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[quote user="Railway Man"] Sam:  I've never not seen a back-check on a railway feasibility study or public-benefits study, before one cent of public money was awarded.  If it's an industry initiative that spends state money, typically a competitor to the consultant that prepared the study is engaged by the state.  If it's a state initiative that spends federal money, typically the feds do their own back-check or hire a sharpshooter to poke holes in it.  If it's a federal initiative that spends federal money, then the nature of the back-check depends on the specific law that grants the money, but I've never seen a funding mechanism that didn't have a built-in back-check. One of the greatest days in my career was the day I dismantled a state's consultant over the course of a four-hour hearing, piece by piece.  He didn't understand a thing about rail traffic patterns, markets, rates, or shippers.  My boss was practically dancing around in the conference room in glee. RWM [/quote] My question pertained to an independent audit of the claims for the various high speed rail projects, whatever that really means, that are on the table.  I am particularly interested in the California High Speed Rail project, since it appears to be the poster child for high speed rail projects. I presume by back check that you mean an independent audit of the project.  Clearly, if the audit is performed by someone who does not understand the subject matter, the audit is worthless.  This is the reason that the big accounting firms either use the engineers on their staffs or engage independent consulting engineers, like my brother, when auditing an engineering project.  In the case of the California High Speed Rail project, or any of the others, I would like to see an audit of the claimed ridership, revenues, fares, etc., which would show whether the government had any chance of recovering its investment.  Waiting until the project is completed or the government has invested heavily in it is a bit late.
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