Photo Courtesy NC3D

By TIM JUE
Beat Staff Writer

One Peninsula city’s outrage against the California High Speed Rail system could potentially throw a kink into plans to build an expansive bullet train network connecting San Francisco with Los Angeles.

A vociferous crowd of 50 Palo Alto residents marched before a City Council meeting Monday afternoon calling on the governing body of the proposed rail system – the California High Speed Rail Authority – to take a second look at sending bullet trains traveling at speeds of up to 125 miles per hour through their town.

The residents were peeved at the idea of a “Berlin Wall” being constructed that would elevate the trains from street level to separate auto and pedestrian traffic from the fast moving trains, the Palo Alto Daily News reported.

>>>RELATED EDITORIAL: Palo Alto train NIMBYs blocking state from progress, economic recovery

Others wanted the line to terminate in San Jose instead of San Francisco – where ambitious plans are underway to transform the existing dilapidated Transbay Terminal into a grandiose downtown train and bus station.

California High Speed Rail Authority board member Rod Diridon told the city council and the residents that they should have spoken up sooner if they didn’t like the plan.

Voters passed a sweeping bond measure in Nov. 2008 approving funding to be doled out to begin the initial phases of construction for the rail line. The project is also slated to receive federal stimulus dollars as part of President Barack Obama’s financial recovery package for the nation.

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Proponents of the rail project expressed outrage at the last minute outcry from Palo Alto residents.

“California is going to build high speed rail,” Robert Cruickshank writes on his California High Speed Rail blog. “Palo Alto will not be allowed to block that. We believe they can and should try to work constructively to implement HSR in their community. But if they choose HSR denial, then we can and will push back against them.”

The council agreed to draft a letter to the CAHSR Authority asking the board to consider whether constructing a tunnel under the city to accommodate the trains would be a feasible alternative.

Transbay Center Design “Obsolete”

The current design for San Francisco’s Transbay Center project that would replace the old transportation hub, could become obsolete within decades, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.

At issue is the underground train station and questions surrounding whether it could accommodate the expected surge in passenger ridership that High Speed Rail commissioners and advocates say will happen as the state’s population booms and the bullet trains become a lifeline between Northern and Southern California.

“Three sets of engineers met and they concurred that the design for the station was inadequate and useless for high-speed rail,” Quentin Kopp, chairman of the High Speed Rail Authority, told the newspaper.

The current design allows for three train platforms and six sets of tracks. Four tracks and two platforms would be used by the high speed trains, and the other platform and two tracks would be used by Caltrain.

That could cause problems in the future as demands for more train service arises because of severe space limitations that the current design allots.

One suggestion has been to build a second level to accommodate more trains and platforms. It is unclear how much that would boost the final price tag on the project.

E-mail Tim Jue at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.