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[CNJRoss]

CAHSR news release 2/18:

 

High-Speed Rail Authority Releases Draft 2016 Business Plan, Solicits Public Comments
 
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) today released the Draft 2016 Business Plan, a foundational document for implementing the California High-Speed Rail program that reflects the transition from planning to construction to providing passenger service. Overall capital costs are reduced from $67.6 billion to $64.2 billion. The plan also provides the path forward for the construction and operation of a section of the high-speed rail program, using existing funds, which will generate revenue within the next decade.   
 
“This Draft Business Plan presents a clear path forward within available funding to deliver the system as approved by California voters in 2008,” said the Authority’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Morales. “By constructing the line between the Silicon Valley and the Central Valley, while also making significant investments in Southern California’s passenger rail systems, high-speed rail service will become a reality in this state in the next 10 years at a lower cost than previously estimated.”
 
This draft plan, which is required by Assembly Bill 528 (Lowenthal, Chapter 237, Statutes of 2013), summarizes the progress made over the last two years, updates available funding and financing, forecasts ridership, and updates risk management information.  In this plan, the Authority highlights three objectives to move the high-speed rail program forward.  
 
The first objective is to initiate high-speed rail passenger service as soon as possible in order to bring benefits to California and generate revenues to attract private sector participation. With existing funding and more than 100 miles of active construction in the Central Valley already underway, the Authority will complete the construction of the high-speed rail line between Silicon Valley and Central Valley by 2024, with operations beginning in 2025.
 
The second objective is to make strategic, concurrent investments throughout the system that will be linked together over time. Investments that connect state, regional and local rail systems, will provide immediate mobility, environmental, economic and community benefits.  For example, the Burbank to Anaheim corridor is of regional and statewide significance and is critical to supporting the economy of Southern California. Today’s plan proposes join with local partners to improve this corridor, including the highest priority grade separations in the state (Rosecrans Avenue/Marquardt Avenue, the Southern California Regional Interconnection Project) and improvements at Los Angeles Union Station.  These and other investments identified in this Draft 2016 Business Plan will increase capacity, improve safety in this highly-congested travel corridor, and improve air quality.  
 
The third objective is to construct additional segments as funding becomes available. This requires completing the environmental analyses for every mile of the program and securing environmental approvals. The Authority will continue to move forward with clearing all project sections between San Francisco and the Los Angeles/Anaheim area by 2017.
 
With the release of today’s draft plan, the Authority is now seeking public comment as part of a 60-day public comment period that will close on April 18, 2016. Comments may be made online, via USPS, and at regularly scheduled board meetings in March and April 2016. Timely comments become a permanent element of the published plan. The Authority is required by Public Utilities Code Section 185033 to prepare, publish, adopt and submit an updated Business Plan to the Legislature on May 1, 2016.   

 

The Authority is providing five methods for submitting comments on this draft plan:   

 

1. Online comment form through the Draft 2016 Business Plan website at:  https://www.hsr.ca.g...n_Comments.html   

 

2. By email at:  2016businessplancomments@hsr.ca.gov   

 

3.  By U.S. mail to the Authority:  California High-Speed Rail Authority  Attn: Draft 2016 Business Plan  770 L Street, Suite 620 MS-1, Sacramento, CA 95814   

 

4. Voice mail comment at:  (916) 384-9516  

 

5. Provide public comment at the Authority’s Board of Directors Meeting on March 8 and April 12.  

 

The Draft 2016 Business Plan can be found online at: www.hsr.ca.gov/About/Business_Plans/Draft_2016_Business_Plan.html  

 

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[CNJRoss]

Progressive Railroading, 2/19:
 

California changes direction of high-speed rail plan

 

The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) unveiled a new business plan yesterday that changes the location of the first 250 miles of track that will be built and operated to a segment between Bakersfield and San Jose, Calif. (Emphasis added)

 

The 2016 draft business plan, which CHSRA officials say will help lower costs and speed up construction of the system, is a major shift from the board's 2012 decision to build the first section of the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles bullet train system between Burbank and California's Central Valley.

 

Continue here.

[KevinKorell]

KCRA-TV, Channel 3 in Sacramento, CA, 2/19/16:

California bullet train boss defends new route

The top executive in charge of California's high-speed rail project said Friday a newly released plan will guarantee the state can build a viable line with funds it currently has lined up.

Here is that story.

[KevinKorell]

San Jose, CA Mercury News, 2/17/16:

California bullet train headed first to San Jose -- a big Bay Area win

In a huge win for the Bay Area, the state will build the first 250 miles of bullet train track between San Jose and the Bakersfield area and now aims to offer service on the line in less than a decade, according to a report set to be released Friday.

Here's this version of the story.

[Sloan]

 

Three videos on High Speed Rail Construction

http://www.fresnobee...le66729052.html

[CNJRoss]

Merced (CA) Sun-Star, 2/28:
 

Gray blasts new high-speed-rail plan that would eliminate Merced

 

Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, slammed the proposed elimination of Merced from the first stint of the state’s high-speed rail project on Monday during a legislative hearing in Sacramento.

 

The 2016 business draft released by the California High-Speed Rail Authority last month would change the southern segment from Merced to the San Fernando Valley to a northern-oriented route from Shafter to San Jose. Under the new draft, the bullet train wouldn’t serve Merced until 2029.

 

“I think it’s a major betrayal of the Northern San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento region, which have been, and continue to be, huge supporters of the high-speed rail concept,” Gray said.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

mynewsLA.com, 4/10:
 

Officials to consider latest California high-speed rail proposal

 

Some of the longest rail tunnels in North America would be used to bring California’s High-Speed Rail tracks from Northern California into the San Fernando Valley, under the latest plan to go before officials on Tuesday.

 

But the rail line would remain above ground in most of Los Angeles, under the new plan.

 

The California High-Speed Rail Authority will review the plans at a meeting Tuesday in Anaheim. Construction has already started near Fresno on the first tracks, but funding has not been found for most of the $68 billion project, now on track to be completed in 2025.

 

Plans to loop the tracks around mountains from Palmdale to Santa Clarita, and then use the existing rail corridor along San Fernando Road to Los Angeles, have been dropped.

 

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[KevinKorell]

Los Angeles, CA Times, 4/12/16:

San Fernando Valley residents sound off on proposed bullet train routes

Another chapter in the war over the California bullet train erupted Tuesday at a board meeting of the state's high-speed rail authority as San Fernando Valley residents said the proposed routes would devastate their communities, jeopardize endangered species and cause visual blight.

This one

[KevinKorell]

Editorial in Los Angeles, CA Times, 4/17/16:

Who is going to pay for the bullet train to L.A.?

The California High Speed Rail Authority's newly revised business plan faces up to a hard truth: Money is tight. If the agency is going to complete the first leg of a commercially viable bullet train on time and on budget, it has to build the first segment in Northern California and postpone the more difficult route over the Tehachapi Mountains to Los Angeles. That may be a reasonable shift given the funding constraints. But left unsaid in the draft 2016 business plan is how exactly the authority will get the money to build the bullet train to Southern California.

Entire editorial

[CNJRoss]

AP via The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, CA, 4/21:

California high-speed rail officials tinker with $64B plan

 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -The board that oversees California's high-speed rail system put off a vote Thursday on a revised business plan to give state officials more time to assuage lawmakers and citizens upset by the recent decision to first send the train to Northern California rather than the Los Angeles area.

 

Officials proposed changes to the latest business plan at a meeting in San Jose where the board was expected to adopt the $64 billion business plan, which calls for the bullet train to head from the Central Valley to San Jose rather than south to the San Fernando Valley as originally planned.

 

Continue here.