We have to fight for our seat on the bullet train

Did state officials really think they’d get away with trying to throw us off the train?

It would be difficult to draw any other conclusion after looking at the updated business plan released by the California High Speed Rail Authority in mid-February. It was supposed to be approved last week in San Jose, but wasn’t – with good reason. It was a train wreck, at least for us.

The update’s big news was a delay for the proposed connection between Northern and Southern California. Instead of crossing the Tehachapis, the authority said it would concentrate on developing a high-speed commuter connection between Silicon Valley and the Central Valley. By building something Northern California commuters could use immediately, said authority officials, they could prove their concept and start generating revenues. That, in turn, would spark private investment and perhaps rekindle the public’s flagging enthusiasm for high-speed rail.

Lost in the uproar over that change was a fatal flaw in the new plan: It focused on Fresno, eliminating the rail segment to Merced. Instead of tracks running north to the city with California’s newest UC and hundreds of Bay Area commuters, the rails would go south, eventually stopping in a field outside Wasco. That’s nonsense.

Hardly anyone commutes from Fresno to San Jose now, so why would they start? But people do commute from Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties to the Bay Area every day. All those paying customers – anxious to get on board – would be left waiting for trains that wouldn’t arrive for another decade, if ever.

“I know very few people who commute from Fresno to the Bay Area,” said Adam Gray, who chairs the Assembly select committee on rails. “And people here aren’t going to drive to Fresno just to catch a 40-minute train to work.”

Fortunately, the vote was delayed and that part of the plan was junk-piled, thanks in large part to our Valley’s legislative caucus and county officials.

One of those was Stanislaus supervisor Vito Chiesa, who attended every meeting on the subject – including one after hours in Gray’s office with high-speed rail authorities, Sen. Anthony Cannella, representatives of Altamont Commuter Express and others. “That was a watershed moment,” said Cheisa. “It was the greatest ‘bad’ meeting I’ve ever been involved in.”

“People were outraged,” said Gray. “I was outraged. It was totally irresponsible behavior” to eliminate Merced. “They publicly apologized.”

This isn’t about quick trips to see a Sharks game. Eliminating the Merced station would have created a no-man’s land stretching all the way to Modesto. Without high-speed rail and other connections, roughly 1 million people would be living in a forgotten zone with no modern connections to the opportunities being created in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Fremont – opportunities we desperately need.

Without those connections, we’ll be left begging for scraps – the landfills and prisons usually tossed our way.

So a single-track extension running from Merced to the Chowchilla “wye,” where the tracks turn west, was put back in the plan. But that wasn’t all. Money has been promised to extend the ACE train to Modesto and possibly Merced and increase Amtrak service north of Stockton to Sacramento.

If the authority keeps its word April 28, not only will Merced get its high-speed station, but ACE riders could be able to connect directly with BART under a plan pushed by Sen. Bob Wieckowski of Fremon.

“That’s what makes it good,” said Cannella. “It’s a network.”

We’re happy to be back on the bullet train; glad, as Cannella said, that “our area will not be left behind.”

This story was originally published April 23, 2016 at 8:50 AM with the headline "We have to fight for our seat on the bullet train."