On March 31, Burlingame held a community meeting reviewing grade separation options for Broadway, which has been rated by the California Public Utilities Commission as the second most dangerous at-grade railroad crossing in the state, behind Santa Fe Springs in the Los Angeles area, and the top CPUC priority in Northern California. Burlingame sees over 20 collisions per year at the Broadway intersections, including seven with injuries.    

Your blogger was not able to attend the meeting, but several Green Caltrain readers did.   People who attended reported that staff preferred Option A (see diagram), which would partly depress the road and partly elevate the tracks.   This option would have the least impact on private property and on the downtown business district, and had lower costs than other options.  Option A, with a shorter two-year construction period, was also favored by business community members, who strongly disliked the longer four-year construction period required for Option B, the only other feasible option.  Temporary “shoofly” tracks would be used to enable continued Caltrain service during construction (see the presentation for diagrams of the construction process).

Here is the presentation from the meeting, and Frequently Asked Questions document providing more information about the options. 

Concerns raised at the meeting included whether the Broadway station would be re-opened during the week (which has long been promised after Caltrain electrification), where the station building would be located with the project, and concerns about pedestrian and bicycle access and safety.  

Another concern raised was funding.  Most of the remainder of San Mateo County’s pot of funding for grade separations is likely to be used for the San Mateo grade separation project at Hillsdale.  San Mateo County would need to update its transportation tax measure (or take other steps) to provide funding for other projects being planned, including this one and Menlo Park’s Ravenswood Crossing.  High Speed Rail’s business plan proposes up to $500 Million for grade separations on the Peninsula Corridor to support service proposed to start in the 2025 to 2029 time frame.  HSRA doesn’t currently have funding to extend service from San Jose to San Francisco, but is planning to seek federal funding to accelerate segment, which would enable much higher ridership than stopping in San Jose.

City Council is expected to review the options for approval in May.