Editor’s Note: Kevin Dayton asked if he could leave the California Policy Center to apply for an opening at the California High-Speed Rail Authority. We told him to give it a shot… April 28, 2017 California High-Speed Rail Authority Attn: Human Resources 770 L Street, Suite 620 MS 4 Sacramento, CA 95814 Re: Application for...

Editor’s Note, 4/21/2017 – High-Speed Rail Authority Executive Director Jeff Morales announced his resignation today.  Kevin Dayton’s analysis, published by CPC ten days earlier, leads us to believe that Morales’ departure is good news for California taxpayers. Robert Moses was the legendary “Master Builder” of 20th Century New York City. William Mulholland was the legendary engineer...

California Democrats are up in arms because a $647 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to Caltrain for system electrification has yet to be provided.  They blame the 14 California House Republicans in D.C. who all signed a letter January 24, 2017, saying simply this:  no further money should be provided, until California...

I testified for the first time before a state legislative committee on Tuesday. My main takeaways: The argument in favor of High-Speed Rail is catastrophically weak, and parking near the State Capitol is awful. My testimony did little to persuade Senate Transportation and Housing Committee members. They ultimately killed SB414, a bill that would have...

On the peninsula, between San Jose and San Francisco, Caltrain has been campaigning for some time for “electrification” of its system, arguing that switching from diesel to electric is the only way to modernize its system. On the merits, this is a foolish argument:  Modern Tier 4 diesel systems offer a sound alternative, and would...

California’s High-Speed Rail project fails to justify itself according to any set of rational criteria. Its ridership projections are absurdly inflated, its environmental benefits are overstated if not actually net detriments, and its cost, its staggering cost, $64 billion by the latest estimate, overwhelms anyone with even a remote sense of financial proportions. To make...

Prudence is always a virtue, but it is especially vital for those with large debts and limited means to repay them. Our state, whose public obligations total over half the size of our economy, is in no position to take on more imprudent spending projects. Advocates of California High Speed Rail have not provided convincing...

Editor’s Note:  In a previous article, we explained why projected greenhouse gas emission savings from California’s High-Speed Rail project are overstated. The High-Speed Rail Authority’s Environmental Impact Review is based on inflated ridership numbers and does not take into account automotive emission savings that will arise from the transition to electric vehicles. Here, Mark Powell...

According to the high speed rail authority’s website, the bullet train is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by just over one million metric tons annually by 2040. This reduction is supposed to be achieved by replacing almost 10 million miles of motor vehicle travel each day, and eliminating between 93 and 171 daily flights. But...

Back in 2008, voters in California approved Prop. 1, a statewide initiative to spend, “$9 billion for building a new high-speed railroad between San Francisco and Los Angeles.” Total cost, $9.5 billion. Remember that? Quoting further from the original initiative’s ballot language: “Bond Costs. The costs of these bonds would depend on interest rates in effect...