation endeavor for Californians and non-Californians alike and, that being the case, interested people in the public sector should have a say. I, myself, have expressed my opinion on HSR many times.
Building California high-speed rail right the first time is essential, no question about it. Our input is needed now more than ever. It’s imperative the Authority Board pay attention.
Related to this there is a Merced-to-Fresno HSR Draft Environmental Impact Report/Statement public comment advisory in the Sept. 7th Fresno Bee. Here is some of what is contained in that advisory.
“The Draft EIR/EIS is available to the public for review and comment in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Public notice of its availability was issued during the week of August 8, 2011. The formal review and comment period began August 15, 2011, and originally was set to close on September 28, 2011. The comment period now has been extended to October 13, 2011. Comments must be received electronically, or postmarked, on or before October 13, 2011.
“The Draft EIR/EIS is available on the Authority’s website and at local library locations listed at the website. Please go to www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/draft-eir-m-f.aspx.”
There are three public meetings to be held in conjunction with the Merced-to-Fresno Draft EIR/EIS public comment process:
Merced, Sept. 14 from 3-8 p.m., Merced Community Senior Center, 755 W. 15th St., Merced, CA 95340
Madera, Sept. 15 from 3-8 p.m., Madera City Council Chambers, 205 W. 4th St., Madera, CA 93637
Fresno, Sept. 20 from 3-8 p.m., Fresno Convention Center, 848 M. St., Fresno, CA 93721
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Alan Kandel is a concerned California resident advocating for new, improved and expanded freight (and passenger) rail service. He is a retired railroad signalman previously employed by the Union Pacific Railroad in Fremont, California.
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Call California Governor Jerry Brown at (916) 445-2841 and Calfiornia Tresurer Bill Lockyer at (916) 653-2995 to demand that they end the boondoggle now, and Lockyer not sell bonds for this project.
California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, the California politician responsible for selling these CAHSR bonds, said on March 14, 2011 to an LA news reporter that no one is interested in buying CA HSR bonds because the CAHSR is more interested in issuing bad PR, rather than coming up with a sound business plan. Until there is a sound business plan, or even a half-baked one, then no one will invest in this stinker of a project. Interviewer asks: “so are investors saying we’re interested, but it doesn’t look like you guys [CAHSR Authority] know what you’re doing” & Lockyer responds: “that’s what they’re saying”; Interviewer: “what do you think?” & Lockyer responds: “well, I think the same thing.” Lockyer also says “we don’t have a [business] plan that makes sense” and “I don’t think the State of California can sell these bonds”, and even though voters authorized the bonds, the bonds don’t need to be sold and the project can be cancelled in 2011 or 2012 - see interview here:
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/as-seen-on/NewsConference___Californ...
This will be no different than has been done in other parts of California - THE CAHSRA IS ON A DEADLINE AND THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO FAMILIES WHOSE HOMES THEY WILL TAKE THROUGH EMINENT DOMAIN.
Here's some prior examples of their "not listening" - CAHSRA and CEO Van Ark regularly ignore and refuse to consider public comment and input from members of communities through which HSR mandates they will bring their train - some examples:
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/5/MnZKNr6WhBU (Rose Olivera, 75 years old senior about to be evicted from home by CAHSRA)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/14/ZwXqIpViy1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHOPzKH0kxo (CAHSR ignoring CA farmers, destroying vital farmland) -
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/1/DOfh7Xf7Tqo
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/0/JVlSWmW0tV0 (Senate votes to end CAHSRA 6/1/2011)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/6/ZwXqIpViy1U
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/16/zmZAxjudOxo
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/4/zmZAxjudOxo (Chairman Pringle - a little sassy, isn't he?)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/10/ts1ybBrYhDk (Senator Simitian - you don't want to upset this guy, for sure)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/28/UHOPzKH0kxo
(CAHSR upsetting Big Agriculture, ignoring residents, as usual)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/47/ojh2qYa2fmU
(Simitian, Lowenthal, all California legislators are "concerned" about the CAHSRA...)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/48/hnI4CYF0NK8
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/49/y0_b3hkbgls
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/44/UzxfY28uZlQ
This is it folks. We either build high-speed rail in California now and do it right, or we kiss the opportunity goodbye for good. This is how I see things.
The Public Policy Institute of California in its "California Transportation" report of July ’09 brings this to bear: “On state highways in the coming decades, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) are expected to continue to outstrip population growth under ‘business-as-usual’ scenarios.” While there has been about a 215 percent increase in VMT on state highways between 1970 and 2006, between 1980 and 2006, meanwhile, there has only been a 6 percent increase “in the number of state highway lanes,…contributing to increased congestion in the state’s metropolitan areas. Congestion not only costs the economy in lost time, but by raising fuel consumption, it also contributes to higher emissions.” (http://www.examiner.com/transportation-in-fresno/passenger-vehicle-sourc...).
I can’t see spending even more money than what high-speed rail is expected to cost, to build 3,000 additional highway lane miles and six new airport runways just to handle the projected demand. I also don’t relish the thought of sharing what roadway space we have with more and more motor vehicles. 35,000 people a year die on our nation’s highways as it is. Granted the numbers have improved, but the numbers are still way too high. As well, I do not relish the thought of breathing dirtier and dirtier air.
