The Boondoggle Chorus

boondoggle (bndôgl, -dgl):
1. work of little or no value done merely to look busy

I was planning to take a break from posting here for a bit, but I felt I had to address this matter. The opponents of High-Speed Rail have not taken a break from trying to undermine the CA High-Speed rail project just because Prop 1A passed. Like clock work they show up on any internet story relating to the project now as they did before the election, and rehash the same tired and debunked claims. Their hope is to shoot the project down before tracks get laid, as was done to similar attempts to kick start high-speed rail in Texas and Florida.

This in and of it self wouldn't be so damn annoying to me were it not for the fact that they (or maybe it's just one person posting under multiple names in their libertarian bunker somewhere), are completely head over heels in love with the word boondoggle. If I had a dollar for every use of the word boondoggle in the comments section of a high-speed rail related story, I could bank roll the private investor funding portion of Prop 1A my self.

If there were say a project to create a HSR line between Little Rock and Hot Springs Arkansas with claims of high ridership potential (my relatives would use it), then yes that would suit the word boondoggle quite nicely. However this project is connecting the biggest cites in one of the Nations most populace states, so the word holds no water to me in this context. The numerous nations that now run, or are in the planning stages of their own high-speed rail networks don't seem to think the idea is such a "boondoggle."

So it will be important in the months and years ahead that we be a voice of reason (jab, jab, poke, poke, Reason Foundation), and make sure that California understands the benefits of High-Speed Rail. We must see this thing through to completion and prove to Americans what a folly it was to let us get so behind in passenger rail in the first place.

We did it!! Prop 1A & Measure R Have Passed

Thanks to everyone who helped pass these measures, it's a good day for trains. I also expect that with an Obama/Biden white house, rail advocates will have a much stronger voice than under ol' W. This is a good day for America, and it's future transportation needs. I don't expect America to suddenly pull a China and invest $200 billion into rail projects, but I think we have some good days ahead of us.

I'm going to take a little break from blogging here for a bit, to get back to more riding my bike. My real motivation for creating this page was to see Prop 1A and Measure R pass, and that has now become mission accomplished. I want to give a big shout out to Robert Cruickshank and the folks at the CA HSR blog for writing so much detailed information about high-speed rail. And a big thanks and congratulations to the folks like Erin Steva at CALPIRG, who did more on the ground campaigning than it seemed even the official Yes On 1A group was organizing. Another shout to the kids at UCLA, who came out in force to promote Measure R and ensure the subway moves west. We did it!

UPDATE: I'm going to temper my enthusism for the moment with this statement from the CA HSR blog, which could effect either or both of these currently close measures: There are still absentee and provisional ballots out there. We don't yet know where or exactly how many, which is why the news outlets have not yet called it for Prop 1A. We are confident of victory but I felt I should make that note. The Secretary of State expects to have these reported tonight or tomorrow.

Proposition 1A Coming Soon To A Voter Booth Near You. Why You Should Vote Yes.

November 4th is right around the corner, and California Prop1A has a slight lead in the latest field poll, but is short of an assured victory. As anyone who has been reading this blog knows, I am huge supporter of this project. Since this is the last chance to make the case for the train, I want to summarize some of the key points that make this such an awesome and necessary improvement to California infrastructure. My introduction to Prop 1A can be read here.

Speed. With top speeds that will break 200 mph in the central valley, this train will be significantly faster than driving, and will be competitive with door to door travel times with airlines. Think of travel times like LA to SF in 2.5 hours. For LA commuters, the first usable stretch of the project will be Orange County to Downtown LA in less than a half hour. That is a two hour drive if you're lucky.

Luxury. High-speed trains are sleek, modern, and considerably more comfortable than air travel despite cheaper travel fares. Unlike the stress of driving, you can kick back and relax on trains, or for the eternally busy, you can pull out your laptop or make phone calls. I've seen people drive AND use their laptop, but this is worlds of stupid and liable to end up with someone getting killed.

Efficiency. HSR trains are powered by 100% electricity, and are more efficient in energy usage per passenger than any other mode of long distance travel. Due to all electric power, it gives us great flexibility with how we want to generate that power, unlike the fossil fuel dependent air an automobile systems. In a state with so much abundant sunshine and heavy winds, the possibility of powering the entire train system on or partially on renewable energy sources is being explored. This is good for our CO2 emissions, and not to mention our reduced dependency on foreign oil for statewide travel.

