High Speed Rail Authority Hit With New Suit

Among the charges the board of supervisors make in their suit is that the first 130-mile, Bakersfield to Fresno segment would not be electrified, as they believe was promised in the 2008 proposition that authorized the 800-mile system, now costing $98.5 billion.

"The board of supervisors for the small county between Fresno and Bakersfield and two community activists hired a Peninsula attorney to file the suit in hopes of preventing California leaders from starting construction on the bullet train line next year.

The 10-page suit filed in Sacramento is the latest legal challenge from angry communities, led by the Peninsula, that want to stop the project. The cities fear the elevated rail line will destroy properties along its path, lower home and business values, divide the community and create blight."

Mercury News reporter Mike Rosenberg notes that "the state's main problem is finding the 90 percent of funding still needed to build the full line between the Bay Area and Southern California, but the community opposition has slowed down the planning and threatened to increase project costs, delay the plan or even kill it."

Thanks to One Bay Area News Update