The California High Speed Rail Authority has posted the first construction contract, as well as the bid package from eventual winner Tutor Perini + Parsons + Zachry. There are literally thousands of pages of information, but we noticed a few things. The Tutor JV failed to initially include financial information that would have highlighted Tutor’s […]
Archive | August, 2013
European experts weigh in on Authority’s operating cost model
By law, the California High Speed Rail Authority is supposed to eventually offer train service without any public operating subsidies. CHSRA’s claims that it could do so even on an abbreviated route like Merced to the San Fernando Valley were questioned on both the basis of revenue/ ridership forecasts that seemed high and an operating […]
The High Speed Rail Authority loses in court: does it matter?
On Friday August 16th, Judge Michael Kenny ruled that the “funding plan” the Authority adopted was an abuse of their discretion. Read the opinion. While the judge deferred to another hearing a decision about the consequences, the carefully worded opinion strongly hints that the consequences may be very significant indeed – possibly even a death […]