Posted on 02/15/2004 1:19:52 PM PST by calcowgirl
In the minds of many regional officials, high-speed rail connecting Northern and Southern California ---- with stops planned for Southwest Riverside County and Escondido ---- is the best way to meet the state's future booming transportation demands.
Now, residents will have a chance to tell officials what they think about it. A formal 90-day comment period that the California High-Speed Rail Authority started Friday has provided the public with a variety of ways to speak its collective mind.
The draft environmental report is available for review online at the authority's Web site (www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov) and at the public libraries in both Temecula and Escondido. The draft report is about 2,000 pages and measures 3 1/2 inches thick.
It is also available on a free CD-ROM that the rail authority will send to those interested in checking it out that way.
"We are responsible to respond to questions raised about this," Dan Leavitt, deputy director of the authority, said Friday. "We spent a lot of time and effort putting (the report and statement) together. I hope people will look at this and give us some thoughtful comments."
Though the document is obviously lengthy and in-depth, Leavitt said it has been put together in a way he hopes people can easily access and read.
Online, for example, it is set up by various chapters, each of which can be individually read, downloaded or printed ---- saving computer users from having to open and/or print all 2,000 pages. There is also a link at the site for residents to express their thoughts about the project.
Residents can also mail comments or voice them directly to officials at one of five public hearings planned up and down the state. In Southern California, there is one planned April 13 in Los Angeles and another on April 20 in San Diego.
The high-speed rail, proposed several years ago, would use state-of-the-art, high-speed, steel rail technology to link Sacramento and the Bay Area with Los Angeles and San Diego. The route from Los Angeles would travel east roughly along Interstate 10, then head south along I-215 and I-15 to San Diego.
The 700-mile rail system would cost an estimated $33 billion to $37 billion in today's dollars, according to the environmental report.
Trains would be capable of speeds in excess of 200 mph on some portions of the route, which would mean a trip from L.A. to San Francisco would take just less than 2 1/2 hours and riders could get from San Diego to L.A. in about an hour. It is forecast to carry between 42 million and 68 million passengers in the year 2020 on approximately 86 weekday trains.
"There are no negatives, only positives with this project," said Temecula City Councilman Ron Roberts, who also serves as vice president of the Southern California Association of Governments and sits that organization's transportation panel.
"We just can't keep building more freeways," Roberts said. "This is the alternative method of transportation for the future."
Escondido Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler agrees.
"It's the next generation of transportation," she said. "If we don't do this, our state will be at a severe loss. This is critical infrastructure."
Pfeiler says that economically, it is also critical to the area's future to be able to move goods, services and people between Southern and Northern California.
"(The rail) means North (San Diego) County would have easier, faster access to Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Bay Area," she said.
"I hope people will support this," Pfeiler added. "We've had a number of public scoping meetings about this which were very well-attended." She said that people have been predominantly supportive of the project as well as very curious about it.
Along with a proposed stop in Escondido, one is also planned for Southwest Riverside County, more than likely in the Temecula/Murrieta area.
Roberts says he believes the rail stop would need a substantial area for parking and the station itself would be bigger than a Metrolink station because of the larger passenger load on the high-speed rail.
He said he may ask the Temecula City Council to draft a letter of support and send it to the rail authority during the public comment period.
"From an economic standpoint, if there is a (rail) station ---- and it may be in an area near Murrieta where there is more open space ... it would bring in more business and more jobs to the area," Roberts said.
He says the high points of the project include the increased mobility area residents would have to get to jobs outside the area as well as the ability to get to larger metropolitan locations easier.
While many may see the high-speed rail as just another "pie in the sky" sort of idea, Roberts is among those who believe it will eventually happen.
However, he adds, it probably won't be until the state economy improves.
To that end, a proposed $10 million bond measure that would fund the primary portion of the rail between Los Angeles and San Francisco may be delayed because of California's financial crisis. It was originally hoped it would be on the November ballot.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed that vote be delayed until 2006.
Leavitt, of the rail authority ---- a state agency formed several years ago to design and build the project ---- said that even if all the funding was in place, construction could not begin until after the environmental impact report is reviewed and approved.
"By law, we have to provide a 45-day period for public comments on the report," he said. But, he added, because of the length and complex nature of the report, they decided to double the amount of time people have to voice an opinion.
"This is a very important subject for California's future," Leavitt said. "This is vital for the future of the state."
Pfeiler, Escondido's mayor, called the state's transportation challenge "one of the biggest we have."
"I believe we need this system in place right now," she said. "We need to keep moving on this no matter what.
"California has always been ahead of other places and this is a chance for us to once again provide great service to our residents," Pfeiler added.
How to make your opinion on high-speed rail heard
First, check out the environmental impact report. It is available online at www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov, or at the Temecula library, 41000 County Center Drive, or the Escondido library, 239 S. Kalmia St.
You can then register your opinion about the project in the following ways:
A link at the California High-Speed Rail Authority's Web site, www.cahighspeedrail.ca.govMail a written response to the California High-Speed Train Draft Program EIR/EIS Comments, 925 L Street, Suite 1425, Sacramento, Ca., 95814
Fax comments to (916) 322-0827, Attention: California High-Speed Train Draft Program EIR/EIS Comments
Speak your mind at one of the five public hearings. Two will be held in Southern California: On April 13 at the MTA board room, 3rd floor, 1 Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, or April 20 at the San Diego Association of Governments board room, 401 B Street, Suite 800, San Diego. Both hearings run from 3 to 8 p.m.
If you have questions about the project, please call the rail authority at (916) 324-1541.
Source: California High-Speed Rail Authority
Contact staff writer John Hall at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com
Ignoring, of course, all the wonderful things that WON'T get done because the $37 Billion spent on this isn't available.
LA to SF will never work, and everyone knows it. Too many hills, too much infrastructure in the way. They would be better off for the money building two new airports away from the fog zones designed specifically for shuttle-type service between the two cities, then building direct train links into the downtowns from those airports (BART - from, say, a Livermore-area airport - in the Bay Area, a new line from the eastern suburbs of LA). Best of all would be for business to simply ignore San Francisco, with its wacky laws, high taxes, and isolated peninsula location, and relocate their operations out to the East Bay, near the new airport.
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