At a PCC meeting on Friday, a number of cities were working together on a statement of support for the Early Investment Plan that would put a billion High Speed Rail dollars into Caltrain electrification – with a number of significant conditions.

Rich Cline, PCC and City Council from Menlo Park, is working with Pat Burt of Palo Alto to draft a letter for the Palo Alto High Speed Rail Subcommittee. According to Cline, Menlo Park City Council would need to review and approve the letter separately. Brisbane seems to be in alignment, since Council Member Sepi Richardson reiterated Brisbane’s opposition to a High Speed Rail storage and maintenance yard proposed for location in Brisbane.

Burlingame, which is a member of both the PCC and the San Mateo County Rail Corridor Partnership, will consider its position at its City Council meeting tonight. In public comment, Council Member Terry Nagel referred to the $1.6 Billion San Francisco Central Subway project, and shared her opinion that investment on the Peninsula is overdue.

Representatives of Belmont and Atherton both reiterated their opinion opposing High Speed Rail.

Proposed conditions include removing the 4-track proposal from the High Speed Rail project EIR, recirculating the Caltrain Electrification EIR after the completion of Caltrain’s study of grade separations. Additional interests include using a Context Sensitive Solutions process for making decisions on design issues such as grade separations and passing tracks, and adding further analysis of an Altamont alignment for later phases of development.

Another major concern discussed at the meeting was the need for an Attorney General ruling on whether the proposed blended system would meet the requirements of Proposition 1A which authorizes high speed rail. There is no sign as to when the AG plans to rule on the question.

The statement will be refined at a Palo Alto High Speed Rail Subcommittee meeting on March 15th. These meetings are typically held at 8:30 am at the City Council conference room.

At its board meeting on Thursday March 1, the High Speed Rail authority approved a Memorandum of understanding with a consortium of Los Angeles area transit agencies to use $1 billion in Prop 1A and other funds for early investment in the region’s transit, to improve service immediately and prepare for High Speed Rail.

Agencies that have approved the MOU include: Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC), San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG), and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink).

According to the HSRA announcement, the specific projects for investment have not been finalized, but the agencies will coordinate to develop a Candidate Project list for early investment, and will prepare performance criteria for selecting and prioritizing the projects from the Candidate Project list.

This multi-agency MOU is the model being used for a similar proposed agreement for the Caltrain corridor. Given the ongoing planning process for the blended system on the Caltrain corridor, this sort of prioritization approach may make sense on the Peninsula as well.

At a tense meeting of the San Mateo County Rail Partnership yesterday, after much discussion, the City Council leaders who are members in the Partnership expressed support for Caltrain electrification, and support for early High Speed Rail support in the blended system at a high level, although with strict constraints and continuing concerns.

There was a full house at the meeting at the San Mateo Garden Center, with multiple city council people representing each city (typically there is one), and over 20 members of the public (typically there are 10-12). Cities represented were Brisbane, South San Francisco, Millbrae, Burlingame, San Mateo, and Redwood City.

Marian Lee of Caltrain gave a presentation about the early investment proposal, which would send up to $2B each to the Bay Area and LA area in earlier investment to improve regional transit and get ready for eventual high speed trains on local tracks. Los Angeles has already put forward a package of requests, and the Bay Area is pulling together a similar package.

The first stage of early investment in the Bay Area would cover Caltrain electrification, including the tracks and rolling stock, positive train control, some bridge and tunnel improvements, and as-yet undefined grade separations. After this first phase, once high speed rail starts to offer service, riders from the south would get off High Speed Trains at San Jose Diridon and transfer to Caltrain.

A subsequent phase, with unidentified funding, would pay for the extension of the Caltrain tracks to Transbay Terminal and passing tracks if further analysis and review shows that they are needed.

The key constraints that the Council members demanded were ensuring that the concept of a 4-track buildout would remain definitively off the table, and continuing local control over implementation decisions such as grade separations.

City leaders were extremely uncomfortable at being rushed into a decision process that is moving rapidly, has many moving parts and minimal local review. City leaders were highly distrustful of the role of MTC is playing in creating the Memorandum of Understanding with Caltrain JPB and other local transit agencies.

The recommendations from the San Mateo Rail Partnership cities will be reviewed by the Caltrain Joint Powers Board this morning at a board meeting starting at 10am.

On May 28, the full MTC board plans to reviewing a draft MOU, with contribution from Caltrain JPB, Muni, VTA, SamTrans, TransBay Joint Powers Authority, and possibly other Bay Area transit agencies. The early investment plan is intended to feed into the next revision of the High Speed Rail business plan; the High Speed Rail Authority board meeting to review the draft business plan is April 5.

According to Seamus Murphy of Caltrain, yesterday’s reprieve on the High Speed Rail construction schedule does not allow for a reprieve on the time frame to make a decision on the Bay Area early investment, since that is driven by the state budget timeline.

On Monday night, February 27 at 6pm in San Francisco, come learn about a time-sensitive proposal to revamp the High Speed Rail business plan to invest much earlier in the Bay Area.

At meetings last week at the SFMTA Board, and two weeks ago at the SFCTA board, transit agency staff in San Francisco described the Fast Start Proposal which would accelerate investment in the Downtown Extension extending the Caltrain tracks to the Transbay terminal, and Caltrain electrification for blended operation with High Speed Rail. Without this Fast Start plan, investment in San Francisco and the Peninsula is slated for 2034 or even later.

This is time-sensitive, since the revised business plan is expected to be completed in March, for debate about approval in the state budget this spring. There many questions to ask, including whether High Speed Rail still expects to build a 4-track system on the Peninsula, despite opposition by Caltrain and local legislators, how the Fast Start proposal expects to achieve cost savings, how the early funding could be spent, and more questions.

Come join Friends of Caltrain and San Francisco Transit Riders Union to hear Luis Zurinaga of SFCTA tell us about the Fast Start proposal and take our questions.

Monday, Feb 27, 6pm
Sierra Club
85 2nd Street
3rd Floor, Yosemite Room
San Francisco

RSVP HERE

Hope to see you at the event.

At meetings two weeks ago at the SFCTA board, and last week at the SFMTA Board, transit agency staff in San Francisco described a proposal to revamp the High Speed Rail business plan so that there is much earlier investment at the end points (click on item 9 to see the presentation).   The northern investment includes DTX (extending the Caltrain tracks to Transbay) and Caltrain electrification for blended operation with HSR. Without this Fast Start plan, investment in San Francisco and the Peninsula is slated for 2034 or later.

According to the presentation delivered to the Muni board, the Fast Start plan could be delivered at a much lower cost than the estimates from the California High Speed Rail Authority, and would generate higher ridership.  Luis Zurinaga of SFCTA said that staff was working with legislators along the corridor and the HSRA to advocate for the adoption of this proposal.

The revised business plan is expected to be completed in March.