Just about when I thought I had seen it all from the California High Speed Rail Authority and our crazy reps up in Sacramento, they start another round of idiocy.

You see, I’ve read yet another report – or more correctly an addendum to a report – that shows me just how 100 pages of “study” prove that nothing new is being said … except:

Moving a proposed routing of the train a few hundred feet one way or another makes for a lot of pretty maps in color. It does nothing to explain why they even want to slightly reroute it. Let’s face it: Moving the proposed tracks those few hundred feet in any direction does nothing to solve the problem that folks in Acton, Agua Dulce and Sand Canyon have.

Maybe it is the miles of tunnels on any path between Palmdale and Burbank that fails most tests of logic. And will putting the train in a trench solve any problems?

There is a more important problem for the railway that isn’t on the report. So far, they have spent $771 million in Federal Railroad Authority money but only $378 million in state funds. Those amounts are supposed to be equal. That is the law. Federal law. It seems California has to come up with $400 million by the end of the month.

Did I mention that the report shows that if the HSR is run through the SCV and on to San Fernando, it will disrupt nearly 20,000 homes, a score of churches and about as many schools? There are horse farms and ranches on any route, too. If it heads straight south from Palmdale, it affects only about 6,000. Gee, isn’t that wonderful.

Just a few of the many endangered species that would be negatively affected by the high-speed rail plan.

Whatever route they take here in Southern California, they have managed to find routes that could harm or destroy habitat for just about every endangered and threatened species in this part of our formerly great state.

It all comes down to the need to start a petition to stop this High Speed Rail Authority. We didn’t elect them, and they want to keep things quiet. We need to stop the train.

I’ll bet a lot of you thought it was going to run alongside Interstate 5 on its way south. Heck, the state owns the land, and the disruption would be at a minimum. Many folks I’ve talked with said that was what they thought.

I’ll also wager that you were told it would be a “three hour” trip on the high speed train. Am I right? Estimates now put it at a little over four hours if there are no problems.

It is also going to be a “green” project – yet the source of the electricity to run it hasn’t been identified.

I do think I know why the good governor has stepped up efforts to cut more water resources from farmers. The land will sell for less when it a useless dustbowl. That way, it will cost less for the state to buy it for the HSR.

What is there that’s good about this effort and state-run railroads? Well, it is keeping a lot of people employed. The sales force is still out trying to convince us how good it is.

Maybe it is the fact that one of our U.S. senators has a husband who’s building the first section? Hate to see DiFi starve.

The whole project is a mess. Already far over budget and routes are not yet identified. The Legislature is taking steps to decrease oversight of the HSR Authority. Federal funds might not be forthcoming.

It isn’t what we voted for, and it won’t run as advertised. Ridership is unknown, too.

We Californians like our cars. We like going someplace and being able to drive to dinner or a museum. We like the idea that we might want to leave the road and look for the world’s largest ball of yarn, biggest frying pan, or snake farm.

We would love to see Amtrak go all the way over the Tehachapi Mountains so we don’t have to take a bus to Bakersfield. If we can’t even get that fixed, how is the HSR going to change things?

Yes, a petition is what we need. Yesterday. I’ll get started on it right now.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he serves as executive director of the SCV Historical Society. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived atDManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].