But bless him MTA Boardmember Paul Hudson did ask a question during discussion of a motion by Gloria Molina to rename many of the Gold Line stations (item #32). Hudson asked how much it would cost the agency to make these changes. $20,000 staff replied. Molina claimed "several" community groups had contacted her office requesting the changes. One wonders where these groups were during the many meetings on the project held during the past decade and why their belated desires deserve such subservience. Especially since the tab is being paid by MTA not Molina or her constituents. Again the conflict of interest of having the Supervisors on the MTA Board strikes MTA in the pocketbook...

The state budget crisis may have impacts on transportation funding beyond that previously imagined. One part of Governor Davis' fiscal plan is the legislature imposing a special 1/2% sales tax dedicated to pay off bonds issued to bridge the current deficit. This may make it hard to renew expiring local transportation sales taxes as voters suffer sales tax sticker shock. Political Pulse in its May 23 edition even wonders whether the $10 billion high speed rail bond on the November 2004 ballot will run aground amidst mounting public opinion against issuing further debt.

Miracle of the month: the Ramirez Flyover (connecting the Gateway Transit Plaza and adjacent El Monte busway) may be built as part of the closeout of the development agreement for the Plaza between MTA and Catellus. (agenda item #17, MTA May 22 Board meeting).

In the category of "Can you believe it?": the April 29 Daily Bulletin article "Extending light-rail line to Claremont gains support" states Gov. Gray Davis has sent a request to Congress asking for $9 million toward environmental clearance of Gold Line Phase II.

On our behalf President Richards submitted to MTA staff 3 pages of comments on the draft MTA transit service policies. We understand this document is undergoing extensive revision and won't be presented to the MTA Board until September. Which means we have a chance to organize and prepare. Our chief aim is to prevent the draconian aspects of the policies from reducing the flexibility of the new Sector Governance Councils. Rest assured we will not be idle these coming months.

May 17 I participated in a discussion of maglev and monorail on the internet talk show Let's talk Trains with Kim Pedersen of the Monorail Society. We agreed Maglev seems not quite ready for deployment and also focused on the Seattle regional monorail as being the true proving ground for whether monorail can be the basis of a transit system (instead of a simple circulator/theme park ride). You can hear it with RealPlayer at http://www.worldtalkradio.com/archive.asp?aid=81

Bill Vardoulis, a civil engineer and a former mayor of Irvine, is the chief proponent of a mind-boggling project: an 11.5-mile tunnel (actually three tunnels side by side) under the Cleveland National Forest connecting Orange and Riverside counties. This is touted as providing an alternative to the 91 freeway. Cost? $3.6 billion. For details see http://www.tritunnelexpress.com/

I'll conclude by noting Derail the Rail, the name adopted by the NIMBYs along the South Orange County coast, has a web site with the requisite quota of hysteria "This is a David and Goliath fight against sneaky Sacramento bureaucrats": http://www.derailtherail.org/