Even though thousands of South County voters approved a $10
billion bond to partially fund the construction of California’s
bullet train, many are still not sure what they got themselves
into.
Even though thousands of South County voters approved a $10 billion bond to partially fund the construction of California’s bullet train, many are still not sure what they got themselves into.
Clorete and Afonso Almeida, co-owners of Monterey Street Condos, a residential and commercial building near Lewis Street and Monterey Road in downtown Gilroy, were shocked to hear that the project is steaming ahead so quickly and are looking forward to this Thursday’s scoping meeting for more information. Situated directly in front of the railroad tracks, their office was surprisingly still as an Amtrak train rushed by at a fraction of the speed of the bullet train. The couple recently leased four of the 22 new condos without a problem, they said.
“So far the noise from the train hasn’t bothered anyone,” Clorete Almeida said. “Our buildings are very well soundproofed.”
But the Almeidas weren’t sure what the passage of Proposition 1A – a measure allowing the sale of $9.95 billion in bonds to help fund a California High Speed Rail system – would bring. Clorete Almeida said she was under the impression that the bullet train would run on an elevated track parallel to the existing tracks. Though that wasn’t her preferred location for the train, she and her husband were optimistic about the traffic the train would bring to Gilroy.
The bullet train is expected to reach speeds of 220 miles per hour and, with a station in Gilroy, could transform South County into a hub of activity, city officials said. But building the system through the densely populated downtown area means the tracks will likely be elevated or trenched.
The California High Speed Rail Authority envisions a statewide network of electric bullet trains zipping between the Bay Area and southern California in less than three hours at a fraction of the cost and stress travelers expend on air travel. Train operations should begin in 2018. By 2030, HSRA predicts a ridership of about 117 million. The rail authority’s Web site shows 86 trains per day running through Gilroy – that’s about one train every 20 minutes.
Though Gilroy residents have varying ideas of how the bullet train will look and where it will run, Councilman Perry Woodward, Gilroy’s representative to the Valley Transportation Authority, said HSRA staff are studying a trenched configuration, meaning that the train would run below ground – “in a tunnel without a top,” Woodward said – through Gilroy’s downtown. The trenched design will help with noise and separate the train’s path from other traffic. Designs based on a monorail-type elevated track are being fought in court by vocal opponents in the Peninsula and Woodward agreed the structure would be a “bit of an eyesore.”
Both Woodward and Mayor Al Pinheiro agreed that the system would be a boon to Gilroy’s economy. The line is supposed to run through South County with a station in Gilroy. While the rail authority will pay for the tracks and trains, it appears that Gilroy will be responsible for building a station, though the details are still fuzzy, Woodward said.
“All great European cities grew up around train stations,” Woodward said, contemplating Gilroy’s central location along the rail line which will stretch 800 miles and cover ground from Sacramento to San Diego. “Train stations are always a source of economic vitality.”
As a hub, travelers from the entire Central Coast region will be routed to Gilroy. For Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Salinas residents, the closest station to board the bullet will be in downtown Gilroy.
Gilroy Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Susan Valenta said it’s essential that the Santa Clara Valley keep its competitive edge and agreed that a bullet train is the way to go. She welcomed the influx of business she hoped the bullet train would bring.
“California is key in the world in terms of its economic stature but it has one of the poorest transportation systems,” Valenta said, citing U.S. 101 as an example. “We need systems of moving people through this state that are economical and efficient. High speed rail is good for Gilroy as a whole.”
But problems, large and small, have Californians concerned about the logistics of the rail system.
Those concerns include the possibility that bullet train tracks, which would likely be elevated through Morgan Hill, along the existing Caltrain line, could separate neighborhoods, require the construction of sound walls, disrupt traffic, block views of the hills, and “create a social barrier that’s unnecessary,” said Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes.
In Morgan Hill, the High Speed Rail Authority’s current plans have the track alignment running parallel along the existing Union-Pacific tracks. Those tracks, which are shared with Caltrain, run northwest to southeast through the city, and about one block east of Monterey Street through the downtown area.
Tewes said this alignment could “divide our community unnecessarily.”
“We have long supported alignment on or adjacent to U.S. Highway 101,” Tewes said, pointing out that the highway already divides the town. “(The proposed alignment) has the potential to create a physical barrier that could separate one part of our community from the other.”
He added that city officials have expressed their concerns to the HSRA, and will continue to do so at a March 26 scoping meeting in Gilroy and in future correspondence.
“The cities have to be very firm with what they want,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, a Gilroy resident and former mayor of Gilroy. “Otherwise, they’re going to get stepped on.”
He has encouraged South County officials to voice suggestions and concerns early so the local situation doesn’t escalate to the level it has in the the Peninsula.
While the cities of Menlo Park and Atherton, located about 30 miles south of San Francisco on the Peninsula, have launched a lawsuit against the bullet train, Joseph Thomspon, a local transportation attorney, said the project faces even larger obstacles in their proximity to Union Pacific’s rails. The bullet train is slated to run along Union Pacific’s tracks in Gilroy and up into the Peninsula but Union Pacific isn’t too keen on sharing their right of way with a high speed passenger train.
“We get skittish when there’s talk about putting our trains next to trains that are very light, fast and carry passengers,” said UP spokeswoman Zoe Richmond.
Richmond said Union Pacific’s number one priority is safety and pointed to a recent example in Denver when a Union Pacific trail derailed and spilled coal onto a light rail line as an incident that was “too close for comfort.”
Other than safety concerns, Union Pacific could lose business because a passenger rail line built adjacent to their tracks could cut off access to other routes and result in more freight congestion on roads, Richmond said. One train can take up to 300 trucks off the highways, she said.
A map of the proposed bullet train’s path shows its tracks crossing Union Pacific’s tracks near Gilroy. Thompson said the rail authority hasn’t specifically addressed how they’re going to connect downtown Gilroy to Pacheco Pass and extend southbound into the Central Valley without crossing the Union Pacific lines that run east of the downtown.
“It’s a physical impossibility,” he said.
A private railroad whose eminent domain authority comes from the U.S. Congress and was granted by Abraham Lincoln, “Union Pacific’s eminent domain trumps High Speed Rail’s,” Thompson said.
The High Speed Rail Authority scoping meeting is scheduled between 3 and 7 p.m. March 26 at the Hilton Garden Inn, Ballroom A, at 6070 Monterey Road in Gilroy.
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