Californians For High Speed Rail Launches Grassroots Organizing Effort
After a year in which anti-HSR activists began organizing to try and overturn the results of the 2008 election, HSR supporters are finally fighting back. Our vehicle is Californians For High Speed Rail. Founded in 2005, CA4HSR has spent the last few years working behind the scenes in Sacramento to ensure high speed rail gets funded, and has been deeply involved in the planning process for HSR. But now it’s time to organize the Californians who voted for Prop 1A and still support this project into a movement to ensure the project survives and thrives.
Today CA4HSR began that work by launching our statewide grassroots organizing effort. We’re beginning with a letter to the State Senate Transportation Committee:
Dear Senators:
We write to ask you to uphold the will of the voters and get high speed rail built for California. In 2008 a majority of Californians approved high speed rail via Prop 1A because we believed that the planned high speed rail system is critical to the economic future and quality of life for all Californians. Unfortunately some of those who opposed Prop 1A have spent the past year spreading misinformation about high speed rail and trying to create the impression that communities across the state oppose it. We expect you to reject these efforts as being unrepresentative of the true views of California voters.
We continue to support high speed rail and expect you to provide strong leadership by helping the high speed rail project quickly move toward construction and operation. Many elements of project planning need to be completed, and an effective organizational structure must be created to oversee this multi-billion dollar bidding and construction project. We ask you to use your oversight role to help the Authority build up capacity to manage such a large undertaking. With the immediate need for job creation, and the looming threat of rising oil prices and global warming, the economic future of our state is dependent on the success of the California high speed rail project.
We ask you to pledge to work together with the California High Speed Rail Authority, communities across the state, and supporters like us to implement the will of the voters and build high speed rail consistent with the provisions of Prop 1A.
We’re going to deliver this to the committee as a show of support for HSR. Click here to add your name. Certainly one letter won’t change the landscape, but it’s a necessary start for our organizing efforts, which will soon include activism on federal funding and other important HSR topics.
You can help not only by signing the letter, but by becoming a member of CA4HSR. You can find us on Facebook and on Twitter as well.
Certainly there’ll be a lot more for CA4HSR to do, both online and offline. This is just a start. But we are determined to make 2010 the year HSR supporters strike back. We need your help to make it happen.
UPDATE: The SF Business Times takes notice of CA4HSR’s efforts.
Ooooooo…… A letter to a bunch of liberal Democrats who are off hiding tonight. Why don’t you ask Obama to fly in and help you out? You’re cooked.
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Gotta start somewhere, dude.
HSRforCali Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
You really should just go away at this point Truth be Told. Your comments are becoming very annoying and obnoxious. This blog is to discuss the issues of high-speed rail, not pointless absurd accusations.
spokker Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
I find that the posters with user names like, “YES ON HSR” and “NO NIMBYS” and “TRUTH REALITY CHECK TIME HSR SUCKS” to be the most entertaining posters. I wish I could have dinner with all of them in real life.
Evan Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Who’s hiding? See you tonight!
I plan to join just because of nimby/necons like the above post.. and this one post all the time at palo alto online
So, this really doesn’t deserve it’s own post, so I’ll put it here instead.
Fox is showing that “Human Target” show again tonight – the one set on the opening day of the California High Speed Rail system. I’ve had a bit of Scotch, so the liveblogging will be, uh, influenced by that.
The plot is that the main character, Christopher Chance, is a guy who gets hired out to “go inside” and discover threats and neutralize them. In this case, someone is targeting the lovely and talented Tricia Helfer (who you might know as Number Six from Battlestar Galactica) is the CEO of the California HSR project, and knows someone is threatening the project – but isn’t sure who. So they hire this dude for the inaugural trip from SF to LA.
They arrive at the station in SF – it looks like 4th and King, since it’s above-ground, and they’re using Japanese technology, with reps from Japan there on the inaugural trip. It’s a double-decker train, btw. They depart, and they show the route (which looks basically like the real CAHSR route, but follows the coast down to Big Sur and cuts inland there).
On board the train there is celebration, and a bit of mockery. Chance asks Tricia Helfer’s character (who we’ll call HSR-Six) “what’s the tab for this whole thing?” “$80 billion,” she says. Chance asks how much the taxpayers are paying – “$62 billion.”
