Palmdale sues high-speed rail authority over Grapevine study
| Wednesday, Jul 06 2011 06:36 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Jul 06 2011 06:37 PM
The city of Palmdale followed through Wednesday on its threat to sue the California High-Speed Rail Authority over an ongoing, conceptual study to see whether the Grapevine might make a better bullet train route than the Antelope Valley.
The city's federal lawsuit argues that the rail authority may not use federal grants and state bond money to revisit an earlier announced decision to build an alignment through Palmdale.
"The people of California approved the passage of Proposition 1A bond funds for the high speed rail project that specifically listed Palmdale as one of the stops on the route and the federal grant does not allow for this Grapevine alignment restudy," City Attorney Matthew Ditzhazy wrote in a news release.
City Manager Steve Williams added that Palmdale has invested money, time and energy to ensure that the Palmdale route -- which would include a bullet train station -- becomes a reality.
Palmdale warned early last month that it would file suit unless the board reversed its May decision to undertake a "conceptual" second look at the Grapevine route, which the authority has said could save nine minutes of travel time and more than $1 billion in construction costs.
Rail authority board members rejected the Grapevine route in 2005 after determining that it presented too many engineering hurdles.
But more recently, authority engineers found that the Antelope Valley alternative was going to entail unexpected and significant construction challenges between Palmdale and Sylmar, such as siphoning the California Aqueduct or altering a dam at Lake Palmdale and more tunneling than expected.
Rail Authority spokeswoman Rachel Wall called Palmdale's suit misguided.
"Palmdale knows high-speed rail will provide unprecedented economic benefits and improved transportation connectivity," she wrote in an email Wednesday. "But the Authority's federal funding grant agreement explicitly calls for evaluating alternative routes, and the Authority must consider alternatives as part of the environmental review required by both state and federal law. Studying the Grapevine alignment falls squarely within that alternatives analysis process."
The bullet train project is scheduled to begin construction in the Central Valley late next year. It is proposed to connect Anaheim and San Francisco with trains traveling up to 220 mph by 2020.
