High-speed-rail ridership figures challenged

Many thanks to Elizabeth Alexis and to the other members of CARRD for their outstanding work in making sure that the HSR Authority is appropriately challenged and held accountable for the information they have been disseminating to the public. As someone who will be greatly (and I believe negatively) impacted by HSR, I am thankful to CARRD, Kathy Hamilton, Martin Engel, and many other individuals who have stepped up to comment on and be involved in this crucial process, especially since they are all volunteering their considerable efforts. I also hope that our area cities fully recognize the importance of this issue and allocate appropriate city resources to the task.

I would like to see Ms. Alexis' background in HSR design or any projects of EQUAL SIGNIFICANCE in which she has been involved.
She is just another one of those spoiled locals who does not want to have her petunias' petals fall off when the bullet train passes by.
THE DEED IS DONE.

These are the kind of people who fought Steve Jobs' who wanted to tear down and build and who remained in his house, that groups with spokespersons like people like Ms. Alexis, wanted to make into an HISTORICAL monument. It was a horrible mess of a house with no significance by the architect of modest fame, and Jobs just let them harass him for 8 years as paid his attornies and finally won and the county is stuck with the ugly turkey.
Women like this have to be the loudest to protest anything which will disrupt the life they thought they were going to live here forever.
Well, the Banks closures, the Silicon Valley job losses and the homes they bought in their gated communities have all lost value.
That is what all of us are going through. Get over it. Drastic change means work for those without money or employment.
I would bet that she is not even a Californian.
The idea DEARIE, is to get to San Francisco, not Sacramento.

R.Gordon, what planet are you from? You cannot provide constructive argument to Ms. Alexis' conclusion, so you resort to personal attacks and try to discredit those who have a different view. Who pays you to write such tripe? Those of us who have been paying attention know that CHSR has been a fraud from the get go, premised on costs, ridership, revenues and job claims that are preposterous even now that they have been changed by a factor of two. CHSR is a train out of control with no adult supervision. It will inevitably end in a train wreck as more and more real Californian's wake up to how their current and future tax dollars are being wasted.

R Gordon clearly does not own property adjoining the railroad tracks. Will he ride the train when it's built?

A commuter CalTrain just went by my office, with just 5 cars attached. Last I heard, CalTrain was having trouble making its ridership numbers, and it's ALREADY BUILT. Why we need to make a Big Dig style construction project to destroy the fabric of the peninsula when we already have a train, is beyond me. CHSR should just stop in San Jose, and the people who want to go to San Francisco can get on a CalTrain. How hard is that? To save $30 billion, it seems like it would be worth it. We could probably PAY all the riders $100 apiece to take CalTrain from SJ to SF and it would be a very long time before we spent tens of billions of dollars. In fact, you could pay $100 to 4.4 million people a year for 100 years and you'd finally hit 44 billion dollars.

Not one of you addresses her credibility.
Just your own insular *Peninsular* life styles.
30 billion AIN'T for trains.
Also, it's more like 40-45 billion plus. HSR is not an inter zip code plan.
It is a plan to have bullet trains which connect California major cities and put thousands upon thousands to work who do not complain about the Caltrain noises which seem to make you suffer so.
Ask Ms.Alexis EXACTLY what trains and what areas about which she is speaking. It has NOTHING to do with Caltrain....
The taxes alone that the investment bankers of San Mateo County did not pay a nickel for in the past ten years would have taken care of the construction of a bullet train to NY. They WILL be 'Maddoffed' and do time.Meanwhile, they are eating it financially like everyone.
3/4 of Stanford graduate students are FOREIGN and in ECONOMICS. That should be an eye opener for ONE of you.
READ.

R. Gordon should be made a ward of the court.

Mr. Gordon, you are the best thing that ever happened to the effort to get HSR to stop, listen, evaluate and build it right. The arrogance with which you carry yourself at first can catch readers off guard, but then once you actually get past the CAPITALIZED words and the INCOMPREHENSIBLE GIBBERISH you realized that this is exactly what the problem is...

Ignorant angry people pushing a product with incomplete data, insufficient funds and inexcusable negligence.

People have asked me to help explain the concern with the people pushing this down our throats, and aside from the complete lack of experience at the board level, I say to all of them...READ ABOVE!

CRAZY GORDON IS THE PROBLEM.

Hey Gordon, did you write those numbers on your hand in case your forgot them?

I have an idea what you can do with your tea bag.

Please get back on the topic of high-speed rail, instead of attacking other posters.

TO THE EDITORS"

That you permitted that personal attact on me which went on for a few paragraphs, would NEVER have been permitted by me....NOR do I do that childish junk.
You tend to favor certain people and I am aware of it even though my assets and investments and contributions more than likely outweigh "the TRUTH" directs insults and commentaries which are of no value, and I just dismiss him. You should be more professional.