Sorry for the silence over the last few days – I’ve been here in Las Vegas at Netroots Nation, a national convention of us crazy progressive bloggers. You’ll be happy to know that it has been a very valuable and eventful conference, with some important HSR-related news emerging here.
Yesterday, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood was [...]

Back in July 2008, the California High Speed Rail Authority approved using the Pacheco Pass route to link the Bay Area to the Central Valley. Their reasoning included the following:
The Pacheco Pass alignment, rather than one through the Altamont Pass further to the north, was the fastest and “most environmentally responsible option” for the high-speed [...]

Mere months after most of their claims against the HSR project were rejected by Judge Michael Kenny in Sacramento Superior Court, the cities of Menlo Park and Atherton are using an obscure legal maneuver to try and reopen that suit, as Mike Rosenberg reports:
The plaintiffs hope their motion, to be filed in Sacramento Superior Court [...]

The opposition to California high speed rail has generally emphasized different things at different times. In 2008 the arguments focused around claims that HSR wasn’t necessary for California, wouldn’t work here, that nobody would ride it, etc. Those arguments were roundly rejected by California voters when they voted to approve $10 billion in funding for [...]