The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Center offers good news about California's slow-to-start high speed rail.
It's been all quiet on the Western front since recent bad news for the California High Speed Rail Authority.
"There’s a new business plan; some routes are finalized; environmental impact reviews are done; the first construction phase has started; and groundbreaking is imminent," writes Ben Tripousis and Boris Lipkin.
The update offers and optimistic future for the rail project that has thus far been challenged with hundreds of lawsuits and other hurdles such as exceeding expected service times.
"Combined with the previous environmental clearance for the Merced-to-Fresno project section, the authority is now poised to finish obtaining permit." SPUR's analysis offers a view contrary to the most recent narrative, and is worth a critical look.
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research