Gilroy
– As the whistle bows today to end public comments on an
environmental impact report for a proposed trans-California
high-speed train, the Gilroy City Council still has not commented
on the proposal despite the fact that it could stop in Gilroy.
City staff, however, submitted a positive reaction recently to
the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
Gilroy – As the whistle bows today to end public comments on an environmental impact report for a proposed trans-California high-speed train, the Gilroy City Council still has not commented on the proposal despite the fact that it could stop in Gilroy.
City staff, however, submitted a positive reaction recently to the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
The authority opened the public comment period on Feb. 13 and extended it on March 23. If it decides to continue with the project, the next step would be to respond to those comments and prepare a final EIR that may designate a route and list of stations. Gilroy and Morgan Hill are possible stops.
The electric-powered bullet trains would get riders from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two and a half hours – or from Gilroy to Los Angeles in an hour and 45 minutes – reaching speeds of 220 mph in rural areas and 125 in cities. Later phases would extend lines to Sacramento and San Diego.
The trains would cost about $30 billion to establish, most of which would be publicly funded. A $10 billion bond to begin construction was on state ballots for November, but many legislators expect to delay this vote to at least 2006.
Gilroy city staff sent the authority a recommendation favoring a train track through Pacheco Pass and counseling against a proposal to route the track through Henry Coe State Park instead, according to Mayor Al Pinheiro.
City Community Development Director Wendie Rooney said the staff took a positive response in order to have a good working relationship with the high-speed rail authority.
“We’d like to be a partner with them,” she said.
City staff still have concerns, Rooney said, regarding noise from an elevated train track through town and the effect of track vibration on Gilroy’s historic buildings.
The council asked staff on June 7 to research the plan insofar as it could affect Gilroy. At that same meeting, City Councilman Bob Dillon made a one-man stand against the train, saying California cannot afford it.
Morgan Hill City Council members voted unanimously Aug. 18 to oppose any route through Coe Park, but they did not advocate any other route instead. Only Mayor Dennis Kennedy spoke in favor of having a stop in Morgan Hill.
On Aug. 17, Santa Clara County supervisors voted 3-2 to support a rail route either through Pacheco Pass or through Coe. They would oppose an alternate route that would send a spur line to San Jose, rather than a necessary stop there. This alignment was dropped by the authority, but some groups, including the Sierra Club, have urged the authority to reconsider it. It would cross between the Bay Area and Central Valley through Altamont Pass, stop in Fremont and cross the bay to San Francisco. From Fremont, spur lines would go to Oakland and San Jose.
Supervisor Don Gage, who represents the county’s southern half, voted for the resolution but is against running the train through Coe Park, preferring the Pacheco route, according to Edwin Chan, a Gage spokesman.
A Pacheco Pass crossing could have a stop in either Gilroy or Morgan Hill. A crossing further north, which would save time and stops between Los Angeles and San Francisco, would either cross through Coe Park through a series of tunnels or bypass it through wildland to the north.
Authority members have said California’s population of 36 million will rise to 59 million by 2040 and that the current network of highways and airways is insufficient to serve this quantity of people.