While Chance tries to suss out the real criminal, he and HSR-Six are sitting at a table having a drink. A suspicious older guy comes up, says he doubted the project all along, but just before he can say “you pulled it off” to HSR-Six, Chance realizes her drink is spiked. Rather than tell everyone, he and HSR-Six get up and walk away, and the other guy, the HSR denier, drinks it and keels over. Sorry, Morris Brown.
Andrew Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
I knew I wasn’t the only person who hit the freeze-frame when they showed the route and tried to figure out where it deviated from the CAHSR route.
Evan Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Ha, HSR-Six. Good reference. I watched, purely for the HSR-related storyline — and while the whole thing was pretty strange, it was cool to see the brief HSR shots, especially the one of HSR snaking on 280.
Alon Levy Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Think positive, Robert. Fox is saying that even if cost control proves impossible, the project will still attract $18 billion in private investment.
So they come back from commercial, and Chance and HSR-Six are in a closed car (they haven’t even taken off the plastic wrap from the seats). Exposition time. HSR-Six was battling the company that built and operates HSR over cost-cutting – they wanted to spend less on safety features. Some “Times” reporter (unsure if it’s LA or NY) found out, and was going to expose the flaws, but OMG he got whacked in a car bomb.
Suddenly the brakes squeal. Is it the killer? No, just some dumbass. But the emergency brakes have been pulled, and the train’s brakes are now weakened, and when they enter a tunnel, they’re going to derail – either they derail by not using the brakes, or derail by trying to use the brakes which fail. (Rafael, check this out for accuracy).
The show then becomes “Hunt For Red October – on HSR!” Because, shockingly enough, the killer is the cook! Or the bartender, actually. He shows up and busts out a silenced pistol, shots are exchanged, and Chance and HSR-Six wind up in what looks like a baggage car.
McNamara Engineering is the company in question here, so I guess some Hollywood screenwriters agree that those big bad engineers are always the bad guys.
spokker Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Wait, wait, wait. This is a real thing?
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Yep. It’s hilarious.
jimsf Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Ok so its kinda like towering inferno… remember, the engineers or maybe it was the developer, used the cheap faulty wiring that started the fire
Rafael Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:29 am
Um, no. HSR trains feature ceramic brakes that don’t fade. Neither do the eddy current assist brakes. Japanese shinkansen execute emergency brake maneuvers every time the earthquake detection system kicks in and don’t derail (except once, when the train was too close to the epicenter to stop in time). They then continue on their merry way, albeit at reduced speed until traffic control is sure the tracks are still in excellent condition.
And cutting inland from Big Sur? Some writer’s been drinking too much Hollywood water again.
elfling Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
So I think the obvious lesson here is that HSR trains should not have a bar. No bartenders, and the evil is foiled!
After a scene with some whiz kid and Doc Cottle (it’s a BSG reunion, guessing this is filmed in Vancouver), we cut back to Chance and HSR-Six, who are now in what looks like a service duct (because bullet trains are big enough to have these). Chance and the killer fight, wrestle, destroy shit, cause sparks, on and on, this is a long-ass fight scene.
But wait! They hit a window, and the glass weakens, and shatters! Suddenly it’s like a cabin depressurization, with stuff flying around everywhere. Chance throws the killer out the window, he’s killed instantly. Chance and HSR-Six go to warn everyone about the looming brake failure, the others are disbelieving, “we can’t stop, we’re 18 miles out!” But it becomes clear the brakes are failing. Suddenly HSR-Six reveals there’s a supplemental breaking system in the rear car! Wow! So now they actually have a chance to stop the train at 220 mph before it cuts east from what looks like the Salinas Valley (and it’s a – get this – SINGLE TRACK).
HSR-Six promises to fix everything. If only she could just take the cables and shove them into her palm and interface with the computer that way…
Alon Levy Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Ah, yes, this brings memory of the single-track maglev line on Firefly.
So HSR-Six succeeds in decoupling the train cars. Everyone else is safe, but she and Chance are standing by an open door, on a train car that is still hurtling toward a deadly tunnel at 220 mph. Chance decides to save HSR-Six by MacGyvering himself a parachute. They jump out together just as the train enters the tunnel, surviving the impact, while the train goes into the tunnel, derails, and crashes.
But the husband shows up, and ominous music plays. “We survived, let’s go home alone tonight.” Gee, I wonder who the real killer is.
