High-Speed Rail Video Project

For my final project for my public issues reporting class, I covered the High-Speed Rail Project in Palo Alto. Basically, after approving Proposition 1A to build a HSR from San Francisco to LA, Palo Alto residents are now torn as they face the prospect of the train actually zipping through their town. I wrote a 2,000-word article and made the video piece below:

Here's an excerpt from the article:

After supporting a measure to build a statewide high-speed rail system last November, Palo Alto residents are now protesting the current plan to bring the tracks through the city.

“When I voted for Proposition 1A, I had no idea that the trains would be coming down the Peninsula and down my backyard,” Palo Alto resident Tracy Douglas said. “I probably would have thought a lot harder about it if I had known.”


Santa Clara County passed the measure by a majority of 60 percent, 7 percent higher than the rest of California. The proposition designated $9.95 billion to construct a statewide high-speed rail system and to improve existing transportation structures.

“I hear every day that everyone around the U.S. is looking to us as the example, as the leader, in high-speed rail,” Dominic Spaethling said. Spaethling is the California High Speed Rail Authority Regional Manager for the Bay Area segment.

The Obama Administration has made building high-speed rail a national priority. The president included $8 billion for it in his stimulus plan in February. Spaethling said he expects the federal government to contribute about $16 billion total.

“We’ve proved that we’re committed to high-speed rail by contributing $10 billion of our own and I think the government will want to at least match it,” he said.

He also said this project would help improve the state’s economic situation. “The authority is forecasting that this will create 450,000 jobs and a significant portion of those would be in the Bay Area,” he said. “This project will be a great way to get things kick-started again in California.”

Yoriko Kishimoto, a city council member, said the federal money has put pressure on Palo Alto. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to have this stimulus money come, but some people feel like in order to take advantage of this funding, we need to move along quickly,” she said. “Other people think it’s a little too quickly.”

Residents have been divided since the state rail agency released an environmental report in January. The report showed the trains coming through the peninsula elevated above the existing Caltrain corridor.

“When I voted for this monstrosity, I had no idea I was voting for an overhead train and I had no idea I was voting to allow my neighbor's private property to be seized,” Dennis Mitrzyk said in a city council meeting. He has lived by the Caltrain tracks for 29 years.

Residents have started online forums, organized protests and marches, distributed fliers and held meetings. “I think this will be the next great war in Palo Alto,” former mayor Mike Cobb said.

Some residents are still enthusiastic about the rail. Andrew Bogan lives three blocks from the tracks. He has lived in two cities with high-speed rail. “I certainly still want high-speed rail in whatever workable form is decided on,” he said. “My biggest concern is that this project gets delayed at the expense of the entire state by a small group of not-in-my-backyard obstructionists.”

The community’s main priority is to see the rail put underground. “The original environmental report shows this thing sitting up in the air, dividing the city, and this to me is an unacceptable solution,” John Barton said. Barton is a city council member.

The rail authority did not include a tunneling option in the original environmental report. After receiving public input from scoping meetings in February, the agency added it.

Councilmember Barton said he has been working on a proposal to develop the land that would be freed up by putting the rail underground. He hopes this could offset the cost of tunneling.

Many residents and city officials are also concerned with the rail authority’s process. “The first thing that has to be done is that this thing needs to be stopped in terms of this fast track that it’s on, with all the decisions already made before we can get the community involved,” said former mayor Mike Cobb.

Tim Cobb, the head engineer for the Bay Area segment, said this is a misconception. “This is truly the beginning of the process,” he said. “I think that we haven’t gotten the word out there enough that just because the scoping period is ending doesn’t mean the process is closed down and there will be no more input.”

The rail authority began holding informational meetings in February. It was originally going to close the public comment period on March 6th. However, in response to public demand, it extended the period until April 6.

Councilmember Kishimoto said she wants to make it a priority to get the community more involved in the process. “People felt blind-sighted,” she said. “The California Rail Authority really should have done a better outreach before now. This needs to change.”

Spaethling said timing has made outreach a challenge. “The bond passing in November and the mandate from the state to get this train system done as quickly as possible led us to move this along quickly without the luxury of having more meetings,” he said.

