Well that’s off the table in the South. Work on denying Anaheim homeowners their tunnel.

In case others are wondering:

Warren Buffet owned part of BNSF, but recently he purchased the rest of their stock. So now BNSF is one of the companies owned by Berkshire Hathaway. There’s lots of speculation why Buffett did this, but I think it’s pretty clear he is moving towards (depending on how long he lives) to something not unlike vertical consolidation. He’s not alone in trying to control flow of goods, as opposed to simply producing them.

Now, it is public knowledge that Buffet back in 2008 dumped $5 billion into Goldman Sachs using preferred stock. But by the same token, the purchase of BNSF has cost Berkshire Hathaway its AAA credit rating. So, it’s likely that there will be “right-sizing” of the railroad to help cut costs.

Now if you were the Administration and you wanted a way to thank Buffett for saving Goldman Sachs from utter ruin, one way might be to buy something at a loss. Enter the A1 alignment, which isn’t part of Buffet’s grand plan to ship food to Asia (or God knows what else). By making enough sales, it’s likely that Buffett can get his credit rating back and all is right with the world.

But again, hear what I am saying: so far we haven’t seen any dollars for the new right of ways that will need to built…only acquiring or upgrading what someone already owns.

For a large portion of the run through Madera the alignment would be going through industrial areas. For the part where homes are within 200 feet (barely) of the ROW, you could build soundwalls.

How does that sound?

Of course, that would not solve the issue of building through Fresno, but it could minimize the impact to agricultural land. Compromises must be made.

It’s going to be A-3. If they can make it faster than the ramrod-straight A-2 (which seems bizarre to me, but that’s what they’re saying) they’ll have to choose it.