This award represents the worst kind of our Federal and Local government throwing money away.

Rep. Eshoo essentially engineered an "earmark" for CalTrain. The funds are to be used to engineer a new non-compatible system of Positive Train Control" (PTC). Rather than buy off the shelf, well proven technology, CalTrain has been on a rampage to develop their own system.

see:

Web Link

the link to the award on the CalTRain site and read:

June 23, 2011

The Federal Railroad Administration has announced the award of a $16 million cooperative agreement to the California High Speed Rail Authority for the design of a new, modernized signaling system on the Caltrain corridor between San Francisco and San Jose.

The new system, known as the Communication Based Overlay Signal System, includes safety improvements required by federal law and is the first step in the modernization of the Caltrain corridor, which is being planned to support electrified passenger rail service, including high-speed rail, between San Francisco and San Jose.

Here you see the system known as CBOSS will be the object to spend these funds.

A more ridiculous expenditure would be hard to imagine. Why in the world re-invent the wheel?

Congresswoman Eshoo either doesn't know and understand what she has done, or really doesn't care.

The $16 million are political pork for the Peninsula Democrats. The same way that the $715 million awarded to the CHSRA for the Central Valley a week before last November's elections was political pork for Democrat Jim Costa, who was therefore re-elected.

Those $16 million are for the CHSRA to mark its Caltrain corridor territory the way alpha dogs mark theirs. Consider it a down-payment by the CHSRA to Caltrain for the use of the corridor.

All these millions and billions for HSR are not about trains, or jobs, or oil, or the environment or the economy. That's what we are expected to believe. They are about the management of very large amounts of money. They are about bringing massive federal funding (even if borrowed) into California and the politicians taking credit for it.

For those who manage Caltrain, it's about empire building; advancing their hardware (that's what real, manly men do), increasing their headcount and their salaries. They love spending capital development dollars. Electrification is not about improving commuter service. It's code for bringing HSR to the Caltrain corridor.

Same for the CHSRA. Growing Bureaucracies with tax dollars. There won't be private investments, not now, not ever. Why do you suppose it's being called a Boondoggle and a White Elephant?

The high-speed rail project should be terminated in California. The Caltrain organization should be replaced with a Bay Area wide, state-supported transit and commuter service that includes BART and the re-structured Peninsula Commuter Rail Service. It is not necessary to electrify the Peninsula. It is not necessary to convert the rail corridor to BART technology.

And, by the way, Positive Train Control should be standardized at the federal level and required for ALL rail systems in the US.

There might be (probably is) some waste here. How much are the big boys in charge making?

There might be (probably is) some waste here. How much are the big boys in charge making?