Where did the numbers in the 2014 Business Plan capital cost estimate come from? The California High Speed Rail Authority released its Draft 2014 Business Plan on February 7th, 2014. It was a short document, less than half the length of previous plans. The bottom line on capital costs? Virtually unchanged since the prior report in 2012. And it wasn’t just the total project cost that had remained the same. Every segment and every cost category only reflected changes in inflation – there was nothing to show the changes in project design. Was the stability of project costs real or a mirage? We tried to find out by asking for the detailed back up behind the new cost estimates. May 13, 2014 CARRD requests the detailed cost estimates for the 2014 Business Plan. We expect to receive a very lengthy document, as the 2012 cost estimate documentation had been over 1000 pages, and planning work had become even more detailed since then. May 23, 2014 CHSRA refers us to tables in the 4 pages of the 2014 Business Plan that address capital costs, as well as a backup document that actually used 2012 Business Plan data instead of 2014 Business Plan information. For example on page 4, "In step 2, the team identified the unit quantities and initial capital costs (in 2012 dollars) by stop segment for the corresponding asset categories identified in step 1. These inputs were extracted from the capital cost estimate model prepared for the 2012 Business Plan." July 9, 2014 We follow up and try to clarify our request, providing a copy of the tables from the 2012 Business Plan that we are requesting (available on our website). July 18, 2014 The CHSRA responds in an email, "The dollar amounts for capital costs were adjusted for inflation, but these tables were not recreated for the 2014 Business Plan." July 21, 2014 CARRD follows up by email. “If this is the case, then there should still be some responsive documents that do the calculations to adjust 2012 figures for inflation, broken down by segment and high level cost category.” July 28, 2014 After not receiving any response, CARRD co-founder Rita Wespi sends another email to confirm that we are still expecting records. Lisa Marie Alley asks Ms. Wespi to call her, which she does. They have a lengthy discussion, and Ms. Alley states that staff is still looking for records, although noting that sometimes people do enter things directly from a calculator and that’s the end of the documentation. August 21, 2014 CARRD has still not received any documents. Ms. Wespi sends another email, “Marie, I spoke with Lisa on July 28 about this request. At that time she said you were looking into getting the additional documents which were responsive. Could you please update us on the status of this request? If you have any questions about my July 21 email, I’d be happy to provide clarification.” August 26, 2014 We get a response from the CHSRA that they have not forgotten about us but they are busy, but no records are provided. In fact, we never get any records nor hear from the CHSRA again on this request. Questions? Email [email protected]  / CARRD www.calhsr.com /V1.1 November 17, 2015