Meeting Report and Commentary

Bay Area Regional Rail Plan

Oakland CA, October 24, 2005

Reported by Vaughn Wolffe, RailPAC director

The Regional Rail Plan is intended to provide a "comprehensive blueprint for the long term future of regional rail services in the greater Bay Area."

Those present included RailPAC, TRAC, Transportation and Land Use Coalition, Sierra Club, SPUR, Bay Rail Alliance, SMART and Bay Area Council.

The staff introduced the study as one that would lead to a 50 year plan that would define what would be needed 50 years from now. Then working back from that they want to identify specific projects for the short and medium term that would contribute to the goal. It had 4 main scenarios of HSR through San Jose, HSR over the Altamont, BART around the bay and no HSR. They indicated that there would be 2 rail plans for each option and 2 ridership and demographic analyses for each plan.

As an introductory remark I stated that RailPAC would favor an incremental upgrade of existing rail lines to electrified 110 mph and identifying a dedicated funding source. For the short term double or triple track the existing freight, ACE, Capital Corridor, Amtrak long distance and whatever rail between Fremont and Santa Clara. Along with this rationalizing the Niles/Fremont area switching to allow the higher speeds. Also I indicated that we would like to see transfer only stations at West Oakland and Shinn Rd in Fremont where Amtrak passes directly underneath BART. I noted that RailPAC did not have a preferred alternative route for HSR. We would like to see the facts for both Altamont and Pacheco.

The main points of discussion revolved around land use planning and Transit Oriented Development, not accepting that BART to San Jose was a given and done deal, where was the study going when it is done, what is the governance of either a regional rail operator or for this plan and there was major discussion of the plan for HSR over the Altamont Pass.

This plan was presented along with maps. In my opinion it is nearly worthless, even though it has a great deal of analyis from a railroad technical point of view. I did not voice any of this at the meeting but this plan would appear to be more of a justification or sales job in favor of HSR over the Altamont that essentially removes any use of current rail lines from Union City south to Santa Clara. It would require significant tunneling both under existing cities and through the mountains east of Fremont. It also would require drastic changes for service between Sacramento and the Bay Aea.

This new plan would also either engineer or expect that the Silicon Valley land use would change drastically away from its current pattern and its companies would move to a significantly denser downtown San Jose, replacement or removal of a major shopping mall(The Great Mall) in Milpitas and running HSR over to the San Jose airport then back to downtown San Jose and to Diridon stations.

All UP freight would moved off its current lines to one that loops around east San Jose and out the other end of the city where it would not make use of its current facilities in Santa Clara or San Jose.

The plan also calls for separate passenger and feight rail lines from where they currently share track. All passenger lines would be brought up to 125 mph with total grade separations.

The reasons that I believe this plan is worthless are maninly that I do not think HSR is going to pass, or if it does the vested interests would not allow such a drastic change. Additionally the plan relies on a significant forced change to economics and demographics of the South Bay. It's as if all that is currently there would either go away or change to a high density city like San Francisco in the next 50 years. The logistics and construction, although doable technically, are just not realistic. The steering group for the MTC study includes the Santa Clara Leadership Group and politicians who would have to change considerably.

Its just not going to happen and if this is the only way that the Altamont route would work then it ain't going to happen. I would expect many of our usual allies who support passenger rail to be lining up behind this plan.

Back to the MTC Regional Rail Study

It appears that the are looking for a list of projects. This plan will be presented to the legislature, as it is funded by state legislation. There will be 5 rounds of public meetings over the next couple of years. The plan is due in 2007. The plan must also address all freight rail lines and how they work with Long Beach ports and the Port of Oakland. The freight analysis will include operations all over the state.


