Caltrain board faces high-speed rail issue Caltrain board faces high-speed rail issue (July 06, 2005)

If and when high-speed trains zip between Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours, what route should they take from the Central Valley?

Should the new rail line cross Pacheco Pass and run through San Jose and up the Peninsula along the Caltrain line?

Or should the tracks go farther north, cross Altamont Pass and a new bridge across the Bay near the Dumbarton Bridge, and join the main Caltrain line at Redwood City?

This contentious question will be tackled by the agency that runs Caltrain at its next meeting Thursday, July 7, at 10 a.m. SamTrans headquarters, 1250 San Carlos Ave. in San Carlos.

San Jose and many cities in Santa Clara County have been campaigning for the Pacheco Pass alignment. The Silicon Valley High-Speed Rail Coalition has approached Menlo Park to support the Pacheco Pass route, which would bring fast trains through Menlo Park and Atherton along the Caltrain line.

Some East Bay cities, the Sierra Club, and several rail passenger organizations favor the Altamont route, said transportation expert Jim Bigelow, who chairs the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce transportation committee.

High-speed rail speeding up and down the Peninsula, like trains in Europe and Japan, is still a long way away. The California High Speed Rail Authority, which has been planning the system since 1996, completed an environmental study and decided in favor of the Pacheco Pass Route.

After protests by proponents of the Altamont Pass, a further study of that alignment was authorized. Mr. Bigelow estimated it may still be a year or more before the final alignment is decided.

Meanwhile, California voters are currently set to decide on a $9.9 billion bond measure for the service in November 2006 -- unless the Legislature postpones it again.

In the debate over alignment, San Mateo County has three votes on the nine-member Joint Powers Board, which runs Caltrain. San Francisco and Santa Clara County each have three members also.

For more information, go to caltrain.com or cahighspeedrail.ca.gov.

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