Bullet train faces new legal challenges

Los Angeles Times

June 2, 2012 12:12 PM PT

Central Valley farm groups filed a major environmental lawsuit Friday against the California bullet train project, while Orange County transportation leaders urged state officials to shelve the $68-billion proposal until improvements can be made to the existing passenger rail system.

A preliminary injunction to block rail construction planned for later this year was requested in Sacramento County Superior Court by the Madera and Merced county farm bureaus, along with Madera County and additional plaintiffs. The project is already facing other suits, and still more agricultural interests in the Central Valley are gearing up to add to those battles.

“We think a preliminary injunction against construction will occur because there were so many violations in the authority’s environmental impact report,” said Anja Raudabaugh, executive director of the Madera County Farm Bureau. The plaintiffs say that in their area, the rail project would affect 1,500 acres of prime farm land and 150 agribusinesses, including a major ethanol plant.

The unfolding legal fight will involve some of the state’s most formidable environmental law firms. Farm bureau officials hired Fitzgerald Abbott & Beardsley, while the California High-Speed Rail Authority is in the process of hiring a specialized outside law firm. Until now, the authority has relied on the attorney general for its legal defense.

“High-speed rail continues to move forward, as we do our opponents become more desperate,” said Dan Richard, chairman of the authority’s board of directors.

Meanwhile, in a written critique sent to Richard, the Orange County Transportation Authority board questioned the project’s claims of profitability, its ambitious construction schedule and what officials characterized as a speculative finance plan that may never secure enough money to build even the first sections the 520-mile network.

Board members wrote that the state would be better off improving conventional passenger service and filling holes in current rail corridors before more work is done on the 200-mph system between San Francisco and Los Angeles, with an eventual spur to Anaheim.