What had been unofficial griping has now become the official position of the city of Palo Alto. The city has become the latest in a string of California’s local governments to oppose the multi-billion dollar project.

The reasoning for abandoning the project was less than ambivalent. The adopted position says that the Authority’s plan has violated Proposition 1A, which authorized the program in 2008, Additionally, it described the business plan as fatally flawed. The position to abandon the project was uniform on the city’s rail committee, which was tasked with assessing the project and creating guiding principles if the state doesn’t rethink the train. The only question was how forcefully and completely to state the position.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

When it comes to putting Palo Alto’s formal opposition to the California high-speed rail project in writing, longer is better.

That’s what the city council decided Monday in adopting language that calls on the state Legislature to abandon the $100-billion undertaking.

The council’s Rail Committee was tasked with drafting a position, as well as more than a dozen guiding principles for the project if it isn’t nixed. The panel, however, was split, with Larry Klein and Gail Price favoring brevity and Pat Burt and Nancy Shepherd preferring depth.

Read the full article here.