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Old Posted Mar 25, 2010, 3:28 AM
BTinSF BTinSF is offline
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The thread being about US high speed rail, not Chinese, we return to the topic:

Quote:
High-speed rail halting in San Jose wouldn't change Peninsula impact, Caltrain says
By Mike Rosenberg
San Mateo County Times
Posted: 03/23/2010 08:49:37 PM PDT
Updated: 03/24/2010 08:14:31 AM PDT

In a blow to high-speed-rail critics lobbying for the train line from Los Angeles to end in San Jose, Caltrain officials said Tuesday that the idea would require the same Peninsula track expansion while harming local commuter service and stripping the agency of funding.

For riders to take the bullet train from Southern California to San Jose and transfer to an express Caltrain to San Francisco — as some critics and planners have proposed — Caltrain would have to add tracks or eliminate commute service to accommodate them, said Bob Doty, Caltrain's joint high-speed-rail program director.

As a result, whether high-speed rail runs to San Jose or San Francisco, the impact on Peninsula residents and businesses — namely property taking, noise and aesthetics — would be virtually the same. But were it to stop in San Jose, train service would be longer and less convenient, and Doty said the project would cost about the same but have fewer funding sources.

"I just think people think that if high-speed rail stops in San Jose, we can just use what we have today, and there's just no way," Doty said. "It's one of these closed loop arguments; I just don't know how you do it."

Despite the obstacles, residents and officials along the tracks continue to hope that the bullet train will connect to electrified Caltrain service in San Jose, called the "hybrid" option, instead of the current plan to run high-speed rail directly to San Francisco. High-speed-rail planners will release a list of likely Bay Area track alignments within two weeks.

Palo Alto Mayor Pat Burt, a member of the Peninsula Cities Consortium formed last year over high-speed-rail concerns, said his group has pushed for the hybrid option.

"I think it's a possibility, and it might take several different forms," said Burt. The consortium also includes Burlingame, Belmont, Menlo Park and Atherton . . . .

While state planners have said the hybrid option may be possible, Rod Diridon, a California High-Speed Rail Authority board member from San Jose, said it would violate Proposition 1A. The $9.95 billion bond voters approved in November 2008 to launch the $42.6 billion project stipulated that the train connect to San Francisco's Transbay Terminal.

"We must build the system to the Transbay Terminal, or not use Prop. 1A funds, and, of course, we need Prop. 1A funds," Diridon said. The attorney general's office recently advised the authority not to end the project in San Jose, he said . . . .
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14744763?nclick_check=1


San Jose station area rendering via CAHSR
Source: http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2010/0...o_any_good.php
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