Name: Plan for high-speed rail rolls out for San Francisco to San Jose — but with little cash
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Plan for high-speed rail rolls out for San Francisco to San Jose — but with little cash

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateCalifornia rolled out its vision for high-speed trains between San Jose and San Francisco on Thursday, plotting a 30-or-so-minute ride on what would be one of the busiest stretches of the state’s proposed 520-mile rail system — even as the project is mired in financial uncertainty.The California High Speed Rail Authority is calling for 220-mph trains from the Central Valley to merge onto the Caltrain commuter line for a 49-mile jaunt up the Peninsula. Stops would be made at San Jose’s Diridon Station, Millbrae’s transit hub and the Caltrain depot in San Francisco. The San Francisco stop would eventually move to Transbay transit center.Service between the Bay Area’s largest cities, scheduled to begin in 2031, is expected to take less than 45 minutes, including the stop in Millbrae near San Francisco International Airport. The ticket price is yet to be determined.The details are part of an environmental review for the Bay Area segment of the ambitious Los Angeles-to-San Francisco project. The $80 billion electric rail system is being built to better connect California and help reduce mounting gridlock, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. While the rail authority so far has identified only enough money to construct the line through the Central Valley, at a cost of about $20 billion, it’s moving ahead with planning the rest of the venture.“The funding picture always evolves,” said Boris Lipkin, a regional director for the rail authority, in an interview. “We’re taking the steps and doing what we need to do to bring high-speed rail to Northern California.”Public comment on the environmental impact report for the Bay Area segment is being taken through Aug. 24, and rail officials intend to finalize a plan next year. The rail authority has scheduled to discuss the segment over the next two months.Beyond laying out service details, the new document identifies a range of impacts the line could have on the area. Figuring out how to run high-speed trains on the densely populated Peninsula was challenging, and rail officials ultimately decided to share existing tracks with Caltrain that roughly parallel Highway 101.Still, as many as 62 homes and 202 businesses may have to be displaced to upgrade the tracks and build new infrastructure, according to the report. Most of the properties subject to acquisition are in San Jose, San Mateo and Belmont. The Brisbane Fire Station, Millbrae Station Historic Depot and San Jose’s Templo La Hermosa church are among them, the report says.Once the rail service is up and running, residents of the area also can expect to hear the rumble of more trains and the wail of more horns, the report says.The prospect has long worried many on the Peninsula. Some communities, such as Atherton, which is part of a lawsuit challenging how the rail authority is spending its money, remain firmly in opposition.“I think the impacts of high-speed rail will be a disaster,” said Atherton Mayor Rick DeGolia, who supports Caltrain but doesn’t want to see new trains crossing roads and holding up traffic. “This just creates a train superhighway that divides the community.”In anticipation of the project, Caltrain has already started electrifying its tracks to shift from diesel to electric service. The agency’s trains are expected to match the 110-mph speeds the high-speed trains would travel while on the Peninsula.High-Speed RailThe two systems will run in close coordination, rail officials say. Faster trains, for example, would be directed to use stretches of track in the rail corridor designed for passing. One of two alternative proposals laid out in the new report calls for several miles of additional passing space. That option, though, would come with greater expense and the greatest displacement of homes and businesses.The high-speed trains initially will run twice an hour during peak times, and eventually four times an hour, rail officials say. Because there would be just one stop between San Jose and San Francisco, it’s expected to be at least 15 minutes faster than Caltrain’s Baby Bullet service on the segment. Rail officials estimate the high-speed train will cost slightly more than Caltrain, which currently charges $10.50 to ride between the two cities, or $9.95 with a Clipper transit card.Service on the segment is scheduled to begin two years after the Bakersfield-to-Merced line, which is expected to start in 2029. The Peninsula stretch would kick off in tandem with the Merced-to-San Jose line, meaning riders would be able to travel from San Francisco to Bakersfield.The segment south of Bakersfield, to Los Angeles, is scheduled to begin operation in 2033. Trains, at that point, would be able to make the entire journey between Los Angeles and San Francisco, which is scheduled to take two hours and 40 minutes.The rail line is ultimately planned to continue to San Diego and Sacramento.Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.High-speed rail has long been a dream of many in California. The project got going in earnest in 2008, when voters approved a bond committing $9 billion to the effort. State and federal funds have since padded the enterprise.While construction began in 2015 in several Central Valley counties, and continues today, many have raised doubts about the project’s viability. on top of recent difficulties getting state and federal dollars, have dogged the effort.The a nearly $1 billion federal grant last year, saying the state hadn’t made adequate progress. And this year, the coronavirus pandemic dealt a financial blow to California’s cap-and-trade program — an arrangement in which businesses pay to pollute and the money is channeled to climate-friendly projects like the train.Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, are joined by some Democrats and others in calling for the project to be scrapped. They’d prefer the money be spent elsewhere.“They don’t have the money,” said Quentin Kopp, a retired state senator from San Francisco and former chairman of the High-Speed Rail Authority board who is now a critic. “It is a hoax. It is not real.”Proponents of the project say while the cost may be high, the state would face an even pricier proposition of building 4,200 miles of highway lanes and 91 airport gates to equal the traffic relief that high-speed rail would provide.They also say the zero-emission trains would amount to big cuts in greenhouse gases in the transportation sector, the equivalent of 1.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, about what would result from having 400,000 fewer cars on the road.“I applaud the California High Speed Rail Authority for reaching this important milestone,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement. “The release of the draft environmental document for the San Francisco to San Jose project section takes us one step closer to bringing high-speed rail to San Francisco.”Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateCalifornia rolled out its vision for high-speed trains between San Jose and San Francisco on Thursday, plotting a 30-or-so-minute ride on what would be one of the busiest stretches of the state’s proposed 520-mile rail system — even as the project is mired in financial uncertainty.The California High Speed Rail Authority is calling for 220-mph trains from the Central Valley to merge onto the Caltrain commuter line for a 49-mile jaunt up the Peninsula. Stops would be made at San Jose’s Diridon Station, Millbrae’s transit hub and...

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Kurtis Alexander

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Plan for high-speed rail rolls out for San Francisco to San Jose — but with little cash

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