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GOP lawmakers bet bullet train bad news will continue

Will news about the California bullet train’s cost overruns and missed construction deadlines remain the norm for years to come? Or will the state’s $64 billion project find a groove and make considerable progress in coming years? These are the

High-speed rail agency lacks leader at crucial juncture

Chris Reed June 20, 2017

Four months after then-California High Speed Rail Authority Chief Executive Jeff Morales told authority board members he was moving on and two months after Morales made his decision public, the agency overseeing the state’s $64 billion bullet train project hasn’t

Bullet train’s unyielding new foe: Wealthy equestrians

Chris Reed May 29, 2016

When the California High-Speed Rail Authority surveyed the landscape and sought to determine the big obstacles to getting the state’s bullet-train project built, some foes were obvious: The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which led the fight in 2008 against Proposition

Bullet-train route change doesn’t win over many

Chris Reed March 21, 2016

Trying to build fresh momentum in Southern California, the California High-Speed Rail Authority last week unveiled major changes in the proposed bullet-train route meant to limit disruption to poor communities in the San Fernando Valley. But the reaction wasn’t as

Did fear of political Waterloo spur bullet-train switch?

Chris Reed February 29, 2016

Earlier this month, in one of the biggest changes in the history of the state’s bullet-train project, California High-Speed Rail Authority officials announced they had changed their mind on where the first segment of the now-$64 billion project would be built. Instead

Bullet train agency still slow to acquire land

Chris Nichols August 6, 2015

Buying land for California’s bullet train remains a slow and contentious process for the state’s high-speed rail agency — but the state’s top rail official said this week he doesn’t expect any “significant” project delays as a result. The California

Coalition backing CA bullet train is fraying

Chris Reed June 15, 2015

Both in California and Washington, D.C., backers of the state’s controversy-plagued $68 billion bullet-train project are coming off a rough week. As CalWatchdog reported, a Los Angeles public hearing on proposed routes for the project in the San Fernando Valley

High-speed rail mired in outrage

James Poulos June 12, 2015

Reacting to a new analysis showing how California’s high-speed rail could stretch between Palmdale and Burbank, affected residents descended on downtown Los Angeles to voice outrage and anxiety before train officials. “The coordinated protest,” noted the Los Angeles Times, “presents a potent political challenge as state officials push to

Brown needn’t have worried about Washington Post’s bullet-train story

Chris Reed April 4, 2015

The most interesting part of the Sacramento Bee story Friday about Gov. Jerry Brown releasing 113 pages of emails from his private account was his apparent anxiety over what a Washington Post story had to say about the state’s bullet-train

Rising CA Democratic stars want no part of bullet train

Chris Reed April 2, 2015

State Attorney General Kamala Harris’ refusal to support Gov. Jerry Brown’s bullet-train project in her recent New York Times interview led to some surprised reactions on social media. It shouldn’t have. Multiple indicators have suggested both Harris and Lt. Gov.