Sure enough, the husband was the killer. He knew that HSR-Six and the reporter (who got killed in the car bomb) had been sleeping together. The affair had been over for a year, but the husband waited until the project was completed (and he got his bonus) to get his revenge. Chance exposes him, and he’s hauled off by the cops, but only after HSR-Six slaps the shit out of him.
Oh! And I didn’t notice this earlier, but the name of the train? It’s the Monterey Line!
If the writers did their research here, the least you could have done is named a character Cruickshank. I mean really.
Now Chance is taking off her wedding ring. But he walks away.
adirondacker12800 Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
..and here I thought it was Colonel Mustard in the billiard car with a candlestick….
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I’m surprised this thing didn’t have a billiard car.
jimsf Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 12:07 am
but where can we watch this movie? is it on you tube?
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 12:28 am
It’s a TV show on Fox.
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 12:29 am
I would tell you where to download it but that’s illegal like our state’s high speed rail business plan.
GUFFFFFFFFFFFFAW.
jimsf Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 12:32 am
so its gonna be a series… like what, some one tries to blow up the train each week? oh, or is it just the pilot uses the train premise but the show is not about the train in every episode? They should make it like star trek voyager lol. you know, the train never reaches its final destination but lots of weird stuff happens along the way.
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 1:02 am
I’m guessing there are different things to blow up each week.
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 9:02 am
Yep, next week he’s on a plane.
Maxi Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 11:27 am
It’s on Hulu. The train graphics and the landscape zooming by were pretty nice, can’t say the same for everything else. And Robert, I imagined you were on board in a dapper suit the whole time.
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
That assumes I own a dapper suit.
Then again, I do have about 10 years’ time to purchase one…
elfling Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
There’s no billiard car because we all know that billiard rooms incite people to murder.
elfling Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I wonder if Col. Mustard is on the no-fly list.
That’s just too funny.
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
I can’t believe I sat through the whole thing.
TomW Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 6:38 am
I can’t believe you did either.
Love the live-blogging … but a question remains unanswered: What kind of scotch?
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Laphroaig. Didn’t feel like breaking into the Bruichladdich – that’s for happy and celebratory occasions, not for nights where Ted Kennedy loses his Senate seat to a teabagger.
oh heres the trailer theres one part where a guy flies out the window in a tunnel and hits the wall. So you see nimbys, tunnels are a bad idea. Also , the lead guy, I think he’s wearing blue contacts. Love the train interior, hate the train exterior.
WUH-OH! 60 foot elevated structures in San Jose!
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1788566.html
REALITY CHECK TIME!!!!
Paul H. Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:14 am
you mean in Fresno?
Clem Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Pretty sweet, huh. A twelve-mile, 60-foot tall concrete viaduct to better radiate the 100+ dB of noise from trains passing at 220 mph over downtown cafes, shops and transit oriented developments.
LOL. Can I live there, oh please please please?
In the real world, you would route HSR around the west of Fresno, through flat agricultural land, and provide a reasonable way to connect to the station from downtown. Just like it’s done in Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Vendome, Valence, Champagne-Ardenne, etc. or every single other HSR station in the world where trains don’t ever, EVER, go 220 mph through downtown.
Peter Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
That’s really the best they can come up with? Not even possibly an elevated-trench combo?
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Haha, but their ridership estimates for the California system are bullshit, according to your more insane commentators on your blog.
Peter Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
100+ db isn’t that bad as long as you’re not on the trunk line, when it would happen every few minutes.
Oh, wait…
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Explain. I’m a stupid person like most Californians.
Peter Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
It was sarcasm. Fresno is on the trunk line.
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Do you mean regular trains?
Tolmach and his crew want this: http://calrailfoundation.org/HSR_files/1109waller2.pdf
I wonder. If this was the alignment from the get go, would the loss of votes in the Central Valley have hurt Prop 1A’s chances of passing? Do you think the Bay Area could still carry it all the way to passage?
Peter Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Yes, I think it would have failed, given that it was already a relatively close vote. 52-48, right? If it was simply Bay Area to LA, it would have been a completely elitist route. No way the CV would have voted for it.
I still think we should upgrade the San Joaquins, as well as Capital Corridor, to 110 mph. The San Joaquins can wait, though. Especially if you can transfer from San Joaquins to HSR in Merced and get down to LA quickly that way. Capitol Corridor does need to be upgraded as quickly as possible.