RailPAC Contacts Publications Issues Meeting Reports 2005 Reports 2005-11-16 Capitol 2005-11-10 San Joaquin 2005-11 Announcement 2005-10-24 Bay Area 2005-09-21 Capitol 2005-09-14 LOSSAN 2005-09 Coast and TAMC 2005-09-08 San Joaquin 2005-07-14 San Joaquin 2005-07-11 TAMC 2005-06-25 CASHRA 2005-06-16 LOSSAN 2005-06-15 Capitol 2005-05-30 TAMC 2005-05-12 San Joaquin 2005-04-27 Coast Rail 2005-04-19 LOS-SAN 2005-03-11 San Joaquin 2005-02-16 Capitol 2005 Annual 2005-01 San Joaquin 2005-01 Monterey Membership Links	Meeting Report and Commentary Bay Area Regional Rail Plan Oakland CA, October 24, 2005 Reported by Vaughn Wolffe, RailPAC director The Regional Rail Plan is intended to provide a "comprehensive blueprint for the long term future of regional rail services in the greater Bay Area." Those present included RailPAC, TRAC, Transportation and Land Use Coalition, Sierra Club, SPUR, Bay Rail Alliance, SMART and Bay Area Council. The staff introduced the study as one that would lead to a 50 year plan that would define what would be needed 50 years from now. Then working back from that they want to identify specific projects for the short and medium term that would contribute to the goal. It had 4 main scenarios of HSR through San Jose, HSR over the Altamont, BART around the bay and no HSR. They indicated that there would be 2 rail plans for each option and 2 ridership and demographic analyses for each plan. As an introductory remark I stated that RailPAC would favor an incremental upgrade of existing rail lines to electrified 110 mph and identifying a dedicated funding source. For the short term double or triple track the existing freight, ACE, Capital Corridor, Amtrak long distance and whatever rail between Fremont and Santa Clara. Along with this rationalizing the Niles/Fremont area switching to allow the higher speeds. Also I indicated that we would like to see transfer only stations at West Oakland and Shinn Rd in Fremont where Amtrak passes directly underneath BART. I noted that RailPAC did not have a preferred alternative route for HSR. We would like to see the facts for both Altamont and Pacheco. The main points of discussion revolved around land use planning and Transit Oriented Development, not accepting that BART to San Jose was a given and done deal, where was the study going when it is done, what is the governance of either a regional rail operator or for this plan and there was major discussion of the plan for HSR over the Altamont Pass. This plan was presented along with maps. In my opinion it is nearly worthless, even though it has a great deal of analyis from a railroad technical point of view. I did not voice any of this at the meeting but this plan would appear to be more of a justification or sales job in favor of HSR over the Altamont that essentially removes any use of current rail lines from Union City south to Santa Clara. It would require significant tunneling both under existing cities and through the mountains east of Fremont. It also would require drastic changes for service between Sacramento and the Bay Aea. This new plan would also either engineer or expect that the Silicon Valley land use would change drastically away from its current pattern and its companies would move to a significantly denser downtown San Jose, replacement or removal of a major shopping mall(The Great Mall) in Milpitas and running HSR over to the San Jose airport then back to downtown San Jose and to Diridon stations. All UP freight would moved off its current lines to one that loops around east San Jose and out the other end of the city where it would not make use of its current facilities in Santa Clara or San Jose. The plan also calls for separate passenger and feight rail lines from where they currently share track. All passenger lines would be brought up to 125 mph with total grade separations. The reasons that I believe this plan is worthless are maninly that I do not think HSR is going to pass, or if it does the vested interests would not allow such a drastic change. Additionally the plan relies on a significant forced change to economics and demographics of the South Bay. It's as if all that is currently there would either go away or change to a high density city like San Francisco in the next 50 years. The logistics and construction, although doable technically, are just not realistic. The steering group for the MTC study includes the Santa Clara Leadership Group and politicians who would have to change considerably. Its just not going to happen and if this is the only way that the Altamont route would work then it ain't going to happen. I would expect many of our usual allies who support passenger rail to be lining up behind this plan. Back to the MTC Regional Rail Study It appears that the are looking for a list of projects. This plan will be presented to the legislature, as it is funded by state legislation. There will be 5 rounds of public meetings over the next couple of years. The plan is due in 2007. The plan must also address all freight rail lines and how they work with Long Beach ports and the Port of Oakland. The freight analysis will include operations all over the state.
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