Category Archives: 2019 issue

3 New Issues Raised by Sheriffs On Texas Bullet Train Path. New Sheriff Coalition.

New Sheriff Coalition: Sheriffs from Grimes, Navarro, Freestone, Limestone, Leon, Madison, Waller, and Ellis counties

Issues that the Sheriff’s raise about the high speed rail in Texas?

  • Which law enforcement agency is repsonsible for patrolling the track?
  • “Who’s going to be responsible for hazmat emergency services if it derailed over there?”
  • Has there been a survey of emergency response teams and hospitals along the track, is fire or hospital distance and response impacted?

 

KBTX Texas…

3 Statements from Sheriffs On Texas Bullet Train Path. New Sheriff Coalition.

New Sheriff Coalition: Sheriffs from Grimes, Navarro, Freestone, Limestone, Leon, Madison, Waller, and Ellis counties

Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell says high speed rail will:

  • slow down response times
  • No representative from high speed rail has talked to the sheriffs
  • cost of increased patrols along the train route

 

KBTX Texas | Local sheriffs concerned about public safety along proposed bullet train route

KWTX 10 | Central Texas sheriffs join coalition to address high speed rail…

TREND forecast: Automobile Recalls & Ride Share. Legislative Solutions.

Safety and ride share is everywhere:

  • California requirement on a lower lood alcohol level standard
  • Arizona talking legislating car seat requirements and ride share drivers
  • And now….this….

Prohibiting ride share vehicle operations if the vehicle has an active recall notice.

How would this work? Recalls are easily tackable via the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

KTVU Fox 2 | Recalls among Uber & Lyft cars pose safety risk on roadways

Anatomy of a Cross State HyperLoop Deal. 3 Pieces of Legislative Work in the Interim.

The company: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT)

The state partners: North Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) and the Illinois’ Department of Transportation (IDOT)

The deal: Connecting Chicago and Cleveland by Hyperloop. The starting point: a feasibility study to determine the viability of a number of different corridors. The “first real public-private partnership to bring Hyperloop travel to the US”

The legislative work:

  • Ohio’s legislature passed a resolution supporting the…

Legal Trend = Legislative TREND. Sunshine States Seeks Stop Private Passenger Rail. 3 Key Points to Be Up to Speed.

The nationa’s only privately funded passenger rail: Florida’s All Aboard Florida’s Brightline venture, a high-speed train that would connect Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando with an expansion of the project linking West Palm Beach to Orlando

Who brought suit to stop the privately funded rail? 2 Florida counties + Citizens Against Rail Expansion in Florida

What are the complaints? 

  • That federal agencies did not sufficiently assess the project’s environmental impacts and risk…

Anatomy of Direct Sales Bill in the Southwest. Lege TREND.

State: New Mexico

The Bill: SB 255 (2018)

How SB 255 (2018) would implement direct sales:

  • Defines line-make
  • Provides for manufacturer sales if:

    • the manufacturer does not have any independent franchise dealers in this state

    • sells and services only the line- make of motor vehicles that it manufactures

Electrek | Tesla pushes a new bill in New Mexico to allow direct sales

 

High Speed Rail in the Land of Poppies Triggers Audit. 3 Factors Triggered the Audit.

California High Speed Rail, Phase 1, will  face an audit after these 3 things happened:

  • Projected costs for phase 1 of California’s high speed rail have risen by $3 Billion
  • A bipartisan group of legislators requested a formal audit
  • Concerns that the project will need state subsidies

Due to the projected cost increase, the audit will make the following recommendations:

  • how to accelerate the project’s timeline
  • reduce costs and identify other sources of revenue
  • best practices for approving…

1 Federal Rail Administration High Speed Rail Public Meeting. 12 Objections.

The Federal Rail Administration public meeting in Madison, County TX resulted in the following lists of objections:

  • The route uproots 2 cemetaries
  • The construction phase will require a 2 mile per side buffer zone 
  • unfounded economics
  • route opposition
  • opposition to land acquisition by s privste company using eminent domain
  • the large cost to be borne by taxpayers- eventually
  • the project does not serve the public
  • electromagnetic emissions
  • noise pollution
  • reduced land values
  • environmental…

Meet the Non-Profit Roadblock to High Speed Rail in California

The Non-profit:  Fresno Rescue Mission which feeds and houses the homeless

How the non-profit is holding up high speed rail: The non-profit is standing firm in its compensation request to receive adequate relocation costs

Are there other complicating factors? Yes, the City of Fresno leases space to the Fresno Rescue Mission

ABC 30 | Local nonprofit agency seen as obstacle holding up progress of High Speed Rail