Economy. The project is a necessary component in increasing future traveling capacity and reducing travel time to handle the project growth of California's population in the coming decades. The biggest reason to vote no, that opponents make against the train, is they believe in a time of economic trouble we cannot afford to do this.

The truth is however, that this project could become one component of getting our state our economic burden. How? Well by creating much needed jobs that cannot be outsourced in a time of high unemployment, effecting the construction sector especially, it can get people back to work. The funding is not all on tax payers back either, with a private public partnership of investors that will split the costs.

Once the train is operational, it will foster greater state mobility, which will create economic benefits for generations to come. Unlike our airlines which have been through a series of recent bankruptcies, subsidized life support, and desperate mergers, high-speed rail lines like the TGV in France are posting record profits. As mentioned in the point of efficiency, this project reduces our dependence on foreign oil. As everyone and their grandmother is well aware now, oil dependence is bad for the economy. Our untapped oil sources in the US are a drop in the bucket when looking at our projected energy demands.

Options. This train would add another transportation option into our mix. Having competition between different modes of travel benefits the whole system. Planes are most efficient and profitable at longer distances, like cross continental and international. The train could take pressure off airlines to provide service to areas unprofitable fly to, which they only cover due to government incentives. For distances too short to fly for the expense, but are annoying to drive due to traffic congestion, the HSR train would provide a fast alternative. In the event of an emergency that effects one mode of travel, such as the airline service shut down after 9/11, or a major highway closure, the HSR train could handle the displaced travel demands.

Awesome. Yes, trains are awesome.

Don't believe me? Check out what the LA Times, and the San Fransisco Chronicle had to say on the project. Don't think this could get federal matching funds, take a look at this endorsement from Speaker Nancy Pelosi & Senator Dianne Feinstein.

If you're still skeptical and really want to dig deep on this, I recommend looking through some of these highlights from Robert Cruickshank's exhaustively researched CA High-Speed Rail blog. Also you can check out the official website of which includes the complete route map and other details is here.

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CA HSR Blog Links to articles on key Prop 1A issues:

Transportation Need
From Opposition to Proposition
Now or Never
HSR - For Commuters and Travelers
Whole Definition of Commuter is Changing
Spain's Success Compares Well to CA
HSR Grabs 30% if Market in Six Months
Acela Proves HSR Can Succeed In America
US Falling Behind on Transportation

Cost
The Cost of Doing Nothing is Not Zero
Building HSR in a Financial Crisis
Prop 1A and State Bond Debt
HSR will Meet Ridership Goals
Budget Deficit and Prop 1A Are Totally Separate

Energy/Peak Oil
Renewable Energy to Power HSR
Gas Prices and HSR
Declining Oil Supplies and HSR

Environment
HSR is Vital for a Green California
HSR Cuts Central Valley Pollution

Climate
HSR and AB 32
Airline Emissions Higher Than Previously Thought
Carbon Neutral Rail

Jobs/Stimulus
Prop 1A as Economic Stimulus
The Green Dividend
Constructing a Stronger Economy through HSR
HSR as Global Strategic Value

Airline Crisis
Airline Crisis Comes to San José
Airline Crisis Deepens
Airlines "Heading Toward a Catastrophe"
United Airlines Cuts LA-SF Flights

Debunking the Deniers
Truth vs. Truthiness on Cox-Vranich
Maglev Isn't Better
The Frivolous Menlo Park-Atherton Lawsuit
OC Register
Tracy Press
Media News Group

CALPIRG, High Speed Trains & Kevin Bacon

CALPIRG, the biggest grass roots organization promoting Prop1A & the CA High-Speed Rail project, has asked me to forward to my readers their latest plan to spread the word. So if you are a supporter of Prop1A, invoke the power of Kevin Bacon to help make this train a reality. Their message after the innocuous horizontal line of separation.

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We need your help to get the word out about why it's important to vote YES on Prop 1A, which would bring a high-speed train to California.

Our target: Kevin Bacon. (And millions of Californians.)

If you've ever played the game, then you know that everyone is connected within Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. We're asking you to forward this email far and wide. If we can get enough people to forward it along, eventually it will get to Kevin Bacon - and it should reach millions of Californians along the way, educating the public about why we need high-speed rail.

We've created this video to explain why we're supporting Prop 1A. Watch it now:

Some specifics: Prop 1A would start the process of building the California High-Speed Rail line. This train would run from Sacramento to San Diego, taking passengers between northern and southern California way faster than driving. For example, travelers could get from LA to San Francisco in less than three hours.

