California High-Speed Rail project raises local concerns

Construction cost of statewide High-Speed Rail can top $98 billion

By Isabel Soloaga, Published in Gilroy Life

 Plans for a high-speed rail transit station would fundamentally alter the small-town feel and recent investment in the revival of Gilroy’s downtown. Estimates by the California High-Speed Rail Authority show about 100 trains would pass daily through the region, but only 25 percent of those would stop at a Gilroy station.

“If trains go straight through downtown without stopping, there’s no benefit to us,” said Gilroy Mayor Roland Velasco.

The project’s environmental impact report for the San Jose-to-Merced section was released in April and closed for comment June 23. The rail authority identified its preferred route for trains as the “Alternative 4” option. This uses a “blended configuration” between San Jose and Gilroy to run along the existing Union Pacific Railroad corridor as it passes through South Valley.

The stretch from Bernal Road to the Casa de Fruta resort along Pacheco Pass makes up about 30 miles of the 380-mile track between San Francisco to Los Angeles.

A view of a high speed train moving through a wind farm in the proposed high speed rail network. California High-Speed Rail Authority

Under the $10 billion Proposition 1a Bond Act, which voters approved in November 2008, the authority is legally required to design its system to have trains travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes. Nine years ago the city of Gilroy anticipated building to begin by 2011.

Today, many wonder when — or if — the high speed rail will ever arrive because it is facing economic challenges with a lack of federal and private funding sources. Some see the looming economic recession as bad news for the future of high-speed rail in California. In 2008, the project’s proposed budget was estimated at $39 billion.

Today, despite a scaled-back project, the rail authority estimates the total construction will cost between $63 billion and $98 billion.

“I’ve never been a supporter of high-speed rail,” Velasco said. “I thought it was too little, too late for the state of California to get into the high-speed rail business.  Ever since (voters approved the proposition), it’s just been this big boondoggle.”

Boris Lipkin, the Northern California regional director for the rail authority, is more optimistic about the success of the project. Once the physical infrastructure is built and the system is up and running, he sees private investors playing a “major role” in running and expanding the service. In the Central Valley, the project has more than 100 miles of track already being built.

“There’s a long history of recovering from hard economic times by using large infrastructure projects as one means of stimulating economic recovery in hard times,” he said.

If the authority’s preferred route is approved, construction between San Jose and Gilroy would take place during the next 10 years, he said.

A major transit station in Gilroy would change the downtown landscape in significant ways, said Gary Walton, the board president of the Gilroy Downtown Business Association. Originally, the authority had intended to build a 6,600 to 8,000 vehicle parking structure to service this station. This plan was later scrapped.

In order for the project to be successful, it must increase the speed and frequency of the trains so local commuters can depend on them, Walton said.

“If they can make the trains faster, if they can create more trains on more routine schedules, that’s been shown to increase ridership,” he said.

Although a transit station built in downtown Gilroy might one day help businesses by bringing in commuter traffic, questions about whether there will be enough parking spaces, security and the lasting environmental impact on the downtown area remain unanswered, he said.

“We need to look at this potential transit center as something positive and plan for that,” Walton said. “It’s not like traffic is going away . . . The transit station downtown would be a great thing if you maximize the opportunities that it presents.”

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Conclusion available at Gilroy Life.

The full interview with Boris Lipkin, Northern California Regional Director of the High-Speed Rail Authority, is available here: