HSR - Local Logic, part 2

Our very own Pat Giorni joins Kent Lauder in addressing the nuts and bolts of how high-speed rail should arrive on the Peninsula in this San Mateo Daily Journal opinion piece.  She starts out with:

The people of California voted for a bond measure to finance the concept of high-speed rail without fully knowing or appreciating how the program would directly affect their specific and individual geography.  

On the San Francisco Peninsula, where the project would be the first to reap the federal windfall, there is so much antagonism and animosity that delay tactics have been and will continue to be employed until the communities are satisfied that HSR will not adversely affect and denigrate the quality of life, property values and the natural environment.  

In all fairness, it has to be recognized that the CHSRA was not forthcoming in its initial community and stakeholder outreach, leaving Peninsula citizens with deep sentiments of distrust even as CHSRA, through the newly formed Peninsula Rail Program, currently employs Context Sensitive Solutions curricula in an attempt to arrive at resolving corridor alignment issues. And it must be said that as CHSRA board members continue to engage in derogatory name-calling of those with whom they disagree, it certainly fails to engender any degree of trust in citizens who ask straightforward questions expecting honest and straightforward answers.

High-speed rail should terminate in San Jose if the preferred alignment is to remain through Pacheco Pass. A “Grand Central Terminal” should be constructed to accommodate passengers who can step across a platform to use the ACE, Capitol Corridor, Caltrain or BART services to reach their final destinations. In this way, existing light-rail systems could be incorporated to connect regions without the added financial burden, environmental damage, community disruption and duplication of service that is brought by the insistence that a HSR logo must be on the locomotive that reaches a passenger’s final destination.  

Pat also discusses the now-infamous "3 minutes".  If you don't know what that refers to, please read the whole piece.

Comments

[bjm]

Thank you, Pat, for outlining a HSR plan that makes sense for so many reasons - financial, logistical, environmental, among others. CHSRA might like to refer to this as the "no-build" option, but it is, in fact, the "smart-build" option.

I was asking myself earlier today, "How can we get editorials and articles into broader-reaching publications, like The San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times?"

So many of the issues we are all concerned about are not unique to the Peninsula - the faulty business plan, heinous amounts of $$$ to be spent by our bankrupt State, diversion of Federal stimulus funds for regional rail projects that can provide jobs now, etc.

Until greater numbers of Californians become knowledgable about the HSR debacle, we could have the bond vote again tomorrow and it would likely turn out the same way.