The train would create 450,000 jobs once finished. It would reduce our dependence on oil by 12.7 million barrels a year, eliminate 12 billion pounds of harmful greenhouse gasses, and reduce traffic congestion. Get more information

Right now, most people don't know that High-Speed Rail is on the ballot and we don't have the money to buy TV commercials to educate people about Prop 1A. That's why we're counting on you to help us get the word out, by sending this message to all the Californians you know.

So keep this message going - if it reaches Kevin Bacon, then we can be pretty sure we've gotten the word out across the state! Please forward this email to friends, co-workers, moms, dads, aunts, uncles - everyone!

When you're done, go to our website and let us know how many people you forwarded the email to so we can see how many people we're reaching. You can also pledge to vote "yes for Prop 1A" there:
http://www.calpirgstudents.org/high-speed-rail

Thanks for all you do,

CALPIRG students from UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, USC, UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, San Diego State, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State LA, Sac State, San Jose State, and SF State.

P.S. If you ARE Kevin Bacon and you are receiving this message, please let us know!

Prop1A Public Forum

(Supporters of the train, feel free to use this new graphic I whipped up)

I've been collaborating with the CALPIRG group supporting Prop1A in Los Angeles, and I was forwarded the following information from them concerning a forum to discuss the High-Speed Rail project at UCLA. So if you are around Westwood next Tuesday afternoon, and are curious to hear more about the train, go check it out.

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PLEASE JOIN US:

When: Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
12 pm - 1pm

Where: UCLA
Kerckhoff Grand Salon
308 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095

What: CALPIRG is sponsoring a forum on the environmental, economic, and quality of life benefits of high-speed rail for the Los Angeles community.

This election day, Prop 1A on the statewide ballot would authorize $9.95 billion in bond funds to start laying the tracks for a high-speed train connecting northern and southern California.

Speakers Include: Maria Elena Durazo, Los Angeles AFL-CIO
Emily Rusch, Transportation Advocate for CALPIRG
Alex Pugh, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce

Please RSVP to:
Sean Carroll, CALPIRG Students at sean@calpirgstudents.org

Please forward to local friends and family

Prop 1A CA High-Speed Rail, New Postcard Design

I've seen a postcard design going around for the CA High-Speed Train, but there were a few things about it I felt could be done differently to deliver a stronger message. I think seeing is believing, and the previous design did not actually depict what the train would look like, so I wanted to feature one of the 3D visualizations front and center. It still incorporates the simplified transit map of the route from the previous design. On the back I put some of the key points of the project based on what seems to be some of the strongest selling points when discussing the train in online forums.

I'm printing a run of 1000 post cards through Overnight Prints, and myself and friends of mine in the cycling community will help distribute these in venues around Los Angeles by bicycle delivery. I didn't quite get them out in time for CALPIRG's voter awareness drive at the Franklin Village Festival, but I did stop by to help talk to voters for a little while. All of the people I talked to there were highly receptive of the project except for one hipster dude with over sized sunglasses who was opposed to Prop1A for "personal reasons".

If you are in the L.A. area and would like to help distribute post cards, let me know. Also via links provided below, are .eps files of the front and back of the design for anyone who would like to do their own run. If you upload these files to Overnight Prints, you can get pretty slick looking postcards made and delivered for fairly cheap with a fast turn around time.

The election is sneaking up fast, so if we want to someday zip around California on electric power at 220 mph with ample leg room, I encourage supporters of this project to help spread the word by what ever means you can.

Files:

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• Postcard Front
• Postcard Back

Daily News Writes On The Economic Stimulus That The High-Speed Train Would Bring To California

According to an economic study by Philip J. Romero, dean and professor of economics at Cal State Los Angeles, the high-speed rail project would increase the annual household income of a family of four in Los Angeles County by $800 and reduce unemployment by 1 to 2 percent.

"The California high-speed train project will put L.A.'s construction industry -- the core of our current recession -- back to work," Romero said. "What's more, by taking thousands of cars off L.A. highways, it will eliminate a major handicap to our competitiveness and attract green employers with jobs for decades to come."

