• A new piece of legislation was advanced by the California State Senate that requires companies interested in bidding on California HSR to admit whether they transported people to concentration camps during World War II. (LATimes)
• Meanwhile, a UC Berkeley study released this week cast doubt on the accuracy of ridership estimates used by the California High Speed Rail Authority — though whether the numbers are too high or too low, they can’t say. (SFChron)
• Take that! Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle is dismissing anti-HSR threats by Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neumann, who have both pledged to derail the planned HSR route connecting Milwaukee and Madison. (Biztimes)[SButtonZ button="digg"]
• And in fact, the location for the new HSR station in Madison has been selected: It’ll be built at the Department of Administration state office building near Monona Terrace. (BusinessWeek)
• Mo’ Money! The Obama Administration announced that it is giving out another $2.3 billion in HSR money this year — and California has been the first state to jump at it. (Argus)
• Could overly high ticket prices put a major crimp in China’s HSR ridership? (Hindustantimes)
Tags: California, Partisan skirmishes
Please keep us posted on the developments in Wisconsin! It’s incredible, but if Walked wins the Gov seat, he really could screw the whole thing unless they break ground, like yesterday.
Re: Holocaust – what a complete waste of time. And what an utterly cynical way to use the memory of the Holocaust. The TGV and SNCF make some of the best trains out there, as well as do many German firms. I want this thing built – cheap, fast, and with the highest quality. If that means French or German trains over American ones, then FINE!
I saw this, in doing some research on the holocaust. Does the same hold true for Japenese internment camps that were scattered throughout California during WWII?
It seems a way to exclude some companies from putting in a bid, because of transgressions (granted absolutely horrible ones) that were committed by people not even involved with the company at that time.
Should tracks be allowed to be placed in areas that might have been near a Japanese internment camp?
I have always enjoyed the fact that we seem to often forget our wrong doing in many things.
Good luck, California. I hope you get the HSR, and I hope you don’t have to pay an arm or a leg for it.