Changes to proposal discussed
S. J. residents express concerns; tweaks to business plan include service toMerced
SAN JOSE — The California High-Speed Rail Authority was in town Thursday for a meeting on proposed changes to plans for bullet train service, but the amendments had more to do with the Central Valley than Silicon Valley.
The rail authority announced changes to the business plan to specify that service to Merced would be included in the ini-
tial 250-mile build-out, as well as a guarantee that some work would begin related to Southern California connections. And it clarified that the goal is to have the southern terminus in the city of Bakersfield, not a temporary endpoint north of the city.
“The Merced community was concerned that they were not going to be part of the initial operation,” said Jeff Morales, chief executive of the rail authority. “We’ve worked closely with leaders there and are now recommending that the board adopt a position to include Merced.”
No decisions were made Thursday — the business plan will be up for approval at a 5 p.m. meeting in Sacramento on April 28. Although Thursday was the last opportunity for the public to voice concerns before the board, Dan Richard, the rail authority’s chairman, said the board will accept additional public comment for consideration via post or email through Monday. He said that he was impressed with the scope of comments and that the rail authority will take them into consideration before submitting its business plan to state Legislature by the May 1 deadline.
“My strongest impression is how proud Califor- nians are across the state about where they live,” he said. “Everyone has a sense of community and something they want to preserve, and we can’t do this without some disruption but we can do it with our eyes and ears open to those concerns.”
Voters approved nearly $10 billion in Proposition 1A bonds in 2008 for a highspeed rail line connecting northern and Southern California, but the project is expected to cost $64 billion when built out.
The rail authority had announced in February that it was making a big change to where the initial tracks would be laid — going north from Bakersfield to San Jose instead of south toward Anaheim — because of the complications of going through the Tehachapi and San Gabriel mountains.
Going north would get the initial operations up and running faster, something that is key to securing additional funding through the private sector that would in turn help the project succeed.
Although a group of delegates from the Central Valley made their way to San Jose to laud the changes, some San Jose residents remained concerned about what happens when the 200mph train comes to their neighborhoods.
“You’ve likely heard that our neighborhood has already had impacts from highways, railroads and airplane approaches,” said Bill Rankin of the North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, urging that the train either run through a tunnel or on an elevated track between the Tamien and Diridon stations. “This system needs to get it right from the beginning.”
Harvey Darnell of the Greater Gardner Neighborhood Coalition expressed similar sentiments.
“Transportation projects through Greater Gardner already took one vibrant neighborhood and created three blighted neighborhoods,” he said, referring to the effects of Interstate 280 and Highway 87 as well as Bird Avenue.
Ben Tripousis, the regional director for highspeed rail, said they will be looking at underground and aerial options through that part of San Jose and analyzing costs and community effects. He acknowledged that alternatives such as a tunnel are “costly and challenging, but we’re still going to look at it.”
The first Silicon Valleyto-Central Valley segment is expected to cost about $20 billion, and the authority has proposed using a combination of bonds, federal funding and cap-and-trade fees to pay for it. But critics have said that because the capand-trade legislation expires in 2020, those fees won’t be around for long and have questioned whether the financing model is viable.