Ralph Vartabedian is a former national correspondent at the Los Angeles Times and became a special contributor in April 2020. He joined the newspaper in 1981 and has covered many technical subjects, including aerospace, auto safety, nuclear weapons and high speed rail. He has won two Loeb awards and was a Pulitzer finalist, among many other career recognitions.
Latest From This Author
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A top bullet train contractor is contradicting claims by the California high-speed rail authority that the construction pace of the project is on target.
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California’s high-speed rail project will have a friendlier federal relationship when Joe Biden takes office as president. But no one is expecting a bailout from “Amtrak Joe.”
More Coverage
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Commission finds Roy Hill did not violate state conflict-of-interest laws following allegations that he helped modify a contract for a company in which he held stock.
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Costs are rising for California’s high-speed rail project, focused on the Central Valley, as it confronts reduced revenue from the state’s cap-and-trade program.
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A bridge that was supposed to take a year is incomplete after four, partly because of corrosion and other problems involving California’s high-speed-rail contractors.
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A newer strain of the coronavirus has a mutation that might make it more infectious, a team of scientists says. Other researchers disagree.
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California’s bullet train board this week put off approving its 2020 business plan, a sign it may want to reassess growing opposition in the state Legislature.
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A majority of the California Assembly has co-sponsored a resolution seeking to defer a contract this year for a Central Valley high-speed rail system.
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California’s future high-speed rail line from Burbank to Los Angeles would follow an existing 14-mile rail corridor but run through dozens of businesses, a draft environmental study found.
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Opponents of the state’s high-speed rail project say California is preparing to violate a 2008 ballot measure promise not to use state subsidies for operation of the bullet train. Proponents disagree.