DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - With service not expected until 2020, the $40 billion plan to link San Francisco with Southern California via high-speed rail may seem too far off to consider seriously.
But don’t tell that to the more than 100 Downtown area stakeholders who last week packed a town hall meeting to praise and criticize the train’s three future approaches to Union Station.
The historic Downtown transit hub is primed to be a crucial node in a voter-approved system to get riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 2 hours and 40 minutes, and between L.A. and San Diego in 80 minutes.
The meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 21, at Metro’s Union Station-adjacent headquarters marked a continuation of an ongoing outreach effort by the California High Speed Rail Authority. The session was primarily intended to allow project engineers who are currently preparing draft environmental studies for the various route sections to get community feedback, said project spokeswoman Valerie Martinez.
Attendees of the session sponsored by state Assembly Speaker John Pérez (who canceled a scheduled appearance because of Sacramento budget discussions) were almost entirely supportive of the high-speed rail concept: With its promise to create 54,800 jobs by 2020 and greatly reduce travel times between key California cities, the project appeals to a wide demographic. But there remains a healthy dose of public skepticism when it comes to the authority’s specific alignment options for approaching and departing Union Station.
Downtown stands to be impacted by three sections of the high-speed rail system. The Los Angeles to Anaheim route, the portion most likely to be finished first, will approach Downtown from the south and probably along the L.A. River; the Palmdale to Los Angeles spur, which approaches Union Station from the north; and the Los Angeles to San Diego route, which will eventually connect the two cities via the Inland Empire in the system’s later phase two.
The Palmdale to Los Angeles route would largely parallel Metrolink tracks through the San Fernando Valley, passing through Burbank and several northeast L.A. communities before approaching Downtown. One alignment option for the Union Station approach would require cutting a temporary trench in Los Angeles State Historic Park. That alternative, which would require the temporary closure of the park, has already been met with sharp criticism from green space advocates.
Another alignment involves elevated tracks along North Spring Street. First District City Councilman Ed Reyes said that it is still too early to grasp the potential impacts posed by the various route alternatives.
“If we’re going to be favoring alignments, the concept is important, but just as significant is a level of analysis that speaks to which streets are we going to close, are we going to alter?” said Reyes, who strongly opposed the authority’s early proposal to study only one alignment out of Union Station to Palmdale; that segment would have traversed the eastern edge of the L.A. River.
“I’m very appreciative of the range of choices we have today,” Reyes said. “But to choose one line at this point is almost impossible.”
Reyes and a growing coalition of park and community groups are urging the authority to investigate a so-called “long tunnel” option that would bore under the Los Angeles State Historic and Rio de Los Angeles State parks. Martinez said the group is indeed considering such an alignment.
The authority is also mulling several options for how to approach Union Station in the L.A. to Anaheim section. Alignment options include elevated viaduct platforms that would cut through or snake around a mostly industrial neighborhood near First Street and the L.A. River. The routes have variable angles in their approach to the station. Sharp angles are often built to lessen community impact, but the sharper the angle, the slower the train’s speed in that section of track, said Tyler Bonstead, project manager for the L.A. to Anaheim route.
Currently, the Los Angeles to Anaheim route is on the fastest completion track, said Martinez. The draft environmental study is scheduled for completion in January. The board would then be slated to select an alignment by September 2011, with shovels hitting dirt in early 2013. The Palmdale to Los Angeles route is about three months behind, she said. The Los Angeles to San Diego portion is part of phase two and requires much more environmental and route analysis.
More detailed alignment information is at cahighspeedrail.ca.gov.
Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.
page 6, 09/27/2010
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anonymous posted at 2:18 pm on Fri, Sep 24, 2010.
Tunnels are less intrusive but at over $700,000,000 a mile it is very difficult to show the necessity of the enormous additional cost. Compromises between what you most desire and what you can afford are everyday choices.