The draft Environmental Impact Report for California High Speed Rail's San Jose - Central Valley section is now available at hsr.ca.gov/programs/environm… The preferred alternative (#4) involves sharing tracks with Caltrain for the 32 miles from San Jose to Gilroy. 1/
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The preferred alternative (#4) has a few advantages: - Cheapest option, saves $4-7 billion. - Allows Caltrain to run electric trains to Gilroy. - Least amount of private property needs to be purchased. - Fewer impacts on surrounding communities. 2/
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Alternative 4's high speed rail station for San Jose is simple: it just involves a couple of new skybridges. In contrast, the other alternatives involved a massive 3-level elevated station with huge approach ramps that required bulldozing private property. 3/
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Site plan from the EIR of how high speed rail would fit into San Jose's station. The station would add High Speed Rail and eventually @sfbart to the existing @Amtrak, @ACE_train, @Caltrain, and @VTA light rail. (hopefully we get some agency / fare consolidation by then!) 4/
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The Gilroy station would be a similarly modest skybridge over the tracks. Main downside of Alternative 4 is that max speed for the 32 miles between San Jose & Gilroy would be limited to 110 mph instead of 220 mph, adding about 8 minutes to trip time. 5/
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Gotta do Shin-Gilroy (Alternative 3). 8 minutes is a big deal.
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Replying to @khuey_ @alfred_twu
These days I think the most common naming for that would be Gilroy Dong.

Apr 30, 2020 · 5:51 AM UTC

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Replying to @davidbaron @alfred_twu
I'm skeptical that China would build an HSR stop in a town with 60k people.
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China would build a high speed rail stop in a town with 60,000 people, but also build it up into a much larger city. This is Dingyuan station, located 10 miles outside the city in a rural county. There are wide roads leading out to it with some new buildings along it.