Thursday, April 23, 2009

Upcoming Public Rail Meetings

NOTE: We've moved! Visit us at the California High Speed Rail Blog.

Next week in Los Angeles there will be two public events to showcase and build support for passenger rail in California, high speed rail included. Both are worth attending, especially if you live in Southern California and have the time.

First up is the May 1st 21st Century Transportation for Los Angeles Conference being hosted by CALPIRG. It'll be from 10-3 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 555 W. Temple in downtown LA. Among the speakers will be Quentin Kopp.

The next day, Saturday May 2 at 9:15 AM, also in downtown LA (this time at Union Station) is the RailPAC and NARP joint meeting, with a general topic of Steel Wheels In California. Some of the leading figures in passenger rail will be speaking there - Joseph Boardman, the new CEO of Amtrak; Bill Bronte, who heads Caltrans' Division of Rail, and several other LA-area rail figures. Specifically for HSR, Rod Diridon of the CHSRA board and Bruce Armistead of Parsons Brinckerhoff will be there to talk about the HSR project.

I'm going to try and attend both events, but it's unclear whether I'll actually be able to (the next week and a half is shaping up to be unusually busy for me). Regardless, if you're in Southern California, you ought to consider attending one or both of these excellent public events, a good opportunity to learn about the status of the HSR project - especially since the CHSRA hasn't yet held public workshops in SoCal just yet.

7 comments:

Alex M. said...

I would love to go, I'm just down the street at USC, but sadly, I have class, darn.

Andrew Bogan said...

Off topic, but if anyone is interested in the improving investor market for municipal (ie State of California) bonds to fund infrastructure repair and construction, take a look at today's Wall Street Journal:

Muni Market Takes Heart From Success by CaliforniaIt is not entirely clear to me why investors are suddenly so enthusiastic about California municipal paper, but they are.

Morris Brown said...

@ Andrew Bogan

With money market accounts paying almost nil in interest, and other places to park funds paying much much less, there will be a market for California bonds; but at a stiff price.

The Feds are subsidizing this issue with a yield of about 7.43% to the buyers, but at a cost of 4.83% to the State.

Look at:

WEB LINKfor information.

Prop 1A information gave examples of the bond cost based on 4%interest cost to the State. Unless the State gets its act together it is going to be closer to 6% in interest costs, not 4%.

Robert Cruickshank said...

Crickets.

Did everyone else have the Thursday from hell or was that just me?

I'm going to be shuttling between Monterey, San Jose, Sacramento, and LA between now and Monday. I could sure as hell use a SUPERTRAIN right about now...

Spokker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Spokker said...

I'm itching to take a long train trip but the end of the semester is so far away. I've got to write a paper on why the Japanese economy sucks now. It's practically done so the weekend will be spent proofreading and obsessing over it until I finally turn it in on Monday.

Maybe I'll take the Surfliner somewhere tomorrow after class. AGR is offering double points right now.

Anonymous said...

Id take the train down but I have volunteer work sat. Damn I always miss these meetings.