Proposal Could Get Bullet Trains Running Sooner
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- A proposal to launch bullet trains through the San Francisco Bay area on retooled Caltrain tracks instead of a brand-new rail line was expected to be considered later this week.
The San Jose Mercury News reported Monday that it would cost $1.5 billion to electrify two existing Caltrain tracks instead of $6.1 billion to build four tracks between San Francisco and San Jose.
The savings have a trade-off, though. The bullet trains wouldn't be able to travel at maximum speed while sharing tracks with Caltrain's commuter trains, and fewer trains would be able to make the promised three-hour trip to Anaheim.
California High-Speed Rail Authority officials said the two-track plan also would allow them to get the bullet trains moving to at least some parts of the state more quickly, perhaps by the end of the decade, while they secure money for the $43 billion overall project.
"We don't have the money, and in fact in the interim maybe there's not even demand for that great of a system," the authority's deputy director, Jeff Barker, told the Mercury-News.
Barker said the high-speed corridor would need to be upgraded to four tracks through the San Francisco Bay area by 2035, although some communities north of San Jose have expressed concern that a line that wide would impinge on residential communities.
The pair of Caltrain tracks would need to be modified to electric before they could accommodate the faster trains. The rail authority's board is set to vote on a proposal for moving ahead with that plan on Thursday.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
