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HSR on the Peninsula, San Francisco to San Jose
Author: Marty Bernard
Date: 08-18-2011 - 20:34
When I first heard about this possibility years ago my reaction as a systems engineer was the obvious: take the middle two lanes of the 101 Freeway and convert them to HSR. The builders of the 101 freeway (or earlier versions) correctly didn't try to go through suburban downtowns. Today the freeway is already noisy. The land is there. Replacing the lost highway capacity with HSR is a good trade-off, especially since you would concurrently upgrade/electrify CalTrain (as has been proposed for years), and extend BART farther down the Peninsula, thus no transportation capacity would be lost. The HSR would stop maybe once between SF and SJ and, of course, connecting with CalTrain in both cities for connectivity to Peninsula towns.
Ever since all the debate I have heard has been about the suboptimal alternative -- the CalTrain right-of-way -- instead of the logical 101 route.
Was the 101 alternative ever debated? The thought of taking highway lanes might have been beyond hope in the last Century. But not in today's world.
Marty Bernard
Ever since all the debate I have heard has been about the suboptimal alternative -- the CalTrain right-of-way -- instead of the logical 101 route.
Was the 101 alternative ever debated? The thought of taking highway lanes might have been beyond hope in the last Century. But not in today's world.
Marty Bernard
HSR on the Peninsula, San Francisco to San Jose