Peninsula residents grill bullet train officials at meeting

Peninsula residents grill bullet train officials at meeting - San Jose Mercury News

Peninsula residents grill bullet train officials at meeting
By Mike Rosenberg

Daily News Staff Writer
Posted: 05/29/2009 12:31:58 AM PDT
Updated: 05/29/2009 09:31:59 AM PDT

High-speed rail officials traveled to the heart of the Peninsula's anti-bullet train movement Thursday and received an earful from frustrated residents worried the rail line would disrupt their communities.

More than 100 residents attended the public meeting in Atherton. Nearly all the people said they were from Atherton, Menlo Park and Palo Alto.

The cities of Menlo Park and Atherton joined environmental groups last year in suing the state rail authority. They challenged the adequacy of the environmental planning document the authority used to justify sending its trains along the Caltrain corridor. Palo Alto recently filed a brief in support of the suit.

The meeting was organized by the Atherton Civic Interest League and was led by officials from the engineering firm HNTB. The rail authority contracted HNTB to perform planning and outreach for the San Francisco to San Jose portion of the rail line.

Atherton Public Works Director Duncan Jones and a tunneling expert from the Hatch Mott MacDonald engineering firm also provided presentations and answered questions.

Residents fired off more questions than officials had answers for: What is the feasibility of putting high-speed rail in a tunnel on the Peninsula? How much money will I get if my home is taken through eminent domain? What exactly will the rail look like as it runs through my community?

John Litzinger, the chief engineer from HNTB who is working on the Peninsula
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section, appealed to residents to be patient while waiting for specifics and to trust the process.

The rail authority is working through about 980 pre-planning comments received from January to April on the San Francisco to San Jose portion of the line, HNTB consultant Mike Garvey said.

The authority's consultants expect to soon release a summary of the comments and their response, Garvey said.

Afterward, the planning process would begin, which would lead to a list of specific project alternatives that would be released next year.

Residents also expressed frustration over the absence of vocal rail proponents and local authority board members Quentin Kopp and Rod Diridon.

Many Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Atherton officials and residents — as well as representatives from other Peninsula communities — have expressed preference for the bullet train to be operated in a tunnel.

John Townsend, executive vice president of Hatch Mott MacDonald, said the tunnel would be much more expensive than bringing the trains above ground.

His international firm is also working on the Transbay Terminal and San Jose BART extension.

A tunnel on the Peninsula would likely follow the same model as the San Jose BART extension, Townsend said, because both areas have soft ground. A high-speed rail tunnel would likely cost somewhere between $100 million to $250 million per mile, compared to less than $100 million for an at-grade system, he said.

E-mail Mike Rosenberg at mike.rosenberg@dailynewsgroup.com.