12B
PRIDE & PROGRESS 2018
SEPTEMBER 28, 2018
High-speed rail to shape city future GILROY IS TAPPED AS A HIGH-SPEED RAIL HUB Jaqueline McCool Reporter
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Stepping onto a train in the heart of downtown that would take you up to your job in San Jose, or down to a friend’s in Bakersfield in a matter of minutes, may still seem like a distant pipe dream. But high-speed rail is set to make that a reality as soon as 2030. “A hub for South County,” is how Boris Lipkin, Northern California regional director for the HighSpeed Rail Authority described the stop that will be located in Gilroy. He believes it will be an opportunity to open up the South County to more economic opportunities located in Silicon Valley. With less than a 30-minute ride into San Jose, Lipkin said the highspeed rail service will be “very different” than any train service available today. In 2008, California voters passed proposition 1A which gave $9.95 billion of general obligation bonds to be used to build the high-speed rail system in California. Several areas have already broken ground, beginning construction on the ‘valley-tovalley’ leg of the project. The first phase of the line will run from Bakersfield to San Francisco, the Central Valley to Silicon Valley,
and will be completed by 2029. In Gilroy, the rail will either run through the Caltrain tracks on Leavesley Road or by the Outlet Mall parallel to US- 101. Lipkin said the key to high-speed rail is leveraging the electrified tracks to create a web of trains that run throughout California. There has been renewed interest in extending a Caltrain line into Hollister, which is the type of extension Lipkin said the rail authority had hoped for. He said the major question on the rail authority’s mind has been, “How do we take best advantage” when it comes to utilizing existing rail lines. Which is how the “mixeduse” plans came to fruition for Morgan Hill and Gilroy. Although there will be no stop in Morgan Hill, the rail authority hopes electrifying the tracks to run the high-speed train in the Union Pacific Corridor will give Caltrain more stops and benefit Morgan Hill commuters. A “mixed-use” plan is one the president of the Gilroy Business Association, Gary Walton, said he can get behind. He said he is not in support of a viaduct plan, which would raise the rail line, but he thinks a mixed corridor may be an economic boost for the city. The rail authority’s 2018 business plan estimated the economic impact of the valley to valley line stating,” A
SPEEDING BULLET Gilroy will be one of just a few stops for Californiaís high-speed rail, as early as 2030. forward-looking analysis shows that a completed Silicon Valley to Central Valley Line will support nearly 240,000 job years of employment and nearly $50 billion in economic activity over the lifetime of the line’s construction.” Walton also thought the chance to create a “quiet zone” would reduce noise pollution in Gilroy, and stop the other trains from blowing their horns as they pass through the Gilroy station. An urbanized
downtown with a suburban rim is the future Walton sees in the high-speed rail is put through the Caltrain station. “I think having the transportation center is an asset,” said Walton. “We’re lucky.” He does not want to see the rail line divide the community and worries a viaduct or a line by the outlets wouldn’t be beneficial to the city. But says ultimately he hopes the city will take advantage of the desire of people to be near a
transportation center and an urban core. It seems the future is coming more quickly than anyone anticipated. Despite years of construction, in under 10 years a quick commute to and from California’s cities could be a reality. “With high-speed rail, a trip from as far south as Bakersfield and other key locations in the Central Valley to the San Francisco Bay Area will take two hours or less, and it will be the same every time
no matter how congested the roads or how bad the weather,” wrote the rail authority. Lipkin sees high-speed rail as a game changer for cities and economies throughout California. He thinks it will be a sustainable and long-term solution to California traffic and ever-lengthening commute times into the tech-hubs of the state. “High-speed rail is the future of how we’re going to get around in California,” said Lipkin.