High Cost Rail - Part 70 Making Good Trade-offs = Maturity

There are a few greybeard journalists who watch things on their assigned beats.  Dan Walters is one.  Daniel Borenstein is another who has recently come to my attention.  One could say John Horgan has the ethos but not the frequent deadlines of the others.  Tom Elias is another.  I saw his piece in today's Daily Post and I thought it was well-constructed but ultimately flawed because he missed the elephant in the room--High Cost Rail.  Let start with what he got right.  Elias pointed out that many of Gov. Jerry Brown's cost cutting proposals are not going to fly with the radical progressive nimrods that have the majority in Sacramento.  These nimrods live in an alternate fiscal reality.  Elias listed some of the cuts that Brown is proposing such as

--$4 Billion in school funding "triggered cuts"

--De-emphasizing standardized tests and change funding formulas

--Cut early childhood development programs

--Cut Cal Grants by more than half

--Cut adult in-home health services and outside day care centers

That's just the tip of the iceberg.  Recent articles talk about the cuts to the court system, pink slips for thousands of teachers, and the half a trillion dollars in unfunded pension liabilities.

But yet Gov. Brown insists on building a railroad.  So what does our local Assemblyman Jerry Hill do this week?  Come out in favor of getting started on High Cost Rail on a shared track with Caltrain on the Peninsula.  That's right.  $100 Billion dollars are going to appear suddenly such that we can get to LA an hour or two slower than the airlines can.  Jerry is running for State Senate and barring some major event, he will win.  He is also a small business man who has had to meet payroll, but those sensible days are apparently over.  The only real hope for California's budget, schools, elderly, real transit options, and local commerce is Washington, D.C where spending this $100B is losing steam every day.

I never thought I would get to this point, but thank God for Congress--or at least the House of Representatives.  At least there are some mature adults somewhere casting votes.

Comments

[fred]

Caltrain to get electrification
March 23, 2012, 05:00 AM By Bill Silverfarb Daily Journal staff

The Caltrain corridor will be electrified nearly a decade ahead of schedule as the California High-Speed Rail Authority has agreed to split the local project’s nearly $1.5 billion cost.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has cut a deal with the rail authority to invest matching local funds to get the corridor electrified by 2020, 10 years ahead of the original time estimate as shown in the rail authority’s business plan.

“It is great news for Caltrain. It is a huge opportunity that will bring the area immediate benefits,” said Caltrain spokesman Seamus Murphy.

Even if the statewide project somehow ultimately falls apart, the early investment by the rail authority will ensure Caltrain does get electrified, he said.

The memorandum of understanding the MTC approved still needs to be approved by the rail authority board. The rail authority is also set to release an updated business plan at the end of the month that Caltrain officials hope will focus on the “blended” system proposal that will keep the project essentially within Caltrain’s current right of way.

Early designs on the Peninsula for the project showed mostly an aerial four-track viaduct needed to accommodate both Caltrain and high-speed trains that were faced with fierce opposition.

Once the system is electrified, Caltrain will be able to operate lighter-weight electric vehicles compared to the existing diesel trains on which the agency currently relies.

Caltrain touts electrification as the agency’s savior since it will be faster, cleaner and quieter with more frequent service to more stations.

Caltrain expects significantly more riders to hop on its trains once the corridor is electrified. In recent years, the agency has struggled with a nearly $30 million annual structural deficit that has been closed with regional support and by deferring capital improvement projects. It lacks a dedicated source of funding and relies on San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties for financial support.

The high-speed rail authority has pledged about $706 million for Caltrain electrification from Proposition 1A bond money, a $9 billion bond measure approved by voters in 2008.

The MTC will set aside about $467 million in current and future Federal Transit Administration funds and another $11 million to rail toll funds for the Caltrain electrification project.

“Modernizing Caltrain has and will continue to be one of my highest priorities for our region. It is the spine of our transportation system and it must be brought into the 21st century. Now the regional agreement to fully fund the electrification of Caltrain and positive train control will make this a reality,” U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, wrote in a statement.

Eshoo, state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, and Assemblyman Rich Gordon, D-Menlo Park, first proposed the “blended” system early in 2011.

That plan has since been embraced by Caltrain. Caltrain has even requested the rail authority take out a four-track proposal for the Peninsula in its next business plan.

Caltrain is currently assessing the feasibility of various blended system alternatives to determine what specific infrastructure improvements will eventually be needed to support high-speed rail and how they can be designed to minimize impacts on surrounding communities.

Passing tracks, about nine miles, will have to be constructed somewhere along the corridor so high-speed trains can bypass local Caltrain commuter trains.

The rail authority is set to start construction on the Central Valley section of the statewide project but in recent months has also looked at funding construction projects on the system’s two bookends in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?type=lnews&title=Caltrain to get electrification&id=231064

[jennifer]

It's very simple, Caltrain has only one goal in mind--electrification. By itself, it is not unworthy, it's how were are ending up there that is problematic. Though they like to claim otherwise, Caltrain is not really equipped in their MOU position with HSRA to advocate for needs of the various Peninsula communities. MTC, even less so.

At the end of the day, It will be Caltrain's service to the local stations that stands to suffer while HSR attempts to make ends meet (literally) on their own project. Grade crossings?? Don't count on them. With the proposed budget, there is only funding available for 5 or 6 crossings in SM County. I'm having a hard time seeing this "deal" as a positive, but that is certainly is the spin most of the politicians are putting on it, though much to their credit, not Burlingame's.

[hillsider]

Disgusting. Caltrain should be ashamed of themselves. And they will likely spend a good deal of taxpayer monies in legal fees defending the indefensible.

[fred]

MTC approves Caltrain electrification plan
Michael Cabanatuan

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/28/BAER1NRJTU.DTL#ixzz1qXitLZDO

[jennifer]

And from the above:

"While the agreement supports the extension of Caltrain from its station at Fourth and King streets in San Francisco underground to the under-construction Transbay Terminal, elimination of 40 street-level railroad crossings on the Peninsula and construction of high-speed train depots in Millbrae and San Jose's Diridon Station, it does not include funding for those projects."

(So, let's see, I think I've heard there are 40 grade crossings, yet Caltrain spilled the beans and said there is only money for maybe 5 or 6 grade seps in SM County, so that means ......drum roll.......ROAD CLOSURES. I sure wouldn't count on a reopened Broadway Station, either.)

This is why the so-called 'input process' is always rushed. There are so many flaws with each different twist and turn, It's better not to let people have too much time to THINK.

[jennifer]

Buried in the SM Times today (Sat.) a blurb about how Gov. Brown's administration has "lowered the projected cost to built HSR by $30 million-- to $68 million"--wow, now that's a bargain!