Today we submitted comments for the Assembly Budget Subcommittee meeting focusing on High Speed Rail Oversight. Our main points of concern: In this case, construction bids and construction estimates are not (and have never been) apples-to-apples comparison. There is no public document that incorporates, tracks and forecasts all relevant costs for the ICS project, relative […]
Author Archive | Nadia Naik
Status of Environmental mitigation projects in the Central Valley
The California High Speed Rail Authority’s website states the Authority “is committed to working with local, state and federal agencies and local stakeholders to develop a high-speed rail system that preserves open spaces and environmental resources that make California golden. Because the project is starting work in the Central Valley in the summer of 2013, the […]
CARRD calls on Legislators to beef up reporting requirements
By Nadia Naik on November 9, 2015 in Board Meeting, Business Plan, CHSRA, Funding, Statewide, Uncategorized
You may have heard Authority Chairman Dan Richard and CEO Jeff Morales in the media lately talking about transparency. We sent legislators new information about how the Authority is so concerned about the public perception of the project that it is willing to compromise the state’s ability to oversee the many consultants working to design the rail line. […]
Can the HSRA meet their 2:40 travel time promise?
At the High-Speed Rail Authority’s board meeting last week, the Board and public were told that under the Phase 1 Blended Plan the travel time between SF and LA could meet the Prop 1A requirement of 2 hours and 40 minutes. A slide in this presentation reinforced the statement. […]
Latest Business Plan – Where’s the beef?
The highly anticipated Revised Business Plan for the California High Speed Rail project will be approved by the Authority at their board meeting in less than 48 hours but the Authority has still not posted the supporting documents for this plan. CARRD has been urging the Authority to release this information since last week and […]
Substantive changes in Business Plan warrant recirculation for comment
By Nadia Naik on February 1, 2012 in Board Meeting, Business Plan, CHSRA, Environmental Review, Fresno, Funding, Legislative Analysis, Uncategorized
There have been at least two recent media reports describing substantive changes to the upcoming 2012 Business Plan. We look forward to seeing how public input was incorporated to the plan. Given the media reports on apparent substantive changes, CARRD is recommending that the Authority consider issuing a second draft plan to give both the […]
State Auditor issues report and NY Times: Room for Debate Op/Eds
By Nadia Naik on January 27, 2012 in Business Plan, CHSRA, Environmental Review, FAQ, Funding, Legislative Analysis, Statewide
By now, you have likely heard that the State Auditor has issued its latest report on the California High Speed Rail Authority. The full report is available at: http://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2011-504.pdf We recommend reading the long version (always!) as it provides much greater insight into the problems resulting from too many consultants and not enough staff that CARRD […]
CARRD to Board: Postpone your vote on Grapevine
CARRD send the California High Speed Rail Authority an email today asking them to defer their board vote on the “Grapevine” alignment. Our message said: “We are writing to urge the Board to defer a decision until additional analyses on these issues are provided: 1) Express route west of Bakersfield – Project EIR work has shown […]
CARRD to testify at Congressional hearing
We’re pleased to announce that Elizabeth Alexis of CARRD has been asked to testify at the hearing in D.C. next week. The committee staff has produced a Briefing Memo that gives an excellent history of the project and has some relevant updated numbers. For those new to the project, this is a MUST READ! The […]
How conservative are the ridership forecasts?
The ridership model is arguably one of the most important components of the recent business plan presented by the California High Speed Rail Authority. So, how conservative are the ridership forecasts? Here is a short report looking simply at the price of gas assumed in the model. What did we find? Well, do you think […]