Last week's announcement of a national strategic plan for HSR was essentially the official start of the intense lobbying efforts by multiple states to secure a slice of

...of Rail and CHSRA engineers down the hall in a building in Sacramento? Should there be a formal federal program for developing standards for...

Thursday's announcement by President Barack Obama of the HSR Strategic Plan got a lot of attention in the media and on the blogs - which is just what California's project needs at this time. Obama's high-profile leadership for HSR should help focus our state, especially those involved in the contentious debates over how to build the trains along the planned corridor, on the big picture and the need to move forward quickly and effectively in building the high speed trains that are so essential to our nation's future.

Just a techie tidbit note today regarding the DTX tunnel that is at the heart of the engineering side of the dispute betwee

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is urging significant federal investment in California’s high-speed rail system, in anticipation of the Obama Administration unveiling its strategic plan for high-speed rail.

Today President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced the DOT's high speed rail strategic plan. You can find the full details of the plan at the USDOT website.

HEADS UP: More on President Obama's strategic plan for HSR this afternoon.