Kishimoto created an ad-hoc group of Peninsula city officials to share information on the project and work together with the rail authority. She asked Rod Diridon, a member of the rail authority’s board of directors, during a city council meeting if the authority would be willing to negotiate with the group. Diridon said the coalition would be given no priority over any other opinion.

Another common complaint from residents has been that the proposition language was unclear. Many said they did not know where the tracks would be built.

“What we’ve heard is that people didn’t know it would be coming down the Caltrain corridor,” Spaethling said. “But if we basically regurgitated everything that went into the statewide documents into the proposition, it would become even more unreadable.”

Spaethling said Palo Alto is in a unique situation because there is the possibility of building a high-speed rail station in the city. The rail authority is also considering Redwood City for the station.

Palo Alto resident Bogan would like to see the city build the station. “To have a station in our town brings us all the benefits of high-speed rail,” he said. “If we have tracks, but no station, then we’ll end up with all of the concerns that go along with high-speed rail—the noise, the cost, the blight—but none of the benefits. We won’t be able to ride on it.”

City Deputy Manager Steve Emslie said that most city officials disagree. “If I had to take a reading of the pulse on that, I think the sentiment would be that we would not want a station,” he said. “It would add a lot of disruption to the downtown environment and attract more traffic.”

One of the largest concerns people have is the aesthetics of an above ground high-speed rail. “It would create a serious visual blight,” Emslie said. “It can serve to further divide the city with a stronger physical barrier,” he added.

Residents are also worried about safety. “We are concerned about the accidents, Asha Karmarkar said. “My own son, when he was twelve years old, witnessed his friend get hit by a train and was killed in front of him. We went through nightmares.”

Spaethling said that this fear is unfounded. “This will be a quantum improvement in safety on the corridor, basically eliminating the opportunity for someone to accidentally be hit by a train,” Spaethling said.

According to Tim Cobb, the rail authority requires that the high-speed rail and the Caltrain rail be at different levels. It also requires that pedestrian and vehicle passes be built above or below both tracks.

He said this will make collisions impossible. In the current situation, cars and people have open access to the Caltrain tracks at crossings.

Tim Cobb also said that the new rail will be completely fenced in unlike Caltrain. He added that law enforcement officials will also monitor the rail with security cameras. Cobb also said that the rail authority does not currently know if the fences will affect nearby bike paths.

Many residents close to the tracks fear they will lose their homes. According to the environmental report, two additional tracks need to be built to accommodate the new trains.

“My house could be taken, or part of it could be taken and I have no information,” Cecilia Lancaster said. Lancaster helped organize the protest before the March 2nd city council meeting.

“It’s not just the houses along the tracks either,” former mayor Mike Cobb said. “I can guarantee you that those next houses over will go down in value.”

Spaethling said that commercial properties within a half-mile of high-speed rail increase in value, according to studies. Tim Cobb said that his engineering group will study eminent domain and residential property value for the next report.

The community is also concerned with noise. Spaethling said that there will be four to six high-speed trains passing through Palo Alto each hour in addition to the Caltrain trains.

However, he added that the new grade-separated rail system will eliminate the need for train whistles. He also said the new trains are lighter and will create less wind noise.

Some people would like to see the high-speed rail line stop in San Jose. “To me, it’s about wasting money,” Lancaster said. “Okay, let’s build high-speed rail, but why in the peninsula when we already have a train that services San Jose and San Francisco?”

Former mayor Mike Cobb agrees. “Think about the cost in impact and dollars when you could just transfer over to Caltrain” he said. “What do you save? 20 minutes? 30 minutes? Is that worth all this?” Cobb said he wants Palo Alto to join Menlo Park and Atherton in taking legal action to stop the rail.

Councilmember Barton said that the situation is not that simple. He said that the proposition legislation requires that the train make it from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a specific amount of time, roughly two and a half hours.

In the March 2nd city council meeting, members voted to create a subcommittee dedicated to the high-speed rail project. The council also decided to create a memorandum of understanding between the Peninsula cities to better negotiate with the rail authority. Kishimoto said that the council will most likely take a formal stance on some of the major issues at the next meeting on March 30.

Tim Cobb said that the next environmental report will take about a year. The rail authority predicts that construction will begin in 2012 and that the project will be completed in 2020. Cobb said that it is possible that the Bay Area segment will be completed sooner.