We discovered the High Speed Rail can’t get to Los Angeles from San Francisco in their promised 2 hours and 40 minutes and the fare would be cost prohibitive! It would be faster and cheaper to fly!!

The High Speed Rail Saga Continues! I apologize for my part in supporting the HSR when Proposition 1A was narrowly approved by voters in 2018. Since then, I have discovered that their management team and Board grossly  mis-represented their project and it has become one the biggest boondoggles in the nation’s history! Only “Special Interest” persons/groups are   benefitting  like bandits using taxpayer monies! It is way behind schedule, grossly over budget, and is extremely mismanaged. There was no mention of tunneling through the Angeles National Forest either which took years for communities to oppose it!That is not what I and many voters voted for! 

What we voted for:

• A 220-mph high-speed train
• With a 520-mile route connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles
• With a budget of $45 billion
• With the requirement that $9 billion of the $9.95 billion bonds be matched by public and private funds. 

What we got (13 years later):

• A “not high-speed” train that will have to share miles of blended tracks at speeds ranging from 40 mph to 80 mph
• With a scaled-back initial operating segment of 171 miles connecting Merced to Bakersfield
• With a budget of $105 billion
• With NO private funds secured, plus an $80-billion funding gap that needs to be filled to actually build out the full line 

They are forever throwing good money after bad for a project that was upsold after it was presented to the voters. Because of that, most people do not want it now that negative discoveries have been realized! My personal opinion now is that it should go back on the ballot revealing the actual cost and accurate plans to be voted on before they proceed any further! 

PUBLIC REVIEW PERIOD (from www.hsr.ca.gov website)

The Authority is making this Draft EIR/EIS available in accordance with CEQA and NEPA for a minimum 45-day public review and comment period. During the comment period, written comments may be submitted in the following ways:

• By mail to Attn: “Palmdale to Burbank Draft EIR/EIS Comment”, California High-Speed Rail Authority, 355 S. Grand Avenue, Suite 2050 Los Angeles, CA 90071; 
• Through the Authority’s website (www.hsr.ca.gov); 
• By email to Palmdale_Burbank@hsr.ca.gov with the subject line “Palmdale to Burbank Draft EIR/EIS Comment”;
• Verbal comment on the direct phone line for the Palmdale to Burbank Project Section at (800) 630-1039; and
• Oral testimony at the online Public Hearing to be held on October 18, 2022, from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m.
• The comment period begins on September 02, 2022, and ends on November 01, 2022. Comments must be received electronically or postmarked on or before 5:00 p.m. PDT November 01, 2022. 

To learn more, please visit the S.A.F.E. website at www.dontrailroad.us. 

To view the map with preferred and alternate routes, CLICK HERE.  Route Refined SR14A is currently the Preferred route. Alternate routes E2 and E2A would go right through Shadow Hills.

The new deadline for receipt of public comment will be December 1, 2022.

HSR’s “online open house” meeting is tomorrow, October 6, 2022 starting at 5 pm. You must REGISTER to get a link to join the meeting, so please take a minute to do this ahead of time so that you are ready to go! Here is the registration link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zGmqrJ7LTSahhhb7tPvGlQ
Hope to see many of you tomorrow!