Posted on 07/10/2010 5:40:59 AM PDT by Willie Green
Lawmakers in California voted unanimously on June 29 to approve a proposed law that would force any company bidding for contracts to build the state’s new $43 billion high-speed rail system to disclose whether they transported Jews, American soldiers or others to concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Its author, Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, a Democrat, specifically highlighted the wartime record of SNCF, which nowadays operates France’s TGV high-speed trains. The French firm expects that the bill will clear all further legislative hurdles, including the sign-off by the normally veto-prone governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Providing the details required by the law will be fairly easy for SNCF. Facing questions about its record, it commissioned a study in 1992 on how it deported Jews en route to Nazi death camps.
The report described how it carried out the Vichy government’s orders with no protest or resistance except for isolated acts by individual railwaymen, and took payment for the shipments.
The firm will also have to state that despite a series of lawsuits it avoided paying compensation for its acts: It successfully argued that it was under the orders of the French government and German occupiers.
“SNCF fully supports the disclosure of the details of its wartime operations,” says Peter Kelly, the company’s lawyer in Los Angeles.
Its competitors for a share of California’s high-speed billions are likely to include rail firms from Germany and its wartime friends, Spain, Italy and Japan, which will also have to disclose their past conduct.
According to people close to the state’s rail project, Japanese railway executives are especially worried that the law will damage their prospects. Although firms’ records cannot be used to bar them from bidding for contracts or winning them, they fear that the disclosures could create a stigma and prompt public lobbying against them.
High-speed rail advocates suspect that support for the law may be driven by a protectionist desire to keep foreign firms out of one of America’s most important infrastructure projects.
US Railcar, a start-up passenger-railcar manufacturer, has warned Congress that America’s security could be compromised if foreign companies win a big share of the high-speed rail contracts.
But if America wants true high-speed rail, says Andy Kunz, president of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, it has no choice but to bring in foreign firms.
Whereas European and Asian firms have long experience of building dedicated high-speed systems with trains hurtling along at 200 mph or more, what most American firms plan to offer is medium-speed trains running on existing freight tracks.
Four and a half million Californians voted for the Republican candidate, more than any other state.
which means a HUGE amount voted for zer0
7,440,000.
only 37% voted for mclame....
ANYTHING, and I mean anything that takes the attention of Californians off of the lack of a balanced budget.
LOOK!!! OVER THERE!!! Holocaust trains!
Granted, these assclowns spend more time worrying about what others are doing (typical nanny stater) instead of cleaning up our house.
We’re so screwed.
It can’t come fast enough though.
And 65.7893% of those made-up statistics are expressed to an unreasonable level of precision.
´Same CEO still at the helm there? And cadres of ageless workers?
Yeah - you can look up any train speeds traveling on freight tracks, with multiple stops - most US rails will not accommodate speeds above 80 in any case.
deceitful misinformation ... ? that's a nice turn of phrase, or do you work for the HS rail industry in the US?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.