For more than a year now, Peninsula residents have been criticized by the California High Speed Rail Authority for jumping to the conclusion that the cheapest and ugliest alignment would be foisted on our communities.  How could we engage in such "fear-mongering?"

Well, it is now confirmed!

In the Federal Funding Application submitted on Friday, August 6th, the Authority requested the following:

"New infrastructure providing four tracks between Brisbane and Redwood junctions is proposed based on the more economical Aerial Structure cross-section as opposed to the Trench solution in some areas such as Burlingame, San Mateo which would be more expensive (see figure 2)."

My only hope is that this new reality wakes up those in our community who believe it will never happen "because the state can't afford it" or "legislators would never let this happen."  And our neighboring communities who have taken the tactic of wining and dining with the Rail folks as their strategy to get the best result for their community.  Guess that didn't work – huh?

See below for ARRA application with quoted section above, page 4 of 19:

http://cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/images/chsr/20100806183201_Redefined%20San%20Francisco%20-%20San%20Jose%20Design-Build%20Section%20ARRA%20Track%202%20Scope.pdf