High Speed Rail

This Page contains a summary and introduction on High Speed Rail Issues.

Please Click on High Speed Rail link at the top of this web site or on the Issues links to your right for more articles and posts on HSR

High Speed Rail is real and is coming to our community.

Many Peninsula cities are pushing for an underground alternative with Parks and Bike paths above the line along the corridor.  Shouldn’t San Carlos also be advocating for the same?  Imagine parks, pedestrian walkways and bike paths along the train corridor instead of High Rise buildings right next to the tracks bouncing the noise of over 200 trains every day directly into our neighborhood and homes.

Consider the info about problems with the Holly Street overpass below.

Major high-speed rail dilemma discovered in San Carlos

New tracks in San Carlos for the state’s proposed bullet train could bar high-profile vehicles from a key route to and from Highway 101, city engineers have discovered.  In the latest of several concerns Peninsula officials have raised about the new high-speed rail line, San Carlos officials sent the state a letter Monday in which they explain how Holly Street would be negatively affected by the project.

Two tracks for the bullet train would be built parallel to the existing Caltrain tracks that run through San Carlos east of El Camino Real. The existing tracks cross Holly Street via a grade separation — where they are elevated above the U-shaped roadway. The rail bridge would need to be widened to accommodate the additional tracks, which would lower the vertical clearance of the street below, said Robert Weil, the city’s public works director.  Fifteen feet of vertical clearance is needed underneath the bridge; the clearance is currently 15 feet and three inches.  It appears the new tracks and wider bridge would reduce the clearance to less than 15 feet, Weil said.  “So something has to give,” he said. “Either Holly Street has to be re-lowered or the whole rail structure has to be raised. Otherwise a tall truck would run right into the bottom of the bridge.”

Don’t you think we should seriously consider undergrounding HSR in San Carlos along with Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, and Redwood City?

Links to High Speed Rail Initiative:

High Speed Rail Web Site

High Speed Rail News

High Speed Rail Blog