Town Square

Post a New Topic

High-speed rail 'safeguard' bill signed into law

Original post made on Sep 9, 2013

Legislation spearheaded by state Sen. Jerry Hill that makes it next to impossible for the California High-Speed Rail Authority to build a four-track rail system on the Peninsula was signed into law Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Read the full story here Web Link posted Sunday, September 8, 2013, 4:15 PM

Comments (6)

Posted by Ron
a resident of another community
on Sep 9, 2013 at 2:33 pm

They're already siphoning off $600M from the HS Rail project to retrofit Caltrain? This is a joke. The HS rail line will never happen.

Fuhgedaboutit...


Posted by @Ron
a resident of Sylvan Park
on Sep 9, 2013 at 5:34 pm

If it never happens then at least some of the money will have gnoe to something useful by upgrading caltrain.


Posted by Duane
a resident of another community
on Sep 9, 2013 at 11:09 pm

Why not just upgrade Caltrain into BART (with below or above grade crossings)and have one system that circles the Bay?


Posted by psa188
a resident of another community
on Sep 10, 2013 at 8:47 am

You cannot simply "upgrade Caltrain into BART" because the two systems are incompatible. This is due to some stupid engineering mistakes made back in the 1960s. The #1 mistake was building BART to a wide track gauge. Caltrain, once part of the Southern Pacific Railroad is part of the standard gauge national railroad system. You would have to replace the standard gauge Caltrain tracks with wide gauge BART tracks and still keep a standard gauge line for the remaining Union Pacific-operated freight service on the Peninsula.


Posted by David Lionel
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Sep 11, 2013 at 10:13 am

Unbelievable.

Whether high speed rail gets screwed or not, a 4-track system is absolutely critical to brining Caltrain up to a meaningful standard. [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language] of the peninsula are screwing the entire bay area over their precious backyards. Sickening


Posted by ScottUSA
a resident of another community
on Nov 27, 2013 at 1:20 pm

Although I feel that it should be a 4 track system, I am confident that once the Caltrain tracks are completely upgraded, with all car traffic going either under or over the tracks where there are now currently intersections, that not only will the high speed rail be able to move at 80+ miles an hour, but Caltrain speeds will also be forced to use trains that can be run at increased speeded to keep out of the way of the high speed trains while keeping a full schedule of trains leaving regularly. Win, win.


Don't miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to be notified of new comments on this topic.

Email:


Post a comment

On Wednesday, we'll be launching a new website. To prepare and make sure all our content is available on the new platform, commenting on stories and in TownSquare has been disabled. When the new site is online, past comments will be available to be seen and we'll reinstate the ability to comment. We appreciate your patience while we make this transition..

Stay informed.

Get the day's top headlines from Mountain View Online sent to your inbox in the Express newsletter.