I'm hardly the person to be diarying about this, but I haven't seen mention of it here yet. And it's important for California -- while having potential impact for other parts of the country contemplating High Speed Rail. So here's a link, below the squiggly….
The Los Angeles Times had a news item about this, but don't waste your time reading their article, as the reporter they regularly assign these stories has shown himself time and time again to have an axe to grind against HSR. Instead, read Robert Cruickshank's piece, at his "California High Speed Rail Blog"; he's an expert at making the case for this addition to our infrastructure. The current blog piece is here.
And for those of you who prefer the "executive summary," here's the opening statement -- which really does give you what you need to know….
"The summer of 2014 is the summer that high speed rail in California made its great comeback. First came the Legislature’s approval of spending cap-and-trade funds on the HSR project, ensuring billions of new dollars would flow to it and thus giving it a critical financial boost.
Now comes the long awaited ruling in the state’s appeal of last year’s decision that threatened to destroy the project entirely, the ruling that said the California High Speed Rail Authority had violated Proposition 1A by approving a funding plan that didn’t secure all the money it needed. Today the Third District Court of Appeal reversed the lower court ruling and handed a huge legal victory to the CHSRA."
I tip my hat to Mr. Cruickshank for keeping me informed!