Those guys crack me up. Most other towns, if offered a railroad willing to convert from diesel to electric, would be falling all over themselves to agree and be happy. No more deadly diesel exhaust!! (Well, except for the occasional UP local freight.) These guys seem like they would rather have diesel?? Among other things, of course. The only way I see them accepting simply the presence of a railroad is if it's underground, and even then they would go crazy over the construction impacts. And they expect their residents to get around how, once gas prices go back up again (which they will, later this year, according to some pundits)?

If Caltrain were a privately-owned railroad, there wouldn't even be an argument over quad-gates and grade separations. Those are a city responsibility. If the railroad wants to be a good corporate citizen, they might throw a few dimes at the projects, and help the govt(s) design projects that are good for everybody, but ultimately those kinds of things are the road owner's to provide. That said, Caltrain is in fact not completely a railroad because it's publicly owned, so I expect some "mitigation" (for the railroad being there, not the electrification) in the form of grade seps and quad gates will be extorted. Hopefully not so much as to kill the project (grade seps are expen$ive). In principle, though, if they want the railroad more fully grade-separated, the way to do it right comes out of LA: Alameda Corridor, and the various Transportation Authorities (including A.C. East) that have sales tax funding.

Then of course there's the electrification == HSR argument one of them is bringing up (again?). Certainly, since it's a main-line railroad electrification, it must be designed to accept anything that fits on a main-line railroad. That will include HSR equipment if HSR ever gets to where it can connect to Caltrain. And it's appropriate to acknowledge that at least some of the funding comes from CAHSR sources if that's the case: theoretically that's so the "blended" approach to HSR can let it run on conventional rail lines in the terminal areas until they can afford to build their own separate lines (a common model in European HSR systems). But unless there are major track expansions and realignments in this project to accommodate HSR (which it doesn't look like there are) it's a non-issue. Let HSR do its own EIR when or if the time comes. Caltrain needs the wires now.

Oh well. I know how the CEQA game works. This is all part of the fun.