Whether or not residents like it, the issue of railroad grade separations — the potential raising or lowering of the Caltrain tracks — is coming to Menlo Park.
Grade separations would separate the tracks from roadways at key intersections, allowing traffic, bicycles and pedestrians to pass over or under more heavily used tracks.
According to the latest estimates from Caltrain, grade separations would cost anywhere from $95 million to $447 million in Menlo Park alone, and if the tracks are trenched in Menlo Park and Atherton, costs could reach $1.6 billion for San Mateo County’s grade separations.
Although where that money would come from is still undefined, Caltrain has long supported plans to separate the rail from the road along the Peninsula, including four spots where the tracks intersect Menlo Park streets: Ravenswood, Oak Grove, Glenwood and Encinal avenues.
But a lot of residents aren’t onboard with the idea of a trench or elevated tracks cutting through Menlo Park. They say the project would lead to years of traffic congestion and construction impacts.
The City Council will take up the issue at its Oct. 16 meeting, when council members are expected to decide whether the grade separation debate is worthy of a study session later this year. The meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at the Civic Center, between Laurel and Alma streets.
Study session
In addition to giving residents an opportunity to comment on grade separations, Transportation Manager Chip Taylor said, a study session would allow the council to review two key aspects of the issue:
• Previous studies that have been done by the city and by Caltrain regarding the impacts of grade separations.
• Potential funding from the San Mateo County Transportation Authority to conduct a more thorough study.
Mr. Taylor said if council members want to move forward with a study session, staff could gather as much data as possible — including Caltrain’s most recent cost estimates and impact analysis — and hold a study session by early December.
High-speed rail
But there’s still a major variable that Menlo Park and other Peninsula cities don’t know how to incorporate into the grade separation equation just yet: high-speed rail.
The California High Speed Rail Authority is planning a train system that would stretch from Los Angeles and San Diego in the south to San Francisco and Sacramento in the north.
Under the proposed plans, trains would reach speeds up to 220 miles per hour, and travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco (and vice-versa) in about two and a half hours.
Although it’s unknown whether high-speed rail will get built, several of the proposed routes would send high-speed trains shooting through Menlo Park, making grade separations a requirement. If high-speed rail cut through Menlo Park, the High Speed Rail Authority, rather than Caltrain, would foot the bill for grade separations.
One proposal includes plans for trains to travel up the Peninsula along the Caltrain line, and another proposal calls for trains to travel through the Central Valley before crossing the Bay over a new Dumbarton Bridge.
The latter option would not require grade separations along Menlo Park’s share of the Caltrain line, but would require grade separations where the Dumbarton tracks cross city streets, including the intersection of the tracks at Willow Road.
“There’s a lot of unknown variables related to high-speed rail,” Mr. Taylor said. “If high-speed rail is planned for the Peninsula, we would have to grade-separate everything.”
