
Congress plans to hold hearings on California’s controversial Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail project, as estimates from the project’s lead contractor predicted significant cost overruns that the rail authority is attempting to deny.
by William Bigelow28 Nov 2015, 5:00 AM PST0

California will suffer severe shortages, with or without a warmer planet. We need to act soon. Water policy may not generate flashy headlines, and politicians who lay the foundations for reform may not be in office ten or twenty years from now, when credit is handed out. But it can be done. Israel has shown us how.
by Joel B. Pollak20 Nov 2015, 7:08 AM PST0

Despite El Niño generating three times the amount of snow in Mammoth in the first half of this month as it did for the entire month of November last year, California’s failure to build infrastructure means most rain will be lost to run-off and flooding.
by Chriss W. Street16 Nov 2015, 5:30 AM PST0

Two California Republican lawmakers have proposed a ballot measure that would divert bond revenue from a pricey high-speed rail project to pay for more water storage in the drought-parched state.
by Daniel Nussbaum13 Nov 2015, 12:22 PM PST0

The infamous California High-Speed Rail may take an extra 15 years to build, travel underground through several very dangerous geologic faults, and rise in cost to $93 billion.
by Chriss W. Street26 Oct 2015, 6:17 AM PST0

Even the most energetic free-trade enthusiast can find a few things to be queasy about in Bloomberg Businessweek’s announcement of a major joint venture to build a Chinese bullet train connecting Los Angeles with Las Vegas.
by John Hayward18 Sep 2015, 8:55 AM PST0

On Monday, Democrats in Sacramento, doing their best to aid Governor Jerry Brown’s troubled high-speed rail project, attempted to grease the way for the project’s success by relaxing oversight and reporting requirements.
by William Bigelow17 Jun 2015, 11:37 AM PST0

This is an “incredibly historic moment for all of us. Next year, after 20 years of our agony, Barbara Boxer is going to retire,” U.S. Senate candidate Tom Del Beccaro told the San Diego County Republican Party June meeting last week.
by Michelle Moons16 Jun 2015, 12:01 AM PST0

U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), chairman of the House rail subcommittee, has proposed an amendment that could cripple plans for the construction of California’s high-speed rail project. Denham’s amendment would eliminate a 2012 agreement between California and the Obama administration that permitted the state to obtain federal grant money without matching those funds with money from state coffers.
by William Bigelow11 Jun 2015, 1:01 PM PST0

Unlike the bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles championed by California Governor Jerry Brown, a proposed bullet train from Southern California to Las Vegas approved by the Nevada legislature last week would not rely on state funds. According to
by William Bigelow28 May 2015, 12:01 AM PST0

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk’s Hyperloop transportation system is nearly ready for its first test. The high-speed tube transportation system will soon have its first test track in California, according to Green Car Reports.
by Daniel Nussbaum19 May 2015, 2:20 PM PST0

“Dam [thumbs up]… Train [thumbs down]… Governor, put our water before your train,” reads a billboard message erected by Fresno City Councilman Steve Brandau, revealed this week in California’s Central Valley.
by Michelle Moons14 May 2015, 12:50 PM PST0

But why bother waiting for the accident professionals to tell us why an Amtrak train derailed? Plenty of political professionals already know the solution: Spend more on Amtrak.
by Rich Tucker13 May 2015, 11:55 AM PST0

On the most basic level, Israel seems to have the formula of statecraft right, prioritizing national security and economic growth above all else.
by Joel B. Pollak8 May 2015, 4:00 AM PST0

California’s controversial high-speed rail project is barely under way, but it’s already been beaten by other options. Under the best of assumptions, the (subsidized) cost of a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles when the bullet train is complete will be $86, plus “last mile” costs of traveling to and from the train station. The journey, door to door, will take about four hours–that is, if the high-speed rail makes the journey in under three hours as originally advertised, which it will not.
by Joel B. Pollak26 Apr 2015, 6:00 AM PST0

On Monday, Democrats in the California State Assembly’s Transportation Committee steamrolled their Republican opposition and killed a bill that would have restricted high-speed rail proponents from using eminent domain laws to commence condemnation actions against properties standing in the way of California Governor Jerry Brown’s pet project, the so-called “bullet train” from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
by William Bigelow21 Apr 2015, 10:08 AM PST0

San Diego residents will feel the squeeze to comply with government mandated water restrictions under new declarations from the city’s Mayor Kevin Faulconer and councilmembers who joined California Governor Jerry Brown’s unprecedented decree to reduce water usage 25% statewide.
by Michelle Moons10 Apr 2015, 9:26 AM PST0

Instead of building dams, reservoirs and fighting to preserve every drop of water he can for Californians, Jerry Brown has chosen to waste his political capital on a train that no one wants, which California can’t afford–and he’s stealing people’s land and closing down businesses in order to do it. And now, finally in his fifth year as governor, he finally decides to act on the drought—and, in quintessential Jerry Brown style, he blames those who have nothing to do with creating the crisis and threatens to penalize them if they don’t comply.
by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly2 Apr 2015, 5:33 AM PST0

California farmers are now suing the state over the high-speed rail project, refusing to have their land sold for pennies-on-the-dollar. And with a 12-year estimated project delay, the contractor is threatening to sue the bullet train for delay penalties.
by Chriss W. Street15 Mar 2015, 4:56 AM PST0

Questions are being raised about the safety of the prospective high-speed rail train in California, after a fatal accident on Tuesday morning near Davis in Yolo County where an Amtrak train killed a female pedestrian on the tracks.
by William Bigelow11 Mar 2015, 11:54 AM PST0

German engineering company Siemens is assembling a 50-foot, life-size model of California’s as-yet-unbuilt high-speed train on the steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento.
by Daniel Nussbaum24 Feb 2015, 12:40 PM PST0

Orange County’s new transportation center, ARTIC, located on the 5 freeway near the Honda Center, has drawn fewer than 800 boardings a month since it opened December 8–far fewer than the roughly 3,000 Anaheim officials projected when they hawked the center to the city’s citizens, according to the Orange County Register.
by William Bigelow18 Feb 2015, 3:04 PM PST0

Breitbart reported in November that in the six years since California legislature approved the High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA), just 7% of the 1,100 pieces of land needed for the first leg to travel 130 miles across farm country had been acquired.
by Chriss W. Street16 Feb 2015, 6:02 AM PST0

California’s project bullet train hit a speed bump last week as the federal government’s Fish and Wildlife Service nailed the California High-Speed Rail Authority for violating federal protections for the endangered San Joaquin kit fox.
by William Bigelow3 Feb 2015, 11:51 AM PST0

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Neel Kaskari outspent his rival, Gov. Jerry Brown, in last year’s unsuccessful bid for the state’s top job.
by Daniel Nussbaum31 Jan 2015, 1:13 PM PST0