The State Legislature recently approved on a bipartisan basis, an Audit of the High Speed Rail Authority. The Legislature also needs to authorize an audit of Caltrain, the Bay Area commuter line.
Caltrain is exhibiting extreme incompetence and has wasted millions of dollars of public funds. If ever a public agency needs to face an audit, it is Caltrain.
Nobody wants Caltrain to fail. Caltrain provides a valuable commuting option to jobs, for workers on the peninsula. Recent events certainly would lead one to forecast that failure is where Caltrain is now headed.
At the Caltrain board meeting (3/1/2018), Caltrain authorized a new contract which they hope will salvage the Positive Train Control (CBOSS) disaster. It is truly amazing how Caltrain has managed to make so many bad decisions to implement this Federally mandated project.
For many years, Caltrain has been warned that CBOSS was headed in the wrong direction. A record documenting this history can be found in the blog of Clem Tillier.
Clem has for years been campaigning for a reset on CBOSS pointing out repeatedly its problems and forecasting its demise.
The signing by Caltrain of a new contract with a different vendor at this meeting to implement a new PTC project, finally after years of delay and incompetence, kills CBOSS as previously envisioned.
Clem predicts the cost in wasted dollars will be $150 million; I suspect the final bill will be much higher. Numerous delays have been involved; it is now quite possible that Caltrain may have to stop service at the end of this year, because Caltrain will not be able to meet the Federally mandated deadline that PTC be operational on its tracks by then.
The Staff report on the project and discussion took over 1 hour. How staff can deliver such a presentation and not really admit any fault of Caltrain in the CBOSS failure, but blame it on others, is amazing.
(It should be noted in comparison, that MetroLink down south, with over 500 miles of tracks, implemented PTC by 2016 at a final cost of around $200 million. Caltrain has failed thus far with implementation of PTC and will have spent at least $350 million. This is for only 50 miles of track)
Caltrain is now starting on an over $2 billion electrification project. The cost has doubled in the last 3 years and continues to balloon. It has just been announced another over $200 million escalation in cost to procure more EMUs)
With this past history, how can the public have any confidence that Electrification will succeed and provide the service they claim? Caltrain recently pushed the timeline for completion, out from 2020 to 2022.
Current CEO Jim Hartnett was a political appointment to lead Caltrain. Hartnett’s background, is he was an ex-Mayor of Redwood City. He possessed none of the required qualifications in experience or education involving rail operations that were deemed necessary during the search to replace the former CEO, Scanlon. Hartnett’s compensation of over $500,000 annually is grossly excessive when compared to other rail or transportation executive positions.
State Senator Jerry Hill is leading an effort for a sales tax ballot measure shortly to provide a subsidy of around $100 million annually, for Caltrain’s operations. The recent history of Caltrain’s operations should lead the voters to say NO to such a measure? Changes at Caltrain need to be made.
A State audit of Caltrain and its operation, by the non-partisan State Auditor, is sorely needed.
Morris Brown Founder of DERAIL, The original Grass Roots group opposing the High Speed Rail project.
This article was originally published by Fox and Hounds Daily