-Daily News Los Angeles

One of the common things I hear as a point of concern by skeptics and detractors of Prop1A is that we cannot afford to build this project in a time of recession. The truth is we can barely afford not too with record unemployment creating a strong need for more jobs. Yes it's going to cost some tax payer money to build this project at a time when there isn't a lot of money to go around. However, even before a single train is run on the tracks, the construction jobs this project will create will generate new tax revenues.

There are actually several major public works projects which are integral to the modern California economy, that were built and paid for long ago during economic recession. This includes the Golden Gate and Oakland bridges and the Shasta Dam. Even though bonds had to be taken out to pay for these projects, the job creation and tax revenue these projects generated were integral in getting us out of recession.

Being in a recession is not a good excuse to shelve golden opportunities that have a potential for strong economic gains in the future. Short sighted thinking is where most of economic woes stem from in the first place. We need to start thinking long term and looking at the big picture. The California High-Speed Rail project could become the next great project that defines our state, and set us apart as leaders in American innovation.

For more information on how this project could function as economic stimulus check out this more detailed post on the CAHSR Blog.

An Introduction To California High Speed Rail

You may or may not be aware that California has been planning for many years now the potential for connecting the state's major cities with a European style high speed train system. Several attempts to pass a bond measure that would jump start the project have been tried, and it was always shot down in the legislature before making it to voters. Well this time it's different. There is a growing realization within State Government that we need to explore alternatives to airline and automobile dependence, and now California voters will get a chance to make true high speed rail a reality for the first in the United States. Since the last numbers I looked at showed only 20% of California voters have even heard of this project, and it's related ballot initiative Prop1A, I aim to raise this awareness.

This train would start by connecting Los Angeles to San Fransisco in it's first phase, with Sacramento and San Diego added in a second phase. Major cities along the way would be stops for the train. [Map] Unlike the Amtrak train which to connect L.A. & S.F. takes a beautiful winding 13 hour journey along the coast at tops speeds of 75 MPH, this train would zip between major cities at tops speeds of 220 MPH and connect L.A. San Francisco in 2.5 hours. Unlike planes and automobiles which keep us in the grip of foreign oil dependence, this HSR (high speed rail) train could move thousands of passengers every day with out a drop of oil, because it is all electric.

(3D visualization of the proposed train system and the route it would follow. Higher quality videos available here.)

There are numerous reasons why this is a great idea worth our investment, and contrary to the belief of some detractors, this is not some kind of science fiction fantasy project. This system would be modeled after trains that have long existed successfully in Asia and Europe, and quite profitably as well.

We are going to have a choice in November between shoveling more money into a failing system of airport expansions and highway widening projects, or investing in a real transportation future for a growing California population. As we near the election I will continue to argue point by point the case for Proposition 1A to build the high speed train. If you have any questions, concerns, or criticisms I welcome them in the comments, and I will try to address them in future posts.

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Links:
California High-Speed Rail Authority (Official Website)
California High Speed Rail Blog
Yes on Prop 1A, CA for High-Speed Trains

Trains, The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

I blog pretty extensively about bicycles as a means of local transportation, as well as just being fun to ride. However bikes are not fast and efficient over great distances. Cars (even the beloved Prius) and planes are terrible for the environment, promote foreign oil dependence and are massive hogs of city land use. Think parking lots and air fields. Which is why I strongly believe that trains are an essential and currently under utilized asset in the transportation mix within the United States. I've decided to start this blog to promote rail in the U.S. with an emphasis on my home state of California, and the city of Los Angeles.

The coming November election has two ballot measures of significance to the future of California rail, which I intend to highlight and promote with this blog. The first is Prop 1A, which would use a government bond to kick start construction of a high speed rail line across the state of California. This project would ultimately be finished with private investments, and due to the efficiency of HSR, will be able to maintain a profit and be self sufficient after the initial investments. Unlike the ongoing tax payer subsides to automobile and plane travel. The second, which is local to Los Angeles, is Measure R. This ballot measure created by the MTA proposes a half cent sales tax to be utilized exclusively for a long term plan to improve transportation in gridlocked Los Angeles. A significant portion of this funding would be invested in several proposed rail expansions to the small but growing L.A. commuter train system. A system that has been setting ridership records in light of raising gas prices.

In the coming weeks leading up to the election I will make my case for why trains are in fact awesome. I'm hoping I'll live to see the day when fast and efficient electric trains criss cross California, and America, in a future without foreign oil dependence.

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Links:
California High Speed Rail Authority
Yes on 1A, Californians for High Speed Trains
Metro Measure R