The segment of the California High-Speed Rail system that comes
through Morgan Hill could be second in line for construction, and
the CEO of the state authority overseeing the project will meet
with local officials.
The segment of the California High-Speed Rail system that comes through Morgan Hill could be second in line for construction, and the CEO of the state authority overseeing the project will meet with local officials.
Roelof Van Ark will meet from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Dec. 15 at Gilroy City Hall with a joint task force, including Gilroy and Morgan Hill officials – formed by the Gilroy City Council 18 months ago to deal with High-Speed Rail Authority policies.
“He’s concerned about the route because we’re told by the Federal Railroad Administration that our first route must be in the Central Valley, so the starter segment extensions will begin soon,” said HSRA board member Rod Diridon. “An early extension may very well go to Gilroy.”
For the task force, the meeting will be a chance for answers – or at least a schedule of upcoming answers – to questions about a project that has sparked public backlash in South County.
The subcommittee consists of Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro, Councilman Perry Woodward and City Administrator Tom Haglund, as well as Morgan Hill representatives Councilman Greg Sellers, Mayor Steve Tate and City Manager Ed Tewes.
“We don’t expect him to tell us all the magic answers,” Tate said of the CEO. “We expect to sit down and talk through the process and (about) what gets answered when, so we have a good working relationship (with HSRA), and can reflect to people the expectations when (questions) will get answered.”
Councilman Sellers might not attend the meeting after all, as it will take place after his current term on the dais ends. However, he said the goal of the meeting should be to clarify both the city’s and the HSRA’s position on certain aspects of the project such as its alignment through the valley, its potential negative impacts, how to mitigate them and the location of a bullet train station.
The bullet train project is expected to cost $45 billion and be 800 miles long, carrying passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two hours, 40 minutes by 2020. The train is expected to travel up to 185 mph through Morgan Hill.
For Gilroy, several questions remain unanswered including where the funding for related infrastructure is going to come from, whether the rail will be trenched or raised and what impact it will have on the community.
Diridon said the HSRA will decide Dec. 2 whether to build the first segment between Merced to Fresno or from Fresno to Bakersfield.
“If the Merced to Fresno section were chosen to be the first segment, then an early extension from the first segment could be the route from Merced to San Jose (through Morgan Hill),” said Diridon.
The Federal Rail Administration announced in October that the initial high-speed rail segment must be built in the Central Valley with $715 million specifically for building the chosen portion. The HSRA said $4.3 billion in infrastructure investment will be directed in the region between Merced and Bakersfield.
With the HSRA shifting some of its focus to the Central Valley and cities hosting possible extension segments such as Gilroy, Diridon threw another curveball on whether Gilroy or Morgan Hill would be the site of a rail station.
“It’s a great opportunity but there needs to be a station somewhere. We really need to know what the cities want. If (Gilroy) really doesn’t want a station they need to tell us that and Morgan Hill” can have one, Diridon said.
Noted Sellers, “If Gilroy wants (a station) in Gilroy, that’s fine with us. But if it’s done right, a station in Morgan Hill could provide tremendous benefit for our community.”
Diridon added the construction of the starter segment must begin no later than Sept. 2012, which makes the decisions on what alignment is chosen and which city will be hosting the station all the more urgent.
Pinheiro does not share Diridon’s sense of urgency and said he is waiting for more information on the specifics of the starter segment extension.
“Some of this stuff is so premature,” he said. “I’m gathering information. We met with Diridon four weeks ago and he gave us an update but it’s a moving project. We’re hoping that when we sit down with this gentleman we will get more information,” he said referring to Van Ark.
Van Ark’s visit comes almost a month after Gilroy issued a “vote of no confidence” in the planning and design process for the high-speed rail project.
Pinheiro said Gilroy and Morgan Hill have already decided the station will be in Gilroy, and the two councils signed a joint resolution in December 2009 indicating their preference for a station in Gilroy.
“We never said we didn’t want a station,” said Pinheiro. “The ‘vote of no confidence’ was about how information was presented to the city of Gilroy. We prefer the station downtown as long as it is trenched.”
HSRA spokeswoman Rachel Wall said the increased meetings with the city have more to do with the environmental review process than the “vote of no confidence.”
“We need to be there not because the ‘vote of no confidence,’ but because the environmental review is continuing,” she said. “We get feedback from communities and we continue to ramp back. We’ll be in the community more and more often.”
Sellers said the best way to proceed on the details is to work closely with HSRA, rather than “drawing a line in the sand.”
“That will result in diminished leverage for the cities. Anyone who thinks high-speed rail is not coming through our valley is naive at best,” Sellers said.
The HSRA has said the rail will either align with the current Union Pacific tracks and run through the downtown corridor or cut through the rural area east of U.S. 101 with a major stop in Gilroy. A combination of the two routes is also possible.
HSRA representatives also told the Gilroy council in July that the city could forge a partnership with a developer to pay for the costs of a 6,600-car parking structure for the project as an option to deal with parking concerns for a Gilroy station.
McClatchy News Services contributed to this report.
