Posted by Kathleen Djordjevich, a resident of the Menlo Park: Linfield Oaks neighborhood, on Apr 11, 2012 at 10:16 am

High Speed Rains on the Peninsula? Please tell me what "blended" means. High speed trains will be using the old CalTrans tracks on the SF peninsula?

Is that possible?

The same trains which will run at 200 miles per hour down the valley on new tracks?

Furthermore, if these high speed trains run regularly from SF to San Jose, all the street crossings must be changed to keep traffic and trains separate...i.e. grade crossings. So the plan is to build grade crossings for the old tracks, and then eventually, as has always been implied, add the needed set of tracks for the high speed trains. And of course rebuild all the grade crossings?

Or make the grade crossings large enough for 4 tracks to begin with. Imagine this mess at every street crossing the tracks!

How blended? Do they mean running shuttle trains down the peninsula to San Jose, then changing to board the new High Speed Train? (a reasonable alternative) Then say so!

Otherwise, I don't believe you can run these super fast machines on the old tracks, and alternate high speed trains and commuter trains all day long!

No one has said outright that they mean to run these new "bullet" trains on the old tracks, or what kind of grade crossings are envisioned. They just say it will be blended. How blended?

I wish someone would explain

Posted by POGO, a resident of the Woodside: other neighborhood, on Apr 11, 2012 at 10:49 am

We need to stop calling this project HIGH SPEED rail.

Congratulations, California, you have just bought yourself another train.