CHSRA is on the wrong track. Like their Dan Richard, I have served as an elected BART director for several terms. I worked for three railroads that are now all part of UP (C&NW, D&RGW, and SP) in engineering and operations, including about 23 years in SP Western Division. I am a life member of AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association). I am familiar with rail operations in the SF Bay Area.

In 1999, Amtrak’s “City of New Orleans” running on 79 mph IC track struck a truck loaded with steel at a grade crossing in Bourbonnais, Illinois, derailing two locomotives and 11 of 14 passenger cars, killing 11 passengers, and injuring 128, per Wikipedia. HSR on similar Caltrain track would likewise be vulnerable to accident, sabotage, and severe train delays, what with dozens of grade crossings and many points of public access to the trackway. While most such events leave the railroad relatively unscathed, Bourbonnais shows what can happen with a train wreck. More often it is the vehicle or mortal being that perishes. Shortly after Bourbonnais, terrorists took down the World Trade Center in New York, and HSR would make a tempting target for terrorists.

HSR needs a secure (grade-separated, fenced) right of way, much more than a “one-seat ride” for San Francisco HSR passengers. Hence my repeated appeals to CHSRA for phasing HSR to the Bay Area:

1) End HSR initially at San Jose, with seamless transfers there to Caltrain, Capitol Corridor, VTA Light Rail, and the planned SV BART line.

2) Squander no more HSR money on the Caltrain “book-end”.

3) Plan HSR north from San Jose along an upgraded UP/Amtrak East Bay Mulford route to Oakland and on to Sacramento. Include a transfer station at the BART overhead crossing in Oakland. (Running time to San Francisco’s Embarcadero station about 6 minutes, with a train about every 4 minutes.)

This would be much better, safer, more reliable, and less costly than HSR on Caltrain as planned. (2008 Prop 1A was for “Safe, Reliable” HSR.)

Ultimately Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties should annex to BART for a voter-approved rapid transit network serving the five major Bay Area counties, but that is a different story.

Robert S. Allen (925) 449-1387
BART Director, District 5, 1974-1988
Retired, SP (now UP) Western Division, Engineering/Operations