California High Speed Rail Setback

[kevin_standlee]

It's a dark day for supporters of high speed rail in California. As reported here and elsewhere, the California High Speed Rail Authority has, by default (allowing the staff recommendation to stand) selected the Pacheco Pass ("Highway 152") alignment from the Central Valley to the Bay Area over the Altamont Pass ("Highway 580") alignment. (If you need a map of the alternatives, have a look at this PDF.) Basically, the CHSRA buckled under to political pressure from South Bay politicians who couldn't bear the thought of such a system being built without all trains being required to stop in San Jose.

I am not complaining just because the proposed Altamont route probably would have come near where I live in Fremont and therefore there's a chance I could have been close to a station. By the time this thing gets built, it seems unlikely I'll be here anyway -- I'll be lucky if I'm still alive by the time trains are actually running! The Altamont route picked up important Central Valley cities that will now be skipped. Oh, the CHSRA talked of other solutions for that area, but those are just talk and will result in no action.

The Altamont might have been longer, but it was easier to build, traversed less sensitive areas, and would have served more people. It apparently is easy for people to forget that high speed rail is more than just moving people between the end-points in the LA and Bay Areas -- it serves intermediate points as well. Just look at the three types of Shinkansen services in Japan: Kodama stopping services that stop most places; Hikari limited services that stop at some stations; and Nozomi super-expresses that make very few stops. All use the same high-speed equipment. (Some people seem to think that the slower trains are using slower equipment, which is not so; they just make more stops.)

An Altamont route would have required either trains splitting/joining to serve both San Francisco and San Jose, or alternate-city service, neither of which would have been that big a deal, I think, except maybe in this country where we mostly have forgotten how to run a railroad.

I was annoyed to hear politicians (or possibly the reporters who reported those politicians) saying things like "we don't need another bridge across the Bay." Yes, the Altamont route requires a bridge across the south end of San Francisco Bay. But there is already a railroad bridge there -- it's just not been used and has been waiting for rebuilding these past twenty years.

Make no mistake: this decision is not about serving the most number of people on a value-for-money basis. It's about the clout of South Bay politicians relative to those in the Central Valley, and to a lesser extent short-sightedness from other politicians, such as my own city, which I understand opposed the routing because of the disruption building a high-speed rail line along the existing rail corridor (which runs just south of where I live) would cause.

If the CHSR rail bond actually makes it to the ballot, I'll still vote for it, but I'm very unhappy with the decision. It's the wrong route, for lots of reasons, and people will curse this decision for many years to come if the system ever does get built.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Sorry they're being dumb. My interest is largely academic and rail-readerish (I'm not a rail-fan, but I might be a rail-reader; except reader is even more obviously the wrong term there than for SF), so I'm not following the details myself, it's nice to get the summary now and then.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

except maybe in this country where we mostly have forgotten how to run a railroad.

Herein is the meat of the problem.

(Mind you, I like the idea of having one of the major stations nearby.)

I would rather see them run a simple route successfully and build on that than see them attempt to run a more complicated route and screw it up. If they succeed, split the route in SJ and run up the east bay or in Santa Nella and run up the central valley to Sacramento.

As for the politicians? Better that they're pushing to get transportation than working against it. I think there's still a bit of annoyance over San Mateo's withdrawal from BART which effectively cut off the south bay for 4 decades. We've got the population now to merit a transport hub...

[howeird]

I'd take the southern route. Here's why:
That unused rail bridge across the Bay used to traverse a salt mining operation, but it's now a wildlife/bird sanctuary. A high speed rail line through there would offset some of the gains made in getting Morton and Cargill to give up that wetlands area.

Building a rail line via 152 ought to bring with it improvement of the not-particularly-safe west end of 152.

I'd bet far more people would want a straight route from LA to SJ than from LA to Livermore.

Population density along the Altamont route is huge. Along Pacheco it's Casa de Fruita and a couple of garlic farms. Much less people impact, no political temptations to make the route into a milk run.

High speed rail access to the Garlic festival!

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Well, I think you know this is one we disagree on. It's a good thing for my people, I hope.

[katster.livejournal.com]

When I was back East visiting friends in Maryland, I decided (since they weren't all that far away) to go visit DC. I figured I could take Amtrak in, as the East Coast has slightly better rail service than we do out west, until my friend goes "You want to take the MARC. It's like Caltrain."

Okay, now my experience with Caltrain was before they put the baby bullets in. In those days, a train coming into a Caltrain station was going to stop, and I make the same assumption here. I'm standing on the platform waiting for the train. I see a train coming down the tracks, so I ready myself to board.

Train roars into the station at high rates of speed on the passing track in the center. It's one of the Amtrak trains -- I think it's the Acela. And damn was that thing moving fast. I admit to being impressed.

The MARC comes along a few moments later, and yep, my friend was right, it was like Caltrain. Got off at Union Station in downtown DC and hopped on the Metro and went to the museums. It was a good day.

That said, I admit I'm disappointed in the Pacheco Pass routing, because if it had gone over Altamont, it's only about an hour to drive to Stockton from Sacramento (plus there's existing Amtrak bus linkage and at least one train a day), which would have made it all the much more useful if I were still in the area by the time they finish.

Ah well.

-kat

[dancingguy.livejournal.com]

How long "will" it take to go SJ - LA w/ the 152 routing? How long w/ Altamont?