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
If that’s the case, then the current alignment is truly the best one. Because no matter how good a direct route is (if its backers are telling the truth), it could not have garnered political support in this stupid state.
I think both routes are fine, to be honest. I support whichever one has the best chance of actually being built. If Tolmach and his crew can get I-5 going and get the Surfliners up to 110 MPH without HSR, they have my full support.
But let’s not pretend they aren’t deceptive either. Here’s an article they put in a recent newsletter.
http://calrailfoundation.org/HSR_files/eurohsr.pdf
Scroll down to the heading, “HSRA ARROGANCE INVADES EAST LA”
What is that meant to invoke? Poor, Hispanic East LA is being railroaded, so to speak, by high speed trains. They are essentially using them to drum up opposition for the route.
There’s one problem, the areas they are talking about aren’t East LA. In fact, it isn’t even Eastside Los Angeles, and many Eastside residents would be very offended by Santa Fe Springs being called East LA. Santa Fe Springs is NOT East LA. In fact, the average household income in Santa Fe Springs is $44,000. The average in East Los Angeles is $28,000. There is a difference here. La Mirada, also mention, has an average household income of over $60,000!
Here’s the facts. The BNSF ROW doesn’t abut that many houses. There are a few, but the area is mostly industrial. Ride the Pacific Surfliner and you’ll have lovely views of the coast and the deserted patches of dirt surrounded by fences in Santa Fe Springs. You’ll find cement factories, recycling centers, junkyards, and huge piles of dirt.
I find that passage to be just as deceptive as anything the CHSRA is putting out. You cannot trust the California Rail Foundation any more than the CHSRA.
Peter Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
At least CHSRA has a legal mandate to be open about their processes. Not saying they always are.
Calrail has nothing like that.
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I don’t care if Calrail is open about their business, the least they could do is get the location of East LA right if they are going to use them for their agenda.
That portion of the article really insults East LA and the real impacts they suffered when freeways were slammed into their communities.
Peter Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
No reason to be honest when you don’t have to be.
Peter Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Note that Waller’s drawings don’t show the problems with the Altamont/I-5 alignment, just the advantages, and vice versa for Pacheco. Kind of biased?
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Tolmach and the TRAC crew are the Fox News of HSR.
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I guess that makes us MSNBC. Now that’s comedy.
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Putting HSR on I-5 would also hurt the project’s chances of breaking even, since it would be needlessly bypassing 2.5 million potential riders.
Trains need to go where the people are.
Joey Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Something is not right about the geometry of things in the Stockton Area, where that map puts the transfer to San Joaquíns…
jimsf Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:55 pm
nope.
spokker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
I say this, upgrade the San Joaquin corridor to 110 MPH operation and build the I-5 route anyway. In fact, build Tolmach’s plan and the CHSRA’s plan. What the hell, build maglev too. That would be some stimulus. Stop all nation building and wars in foreign lands. Leave the Muslims alone and let’s build every stupid rail project ever conceived. We’d still have enough money for the California Water Project and a space elevator to the moon.
James Fujita Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Why do people assume that the entire world is French? Or do they conveniently forget that Japan exists? Because the TGV “beanfield station” way of doing things is not the only way, nor is it necessary the best way for California.
HSRComingSoon Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Can anyone fact-check this piece? The “informative” parts of the article are only paraphrases from a consultant. Do these plans exist in the EIR/EIS or is this a new addition because of the alternatives planning?
Peter Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
It’s on the meeting boards for the public information meeting yesterday. They actually do list noise levels. Says noise will be 98 db at 220 mph, compared with 91 db for 80 mph Amtrak diesel train.
I’m not sure how much of the 12 mile elevated is going past residential areas.
Paul H. Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
I’d say about a mile and a half of it goes past residential areas, most of it goes through a warehouse district. (I live in Fresno, and elevated where is goes through isn’t the end of the world. It’s a bunch of warehouses.)
Peter Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Just “measured” it on Google Earth. The alignment goes past just over 2 miles of houses. Most of them are right next to the park, which will require mitigation on its own.
it is impossible to express how utterly hilarious this liveblogging is. i hope this becomes a regular CAHSRblog installment. also, SUPERTRAIN!
Evan Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 10:44 am
I can’t believe I made it through the entire first episode of Supertrain without crying.
There’s also this transportation for america letter to Obama for what its worth, something about urging quick transit spending……
Wow, we actually have real railroad people on the board now unlike in the bush admin.