The principal critics of California's high-speed rail plan will come with the project's leadership at 1:30 p.m. at Palo Alto City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave.

The meeting, chaired by California Assemblyman Rich Gordon (D-Menlo Park), will include a presentation of the by California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Roloef Van Ark and Board Members Jim Hartnett and Michael Rossi. That presentation will be followed by a series of response and comment panels featuring members of the , the High Speed Rail Peer Review Group, UC Berkeley's Institute for Transportation Studies (ITS), and citizen groups such as local watchdog .

The comment panels will be sure to focus on ridership forecasts, which were modified in the latest draft of the Authority's Business Plan, but continue to rely on a model that critics consider to be flawed. Another critique likely to surface tomorrow surrounds the Authority's decision to move forward with its first leg of construction in the Central Valley—the Initial Construction Segment—without finishing the necessary environmental reviews.

CARRD sent a letter (see sidebar) to the HSRA Board last week detailing these concerns. "The Authority is planning to start construction without completing reviews," the letter said.

CARRD co-founder Elizabeth Alexis will be joined on a comment panel with Daniel Krause, executive director of Californians for High Speed Rail, and Aaron Fukuda, a representative of California High Speed Rail Accountability.