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Local residents were treated to their first public meetings with officials from the High-Speed Rail Authority on Thursday, Jan. 22, a process that rail officials said would be ongoing.
Local residents and dignitaries met with officials at the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce on Thursday morning. In the afternoon, over 100 residents of San Mateo County packed a room in the SamTrans building in San Carlos to ask questions and provide comments to determine the scope of the rail’s environmental review — a process officials estimated would take at least two years.
The stretch from San Jose to San Francisco — one of eight “segments” rail officials have identified along the 800-mile route — will cost an estimated $4 billion to construct, according to Judge Quentin Kopp, chairman of the rail authority’s board.
The rail authority has not yet decided which section will be built first, but Judge Kopp acknowledged construction would likely begin in one of the state’s two dense population centers — the Bay Area or the greater Los Angeles area — because those areas would generate revenue more quickly. Trains could be running along the first “segment” as early as 2014 or 2015, he said.
Local lawsuit
As for the lawsuit that Menlo Park and Atherton have joined against the high-speed rail project, Judge Kopp said he was confident it would be “heard and disposed of” when the court takes up the suit in May.
Several Menlo Park council members have suggested that the lawsuit will give the city more leverage in its negotiations with the rail authority.
“That’s their myth,” he said in an interview, adding that, to his knowledge, the suit has not been mentioned in any of the board’s meetings, and that the rail authority is following the same process in its dealings with those two cities as it has with every other city in the county.
Other concerns
The rail will require grade separations — overpasses or underpasses to separate the tracks from the roadway at six local intersections — that could result in years-long construction impacts for homes and businesses near the Caltrain tracks. Local residents favor a tunnel or trench, rather than an overpass, and rail officials said that a trench is a possibility. Though trenches are thought to cost more than berms, Judge Kopp said that was not necessarily true.
He also floated the possibility that local agencies could pay for the construction of an underground tunnel for the train to run through, noting that the city of Berkeley made a similar arrangement with BART officials in the late 1960s.
Questions were also raised at the afternoon meeting about the fate of trees along the Caltrain corridor in Menlo Park and Atherton. Rail officials said they did not yet know how construction might impact those trees.
“Local residents favor a tunnel or trench, rather than an overpass, and rail officials said that a trench is a possibility. Though trenches are thought to cost more than berms, Judge Kopp said that was not necessarily true.” — Locals are dreaming, judges are lying.
“He also floated the possibility that local agencies could pay for the construction of an underground tunnel for the train to run through, noting that the city of Berkeley made a similar arrangement with BART officials in the late 1960s.” — BART wasn’t an active rail line during construction, nor was it a main line, 4-track conventional railroad with overhead wires. You still need width for for tracks and access roads, and adjacent properties will still be taken.
“Questions were also raised at the afternoon meeting about the fate of trees along the Caltrain corridor in Menlo Park and Atherton. Rail officials said they did not yet know how construction might impact those trees.” — rail officials are lying. Those trees will be toast, regardless of the construction method.
I am a retired railroad track engineer of forty years. I know you all mean well, but you can’t wish yourself out of reality. A trench or tunnel is a pipe dream — there isn’t enough money in those three cities to pay for it — ever. The one chance you have is to give up on the tunnel and join Atherton/Menlo’s lawsuit — despite what the bad judge says. This lawsuit is quite real, which is why he is lying about it.
PS. That crap about electric cars can’t be overlooked either. Electricity is only clean is it is created from clean sources. It also loses energy with each transition and each mile of transmission. You can’t simply say electricity is the clean answer for cars, when there isn’t the power available and there is no way to produce that much clean power to power all the vehicles. And the way the US is going, most of the new power is as dirty as you can get — coal.
OF course the trees will be toast as they are on railroad property. The right of way through the area is a 4 track right of way already. Trench, berm or grade level, it is a very short stretch that is a tight squeeze.
http://randomnevada.blogspot.com/2007/06/reno-train-trenchamazing-project.html
Looks pretty good. Only took them three years and Im sure these cities could raise 300 million between them.
Simple solution – end high speed rail in San Jose. Most riders won’t be going to downtown SF anyway, and from San Jose they could connect with Caltrain or BART. Simpler, no trees die, cheaper, faster to implement.
Kopp should get over his love affair with a big, expensive downtown SF transit center and embrance regional connectivity.
In these times, I’m sure we could all think of about 4 billion more appropriate ways for this money to be spent…if we had it. This focus/direction is inappropriate and irresponsible.
@ m.d., a resident of Menlo Park
Endorsing your simpler proposal, connect to high speed rail at San Jose via Bart and Caltrain. Travel to LA at 200 mph – great. Scream through Menlo at 200mph? No, I need to get on/off the train.
I’ll bet if they were gonna run it through east palo alto none of you would be making a stink. So transparent.
Right, jt, because being anti-HSR makes us racist. Oh, and rich and white too. Since you’re not from around here, you may not realize that this is a *community* and we don’t want to see devastation in any neighborhood, be it west Atherton or Belle Haven.
Too a lot of us have concerns about the money, and those concerns are valid wherever and however the train might be built.
Finally, there’s no evidence that HSR would solve any existing problems or foreseeable future challenges.
I’m a vegetarian but I recognize pork when I smell it.
Right.
Build the tunnel underneath the Menlo Parkers who don’t want to upgrade from 3rd world technology (cal”train”), and then at the surface this brutally boring suburb should get its own version of caltrain with steam locomotives and Atherton should be the terminus.