Gov. Jerry Brown Appoints Former BART Board Member to CHSRA Board
With Curt Pringle’s recent resignation from the California High Speed Rail Authority board, Governor Jerry Brown had another opportunity to make an appointment to the board. Yesterday he announced his choice: Dan Richard. Richard and Brown have deep ties, as Richard served in the Brown Administration in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a deputy legal affairs secretary and deputy assistant for science and technology.
Richard also has extensive experience with passenger rail in California, having served from 1992 to 2004 as a member of the BART board of directors. From 1997 to 2006 he was Senior Vice President of public policy and governmental relations at PG&E, which will help the HSR project remain well-connected with Bay Area businesses.
There’s really only one way to read this appointment: as further evidence that Gov. Brown remains as deeply committed to the HSR project now as he was when he was governor 30 years ago. Richard was deputy legal affairs secretary for Gov. Brown in 1982, when the first California high speed rail project was in its planning stages. While I’m not sure how deeply involved he was in that project, it would stand to reason that Richard did have some engagement with it, and almost certainly shares the governor’s strong backing of HSR.
Once again, it seems that HSR critics and opponents who were hoping that Gov. Brown would side with them are finding their hopes dashed. And that’s good. As the governor said earlier this week, “I would like to be part of the group that gets America to think big again.” Dan Richard is part of that group too. And the California HSR project will continue forward.
So I take it that means CHSR won’t be having any internet or cell service?
What does he actually bring to the Authoity in terms of benefits however? What, in fact, actually makes him a good board member? By all accouts he didn’t do anything while at BART to reduce their waste and profligacy, which doesn’t strike me as a good background when value engineering is the order of the day.
synonymouse Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
His high-level PG&E connection should have pulled him off the short list straightway. San Bruno is going to be in the headlines for years.
Political gaffes like that make one think of Gray Davis.
Buying a new ROW paralleling 99 is value engineering? The plan is and was always to throw money at stilts. Rumor has it that Barack’s jobs plan next month is stimulus redux, maybe on steroids. It will more or less coincide with the budget-cutting supercommittee being empaneled. That should be fun.
adirondacker12800 Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
No use the ROW that is SR99 just like they could use the ROW that is I-5
synonymouse Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
I believe the same general type of objections would be brought up against 99 as against 101 on the Peninsula – no room for at grade, curvatures too sharp, etc. I-5 would be much easier to modify, rechannelize, etc. And of course it would be express.
But no matter, I think hsr is done for and Borden to Corcoran could be all that it built, if any. Some pundits are saying the stock market could soon dump to 9000. A battle royale over stimulus blowout spending come October could be the catalyst. You would think the dollar would inflate at some point.
adirondacker12800 Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
most of it is out in the middle of now where just like I-5 is.
synonymouse Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
99 passes thru a number of urban areas whereas I-5 literally has tumbleweeds rolling by.
Peter Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Yes, which is why it’s being built throught the urban areas – so that it actually serves people who want to ride the train…
Joey Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Running at 350 km/h through populated areas may prove difficult though.
VBobier Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 10:19 pm
It’s done in Japan all the time, So how difficult is that? Yer making a mountain out of molehill, sheesh.
political_incorrectness Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 12:02 am
300 km/h right now 320 km/h in the future.
J. Wong Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
“You would think the dollar would inflate at some point.”
Not as long as interest rates are up against the zero bound (and some effective interest rates are negative). In fact, a little more inflation would be good for now since it would reflect growth in the economy.
Eric M Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Once the interest rates are raised, only then will the dollar rise. But on the other hand, low rates mean better prices for borrowers selling bonds, i.e. us.
Eric M Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 10:02 pm
And a weaker dollar is better for exports
VBobier Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Without the Central Valley section, HSR is not HSR, It’s Gold Plated mass transit as would then be worse than the Acela, So go away Ya harpy, HSR is here to stay and You can’t stop It.
Joey Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 12:46 am
The Antelope Valley section could sustain HSR’s top speed for a reasonable distance.
trentbridge Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
I googled him and at Solutions International ( whatever that is..) Dan Richard’s profile states:
“His service on BART included leading efforts to secure $4 billion in capital for system rehabilitation projects, the transit’s expansion to the San Francisco Airport and seismic retrofit programs. During his tenure on BART, its performance and financial results improved significantly; in 2004 BART was named the top U.S. rapid transit system.
Of course, big cheeses (like Gov. Perry,for example) take credit for all the good news on their watch.
synonymouse Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 4:21 pm
I wonder if the gentleman ever actually rode on an ordinary BART train. Bring along your earplugs. Top U.S. rapid transit system for noise.
I read that Farhad Mansourian, interim executive director of the SMART train board, on loan from Marin County who is director of public works said:
“in the current climate of competitive bidding, most public agencies are realizing significant savings (as
much as 40%) below engineers’ estimate.”
I bet CARRD and others against the project, screaming that the project is going to be way over budget, will not be too happy if the bids for the central valley come in way below the estimates. One less thing to complain about.
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Excellent point. The low bids for infrastructure projects are something else that HSR critics refuse to publicly acknowledge, along with the international record of high ridership and the costs of not building HSR.
<b CBOSS vs. Metrolink PTC
Clem has just posted on his blog
http://caltrain-hsr.blogspot.com/
an outstanding analysis of what CalTrain is doing with PTC, their CBOSS program.
One can only shake their head and wonder just what is going on at CalTrain
.
The case for high-speed rail
Interviews with vanArk, Schenk and Umberg.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/aug/21/the-case-for-high-speed-rail/
There are some really big “whoppers” here.
Prime example:
Q: Doesn’t the proposition require that each extension of the line be profitable before the next one can be built so that you can’t wait for profitability to come 10, 15, 20 years from now when the system is complete?
UMBERG: I think that each operational segment will at least break even if not make a profit. People in the United States behave just like people other places in the world. If it takes me two hours by automobile to get from my house to downtown L.A., which is a distance of about 40 miles, and it takes me less than 30 minutes to go by train, then I’m going to go by train, as are millions of others.
Boy, Mr. Umberg what world are you living in?
And now everybody we know why the CHSRA has been so incompetent — they don’t have enough staff.
adirondacker12800 Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 9:02 am
Mr. Umberg what world are you living in?
The one where millions of people get on the train because it’s faster than driving and faster than flying.
Jack Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 9:16 am
Morris says it’s a lie therefore it must be true. I wish the world worked like that for me.
There is a lot of good stuff in there, and they are right the CHSRA was making mistakes because they were a infra-structure mega project working with a road widening budget. Mistakes were made and are not being rectified.
Your position of “The authority has been out to swindle taxpayers since the begging” is absurd.
Paulus Magnus Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 9:22 am
There are already millions riding the train as it is. With increased freeway congestion and decreased travel times, millions of additional riders is only to be expected.
As for each operational segment breaking even, that’s not a particularly hard thing for them to do. Mind presenting your rationale for the trains not covering their operating costs?
Joey Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 10:47 am
You think the initial Central Valley segment will be able to cover its operating costs with nothing but six San Joaquins lumbering down it every day?