Transporation Daily News April 15

In a strong rebuke by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency proposing a toll road through San Onofre State Beach has been accused of making false and misleading statements in an appeal to federal officials. Col. Thomas H. Magness, the corps' district director in Los Angeles, charged in a letter last week that the appeal by Irvine-based Transportation Corridor Agencies challenging the project's denial by the state Coastal Commission contains false statements and mischaracterizes the Army's role in the planning process. LA Times 4/15/08

 

Years of adding ethanol to gasoline to reduce air pollution and foreign oil dependence has had a nasty side effect: The stuff appears to damage boat fuel tanks made of fiberglass. And California is a floating testing ground for the ethanol effect.  At the beginning of 2004, all gasoline sold in the state was required to carry 5.7% ethanol as a replacement for the banned fuel additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, which was fouling groundwater supplies. Lawrence Turner, stuck with more than $35,000 in ethanol-related damage to his boat, decided to fight back. Last week, the Studio City resident sued Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and eight other gasoline producers and distributors in U.S. District Court, arguing that the companies sold gasoline at marinas without warning boaters of ethanol's harmful consequences. LA Times 4/15/08

 

If Delta and Northwest are going to complete their deal to create the world's largest airline, they'll first have unions to cajole, politicians to placate, and antitrust regulators to convince. Two of Northwest's largest unions immediately declared their opposition. CC Times 4/15/08

 

If not for leap year, Las Vegas visitor volume, one of the best indicators of tourism demand, would have been down a half a percentage point in February versus a year ago. The extra day in February helped boost visitor volume by 3 percent, though average daily hotel rates in Las Vegas were down 5 percent – a clear sign of the softening economy, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported today. Las Vegas Sun 4/14/08

 

NorCal and SoCal battle for transportation funds Inside Bay Area 4/15/08

 

There is a 99.7 percent chance that a major temblor will strike the Golden State in the next 30 years, according to the first comprehensive study of the state's earthquake risks. Surprisingly, Monday's study also found the odds of a magnitude 6.7 quake are nearly identical for Northern and Southern California. Researchers had long assumed that the southern half of the state was at significantly higher risk. SJ Mercury 4/15/08

 

"The whole definition of 'commuter' is changing," says Mehdi Morshed, executive director of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. "The old model is people going to factory jobs from 8 to 5 … now people are driving 150 miles from one place to another two to three times a week for work, recreation, travel, once-a-week meetings – this generation is changing, and so will the next."  Christian Science Monitor 4/10/08

 

The BayRail Alliance is hosting a talk this Thursday on Carbon Neutral Rail Service in Mountain View. David Dearborn is a San José native who has worked out a tentative plan to power Caltrain entirely by solar power. California High Speed Rail Blog 4/14/08