The Sacramento-based California Rail Foundation was founded in 1987 as a California nonprofit public benefit corporation. CRF works to educate the public on rail and bus technology and promote cost-effective expansion of the state's public transportation services. We support use of proven technologies and practical engineering to incrementally grow California’s mobility by rail.
In 1990, CRF co-sponsored Proposition 116, the California Rail Bond Initiative, which provided nearly $2 billion for rail and transit improvements statewide. We worked with the Planning and Conservation League (PCL) to formulate a set of projects that would produce cost-effective progress, and helped communicate the benefits via a set of map graphics which showed exactly which routes and facilities would receive improvements.
CRF has worked since its inception to foster a California high-speed rail project that is well-planned, efficient, environmentally beneficial, and affordable. We have joined PCL, TRANSDEF, BayRail Alliance, City of Menlo Park and the Town of Atherton in a lawsuit to force fair consideration of the Altamont Corridor for California’s starter high-speed line, due to its superior economic and environmental benefits.
California Rail Foundation publishes California Rail News, available at most Amtrak stations statewide. We also sponsor the annual California Rail 2020 conference, scheduled this year November 8 at the Capitol Plaza Ballroom, 1025 Ninth Street, in Sacramento.
Supporting rail reform is tax-deductible -
The California Rail Foundation was founded in 1987 to promote modern rail and bus technology, including high-speed rail. Since that time we have produced California Rail News and cosponsored an annual conference that educates on rail, Cal Rail 2020.
We never believed it would be easy to build California high-speed rail, but we underestimated just how much fraud megaprojects apparently attract. The project now has a broken budget because of tens of billions of pork including 200 miles of wasted route and dozens of miles of unneeded viaducts planned in the Central Valley.
It appears to be the same model used on Peninsula and Los Angeles County segments. Taxpayers are being offered only overly expensive choices by HSRA that wreck cities the same way that elevated highways would.
It does no good to just complain about fraud; we have to organize and fight it in court.
In July 2008, CRF filed suit in Sacramento Superior Court, along with the Planning and Conservation League, TRANSDEF, the Town of Atherton and the City of Menlo Park to overturn adoption of the Pacheco Alternative which would have destroyed many Peninsula cities.
We won the case in October 2009. Last December, HSRA was forced to rescind its selection of Pacheco and redo its environmental work. A brief opportunity in 2010 allowed us to submit new comments into the record. We retained a leading model expert, Norm Marshall of Smart Mobility, who found major flaws in HSRA’s ridership figures, confirmed by other experts.
We also retained the leading European HSR route design firm, Setec Ferroviaire, to help us define and present a faster and better way for trains to link S.F., Sacramento and Los Angeles, through the East Bay. Initial court findings have been favorable, and we are hoping for a clear victory. You can see Setec’s work at the CRF site: [calrailfoundation.org]
Setec’s route saves so much time that it would allow Caltrain segments to run at current speeds. Setec also examined Highway 101 between Redwood City and SFO, a route Setec believes is a feasible alternative.
CRF is actively providing leadership on reforming the project, and promoting cost savings available by involving private capital. Your generous contribution today to CRF will help us stop the bad plan and launch an environmentally superior alternative.
We are a tax-deductible 501(c)[3] nonprofit, and operate without paid officers or permanent employees, so all financial resources are directed to our mission of cost-effective modern rail service. Take a tax deduction by using the form below to send a check to CRF or by using the PayPal link on our web page.
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