Posted on 07/11/2012 4:34:56 PM PDT by Olog-hai
If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you’ll know that I spent this afternoon on the phone with folks in California, looking into the recent SNCF-CHSRA bombshell. To summarize: SNCF, the highly experienced French national high-speed rail operator, apparently had a plan for California’s HSR network, but was turned off by the highly-politicized routing. Namely, they wanted to make a straight shot from LA to San Francisco by running along the flat, government-owned I-5 corridor with spurs out to the eastern Central Valley, whereas the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) and state politicians wanted the main line to go through every little town in the Central Valley, directly. …
That’s what the LA Times reported, but David Schonbrunn, a pro-HSR, anti-CHSRA activist, says there’s more to the story—SNCF not only advocated I-5, but they actually had private investors lined up! …
I talked to David on the phone. He stuck by the story and said there was indeed a “secret meeting” between SNCF and CHSRA where such issues were discussed, and then I spoke to someone else—someone intimately knowledgeable about the SNCF side of things, who’s been quoted in the media before, but who requested anonymity—who confirmed David’s version of events. However, he said that CHSRA was so dismissive of SNCF’s plan that no formal proposal was ever requested or made, which tells me that there unfortunately may not be any written documents to request/FOIA from the CHSRA. …
So, what does all this mean? It means that the CHSRA very well might have been offered private funding for the plan, but turned it down because it didn’t fulfill desired political objectives of going through towns in the Central Valley onto the main trunk line …
(Excerpt) Read more at marketurbanism.com ...
What’s the point of the high speed rail if it goes through all the small towns. Wasn’t it supposed to replace air travel so the lefty’s would feel better about CO2.
It is nothing more than an idol for Gaia worship. Nobody will ride it and it will lose Billions since you can fly from SF to LA in 1/5 the time.
Pray for America
“...desired political objectives....”
Did you think the train was for hauling people around?
How else do you get a large number of people to the gulag?
About a year ago I read somewhere that the Corporations control by Sen Diane Fineswine’s husband are buying up land that “the train to nowhere”’s right of way will cross. The idea being to sell the land at a high price to the train’s operators or whatever. This has been done before by them for solar energy sites, etc.
Now that makes sense.
I'm feeling a little Blum about the whole thing.
Several years ago I took my grandson to California for vacation and decided to take the train from San Diego to Los Angeles very early on a Monday morning. We always flew everywhere we went and he had never ridden a train before. We thoroughly enjoyed the slow, scenic early morning ride. There was only one other passenger riding in the entire business section. Seemed like such a waste of resources.
To summarize: SNCF, the highly experienced French national high-speed rail operator, apparently had a plan for California's HSR network... they wanted to make a straight shot from LA to San Francisco by running along the flat, government-owned I-5 corridor with spurs out to the eastern Central Valley, whereas the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) and state politicians wanted the main line to go through every little town in the Central Valley... David Schonbrunn, a pro-HSR, anti-CHSRA activist, says... SNCF not only advocated I-5, but they actually had private investors lined up... a "secret meeting" between SNCF and CHSRA where such issues were discussed... someone else... said that CHSRA was so dismissive of SNCF's plan that no formal proposal was ever requested or made... the CHSRA very well might have been offered private funding for the plan, but turned it down because it didn't fulfill desired political objectives of going through towns in the Central Valley onto the main trunk line...
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