If California high-speed rail is built and built correctly, this could be a model for future domestic HSR systems. Amtrak’s 457-mile Boston-to-Washington D.C. Northeast Corridor (NEC) has done a quite respectable job. Compared to air travel, the number of New York-D.C. commuter trips since high-speed Acela Express service was introduced in 2000, has increased from 45 percent to 54 percent; this was as of 2007. This number is likely even higher today.
It’s time to put comfort, convenience, reliability, safety, speed and sustainability back into land travel. It’s time to build California high-speed rail and build it right!
It's really a choice...do we start to plan for the future and invest in smart transportation policy, or do we continue to ignore the coming climate change crisis, increasing air pollution, and worsening traffic...all of which will cost VASTLY more than investing in high speed rail, as do other more forward thinking countries around the world.
Also, as Robert Cruickshank recently pointed out, in terms of bias media coverage versus REAL DATA, "Reporters in California, as is the case around the country, are trained to find controversy and build their stories around it. This is especially true of anything involving government. When government gets something right, it never gets the kind of attention that allegations of government wrongdoing receive.
This plays itself out in high speed rail reporting with the media asserting that the system’s ridership projections are flawed. In order to address these concerns, the California High Speed Rail Authority put together a peer review panel to examine those projections. Late last week they made their final report – and it concludes that the projections are sound:
We are satisfied with the documentation presented in Cambridge Systematics, and conclude that it demonstrates that the model produces results that are reasonable and within expected ranges for the current environmental planning and Business Plan applications of the model. We were very pleased with the content, quality and quantity of the information.
In short, the peer review panel believes the ridership projections are useful and that the Authority and CS are doing the right kind of work to ensure the projections are refined and updated with the latest available data – and that the panel is confident in the progress and initial results of that work.
This peer review report is a strong vote of confidence in the high speed rail ridership projections. From there, we can infer that decisions based on those projections, such as routes and business plans, are themselves reasonable based on the data."
He also makes clear just how important a stimulus/jobs program high speed rail could be, stating "It’s obvious to everybody who actually understands how the global economy works that we are facing a serious crisis, leading to greater unemployment and suffering, unless we produce more stimulus, focused on infrastructure. High speed rail is exactly the kind of stimulus that we need – it will put a lot of people to work, save money over the long-term, and support new growth for decades to come....The infrastructure projects of the 1930s helped pull the state and the country out of the depths of the Depression, sliding back only in 1937 when stimulus was withdrawn too soon. The Depression ended for good when a truly enormous government stimulus program, World War II, was launched. It doesn’t require a war to get government to launch a huge spending project. It can and ought to be done in peacetime, especially when the rewards are so obvious.
The project’s details matter. But if we approach them with a constructive and bold spirit, we can solve them. If we approach them with a destructive and timid spirit, we’ll be bogged down by the smallest and simplest problems, paralyzed into inaction.
In short, it’s not really about the details. It’s about our political will to solve them. High speed rail has life in California because enough voters and leaders realized it was part of our economic recovery strategy. Its fate will be determined on the basis of our commitment to recovery – and our commitment to our own future."
Here here...thanks for your work Alan...and Robert...
For those interested in how to write a comment, you can go to this website and print out helpful tips on what type of information is useful:
http://www.calhsr.com/environmental-review/how-to-write-an-eir-comment/
This is a copy of an e-mail sent this AM.
Attn: Terry Watt and All:
Thank you for your assistance in objecting to the CHSR, trains to nowhere.
A far better alternative is the patented Terra (Land-based) Stations Transportation and Infrastructure System with ET3 Transport Technology which will be part of a global network as the system is developed on land and then extended to the Aqua (Ocean-based) Station system. When completed, this will form a single-standard global "Transnet" system, much like the Internet system we use today.
This hyper-speed (350-4,000+ mph) transport system is designed to be built underground, soundless, utilizes "green-based" technology (ie. solar, wind, etc.), a fraction of the cost of HSR, and 1/50th to maintain. Thus, neighborhoods and farm land will be left as is and undisturbed. It is possible, not guaranteed, that some royalty payments may be made to landowners above the ground where the system passes below. This will be determined later and based on volume of capsules passing through a location.
Please take a moment and view the following. We, the Aqua=Terra projects and ET3 team, would be pleased to meet and discuss in far more detail.
Regarding Aqua/Terra Stations System:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aquaterra-A-SUPER-FAST-PLANETARY-TRANSPORT... and www.invention.net/aquaterra.
Regarding ET3:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ET3/127942693949325?ref=hnav and www.et3.net.
Look forward to hearing from you in response.
With Great Respect,
Yon
J."Yon" Friedmann, MBA
Managing Director
ET3 Aqua=Terra Projects
1-310-820-5573 (Direct) / 818-430-9891 (Cell)
planetarytransport@yahoo.com
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication with its contents may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information. It is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). Unauthorized interception, review, use or disclosure is prohibited and may violate applicable laws including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of the communication.
Solyrana. Just another $500 million boondoggle. The whole "green" Obama initiative is full of these. High speed rail is just another one. If these programs had merit, the private sector would fund them.
This is, in my opinion, why the stimulus had so little effect. It was not spend efficiently. It was spent on boondoggles that made nice soundbytes, but in the end the money was wasted. This is, of course, the classic reason why government training programs, stimulus programs, investments, etc. never really work. Money is allocated to "money bundlers" (like George Keiser at Solyrana) and spread out like manure to get votes. It doesn't make economic sense.