Rail board chair Dan Richard responds to critical post

by Chris Reed | June 10, 2014 5:30 am

Dan Richard, the chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, sent this to Cal Watchdog in response to my Monday morning post[1]:

“In his campaign to stop California from building the nation’s first high-speed rail system, Chris Reed (calwatchdog.com, June 9, 2014) continues to rely on distortion and misinformation, this time citing a recent erroneous account in the Los Angeles Times. On May 15, the newspaper published the following  from California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Jeff Morales:

‘”The Times’ recent story about California’s high-speed rail program may have left the strong impression among readers that project costs have increased.

‘”In fact, they have not.

‘”If anything, project costs have declined slightly compared with past estimates, and we continue to find ways to lower costs as the program proceeds.”‘

“While there is no way to completely eliminate risk on a program of this scale, Mr. Reed should know that the California High-Speed Rail Authority continues to be subject to rigorous review by independent experts — including the California  High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group and the U.S. Government Accountability Office — and has implemented a state-of-the-art risk management program, which uses detailed modeling to quantify risk and incorporates best practices from programs worldwide.”

I’ll let Dan have his say and respond later this week.

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2014/06/10/rail-board-chair-dan-richard-responds-to-critical-post/

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