Palo Alto seems to have a good plan for getting the high speed rail built underground in their city. I think Mountain View should work to make sure that we do not end up with the left overs which would be a rail system above grade or at grade. We need a tunnel or a cut and fill system through Mountain View. So far the city leaders remind me of a deer in the headlights, ie do nothing until the design is fixed after which will be too late.

The real solution to High Speed Rail is to have a new election to kill this project, air craft are much faster and will not cost the state $42B plus overruns plus interest.

Rodger

Pure nonsense. There is nothing wrong with at grade. It's obviously done all over the world. None of the people in PA are experts on trains so why do you think they know how to design something.

Sounds like this article is about "permission or forgiveness".

We lived a couple of years less than 200m from the S.P. tracks. When the freight trains passed, we suspended conversation. When the jets from Moffett took off, we involuntarily ducked as well. We thought of it as a minor inconvenience; hey, they were there first.

Now, near the tracks, we have a population along the 145 year old right-of-way that have lived nearby for a more than a generation with little more than CalTrain's noise. Quantitatively, how much more noise and visual pollution should people be required to tolerate?

Electrification of the railroad should reduce noise levels and allow power regeneration on braking, both good things. How fast do we need to go??

Political Insider is right - if these towns want HSR underground let them pay for it. Thats what the East Bay did when BART was built. Why should everybody in Calif pay for the wealthiest towns in the state to delay the project and increase costs. If they want it in a special way, pay for it. Or move it to the East Bay! These exclusive towns seem to live OK with Caltran at-grade. More NIMBY whining from the state's wealthiest communities.

Nobody ever talks about what happens when the trains hit SF.
Oh goodie, now we get to do a Uturn and go back down to where we just were.
HSR up the peninsula to a dead end is a joke and an utter waste of money.

When the trains hit SF, the ride ends just as it does with Caltrain commuters. There is no Uturn and the HSR trains are on a timed schedule to return to LA . Far fewer runs than Caltrain.

The thought of running the trail below is out of the question. It would triple the cost at the very least. I has ridden high speed trains around the world, and they are very quiet.....we are not talking deisel freight trains here folks.

We're not talking about just the noise of the trains. I think noise is a smaller issue.
From Community Coalition on High speed rail:
"What are the impacts of the various vertical alignments?
Because of the frequency of trains (one approximately every 2 minutes during peak hours, see below), any at or above grade alignment will have an enormous impact. There will be noise, vibration and air turbulence as trains pass through. Visually, the least intrusive element will be the 4’ sound wall.... 25’ catenary poles, carrying the wires that supply power to the train..."

There is significant environmental impact to build a long tall wall next to people's houses. There are actually many people living right next to the tracks.

If it were you, you will not want to see a huge construction project next to your house, cutting down trees, digging holes, creating debris and noise either.
Not many people take trains anyway. What a waste of money!
Wish the money can be spent on local schools instead to hire back the teachers.

The cost estimate is a joke it will cost billions more than the original estimate and no one will be riding the highspeed train. A simple fact is that it is much cheaper and quicker to fly or drive. The same distance that the train will travel in from SF to LA in 3 hours can be driven in 5-6 and just as if flying upon arrival you would have to rent a car and pay to park a car at the station. The cost of riding the train and convenience of having and driving your own car out ways the few hours saved in travel time.