Sayonara high speed rail on the Peninsula (San Jose, San Francisco: home, quality of life)

[jade408]

Sadly, the Peninsula killed high speed rail here. The 1st phase it going through the major transit hubs of Bakersfield, Merced and Fresno.

Bay Area loses out on high-speed rail : Bottom Line

I still do not understand why an illogical Peninsula route was favored over an already heavily trafficked easterly route including Stockton, Tracy, Livermore and Oakland.

[Nineties Flava]

wtf... ****ing peninsula. This is probably the same old **** they were complaining about when they wanted to expand BART and/or connect CALtrain to BART on the other end. "Oh, but our property values!" smh

[rockridge]

I prefer flying. Soon we'll have flying cars anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7INsC6Ts3qc

[DarkWolf]

I don't think this route has been killed yet , and going the Eastern Bay route would cost Billions more in Tunneling under the Bay. I don't understand the problem with HSR on the Peninsula? I mean where planning a HSR network (Northeast) and the only ppl who are opposing are the tree huggers ....

[Oerdin]

They're not even remotely tree huggers. They're just classic NIMBYs.

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

They're not even remotely tree huggers. They're just classic NIMBYs.

Yea , the Northeast doesn't get NIMBY's against rail even in the richest of towns. But we do have 6 lines being held up by the same people who want less cars on the road , they claim it will destroy the natural eco system. I know its different out there , i find it sad...

[nei]

The peninsula route makes more sense because it connects San Jose and Silicon Valley. The east bay cities could switch to BART once arriving in San Francisco or use (an improved?) Amtrak route to go north. The east bay route would make passengers to San Jose go back south after travelling north.

I don't understand why the peninsula objects to elevated rail. Long Island and Conneticut have had that with their commuter rail for almost 100 years. It's safer, gets rid of grade crossings.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by nei

The peninsula route makes more sense because it connects San Jose and Silicon Valley. The east bay cities could switch to BART once arriving in San Francisco or use (an improved?) Amtrak route to go north. The east bay route would make passengers to San Jose go back south after travelling north.

I don't understand why the peninsula objects to elevated rail. Long Island and Conneticut have had that with their commuter rail for almost 100 years. It's safer, gets rid of grade crossings.

Rail routes in the East Bay are already popular. The current HSR route excludes Sacramento which is short-sighted. There are many commuters traveling this route already on transit. The Capital Corridor route is one of the most popular and profitable routes on the Amtrak. It is only less profitable than the routes in the Northeast where commuters have been conditioned to take the train already.

The number of potentail riders for the inter-Peninsula will be pretty small, look at current Caltrain ridership for an idea. I can't imagine many Peninsula commuters will give up their cars to take the train. It just isn't feasible, because the last mile connections are poor in Silicon Valley and the Peninsula. You can get to the train station, but it is nearly impossible to continue using transit to get to your home or work place. But getting those cars off the road from Stockton > Tracy > Livermore would have a huge impact on quality of life there.

It is also a misconception that it'll be cheaper to run it through the South Bay and Peninsula, there is still a costly hill bore to build as well. The Altamount Pass is already cleared, but the other route requires bulldozing the hills south of San Jose.

[mayorhaggar]

Who the HELL needs to go from Fresno to Bakersfield?

Supposedly that will just be the first segment then later they'll get around to extending it to SF and LA. They are already tearing down the old Transbay Terminal in SF and suppposedly will build a new station for the high-speed rail. But my prediction is that before they start on the Central Valley section they say "well it's not like anyone is going to use this segment, so why bother" then pull funding for all sections, and the only way to get from SF to LA will continue to be driving or flying or Greyhound, all while people in Japan have been using bullet trains for what, 40 years?

[gone down south]

No-one wants 30-feet high berms cutting right through the middle of their downtowns.