California High-Speed Rail

'Huge' is an understatement. Revenues were less than 2 percent of what was forecasted. The uncertainty of the continuance of the program may be responsible. The plummet in revenues to high-speed rail adds to uncertainty of the $64 billion project.

May 28, 2016 - The Sacramento Bee

PBS kicks off its new science and technology series with a look at just what happened in the desert with MIT's Hyperloop team. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien likens the week's events more to the "glider moment" preceding Kitty Hawk.

May 13, 2016 - PBS NewsHour

Uncertainty as to whether cap-and-trade funding would continue past 2020 and opposition to the initial operating segment leaving out the city of Merced were two issues that arose during a Assembly Transportation Committee hearing of the plan.

March 30, 2016 - Fresno Bee

Don't tell that to the 18,000 residents of Shafter. However, the Legislative Analyst's Office made clear in its March 17 report that it questioned having the southern end of the first operating segment located "in an unpopulated agricultural area."

March 21, 2016 - Silicon Valley Business Journal

The lawsuit by Kings County et.al. was a significant threat to California's $64 billion rail plan, based on the plan's ability to meet the terms promised in the 2008 proposition, such as travel time due to sharing tracks with Caltrain.

March 9, 2016 - The Fresno Bee

In the face of political opposition and mounting construction costs in Southern California, the state High-Speed Rail Authority has chosen to build north from the Central Valley to San Jose rather than south from Fresno to the San Fernando Valley.

February 22, 2016 - Los Angeles Times

In his 2015 state of the state address, Gov. Jerry Brown announced his intention to tackle the Golden State's formidable $59 billion road and bridge deficit. A year later, that staggering figure jumped 30 percent to $77 billion.

January 24, 2016 - San Francisco Chronicle

Bereft of private investment, how can the $68 billion project proceed? That's the question about 20 members of the public repeated in their public comments at Tuesday's High-Speed Rail Authority meeting in Fresno. To their surprise, it was answered.

November 20, 2015 - Fresno Bee

At the heart of the financial and deadline challenges facing the $68 billion high-speed rail project are 36 miles of tunneling north of Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles Times analysis that includes interviews with experts on mega-projects.

October 28, 2015 - Los Angeles Times

The China Railway International Group, working with the Chinese Export-Import Bank, responded to the California High-Speed Rail Authority's "expressions of interest." They teamed up with China Development Bank to beat out the Japanese in Indonesia.

October 18, 2015 - Reuters

The Dallas-to-Houston project will be the first operating high speed rail line in the United States when it opens in 2021. The project received $75 million in private funding, allowing planning for the project to advance.

July 26, 2015 - Houston Chronicle

The Surface Transportation Board's denial of Caltrain's request to provide an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act gives the go ahead to the Town of Atherton's lawsuit requesting the rail board redo its Environmental Impact Report.

July 8, 2015 - The Daily Journal

When his father was governor, California was awash in federal highway dollars. Now Jerry Brown's administration contemplates a risky tax hike, juggling the need for road improvements with a clean, transit-oriented agenda.

July 7, 2015 - Los Angeles Times

Opposition, followed by legal action to the California High-Speed Rail project began in Northern California, spread to the Central Valley, and now has hit southern California, particularly in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County.

June 17, 2015 - Los Angeles Times

A short term increase in spending hides California's annual structural deficit of almost $6 billion—money needed to maintain the state's roads and bridges.

May 17, 2015 - San Jose Mercury News

In a segment for WNYC, journalist Simon van Zuylen-Wood discusses Amtrak's current status as a "national embarrassment." Decades of lackluster investment, he argues, make it difficult to prove demand in the first place.

May 5, 2015 - WNYC

Florida's private inter-city rail project is getting a taste of California-style rail opposition from two counties that responded to citizens' complaints by voting to allot $4.1 million for potential legal action against rail line.

February 21, 2015 - The Palm Beach Post

Journalist Kathleen Sharp, whose great-grandfather worked on the transcontinental railroad, draws comparisons between that epic achievement and the construction of California's high speed rail in this New York Times op-ed.

February 10, 2015 - The New York Times - Opinion

A week after the groundbreaking ceremony for California's beleaguered high speed rail project, a second construction contract has been awarded. The rail authority will now build 29 miles north and 65 miles south of Fresno to the Kern County line.

January 16, 2015 - The Fresno Bee

Faced with seven CEQA lawsuits from rail opponents threatening to delay the high-speed rail project, the California High-Speed Rail Authority sought preemption of the California environmental law. The Surface Transportation Board agreed.

December 17, 2014 - The Fresno Bee