'Steam' Building Over Proposed Route of California High Speed Rail System

‘Steam’ is building throughout California over the proposed route of California’s high speed rail system. A futuristic transportation system that former California Gov. Gray Davis once dismissed as being something out of “Buck Rogers,” a recent allocation of about $2.6 billion in federal stimulus dollars and California voters’ passage of a nearly $10 billion bond in 2008 has moved high speed rail from “theoretical” to “possible.”


But with the system’s brighter hopes is coming controversy over details, including where the high speed train tracks will be laid.

In the May 30, Bakersfield Californian, reporter Steve Mayer wrote about the controversy over two proposed routes through the heart of his city. Both basically follow an existing railroad alignment.

The plan is for the route to enter Bakersfield from the northwest, stop at a downtown terminal and exit to the east on the way to the Antelope Valley and beyond to Southern California. Because of the speed, both routes deviate a bit – in a sweeping curve – from the existing railroad alignment. Likely historic homes and buildings will be in its path, causing controversy in the city.

Bakersfield is not alone in raising concerns about the path high speed rail will take. Farmers up and down the San Joaquin Valley are expressing objections. And battles have broken out in the Bay Area and Southern California.

“Bringing a high speed rail line through Bakersfield will be disruptive, as well as beneficial,” observed John Hardisty, the city’s retired development services director. John Hardisty now is a court mediator and planning consultant.

Issues of safety and noise will need to be addressed for any route, he said, adding that “rather than deciding that the exact alignment will be where the preliminary study lines have been drawn, the design engineers and environmental reviewers should be refining a route that would least impact the community. Wherever possible, they need to avoid schools, hospitals, homes, businesses and churches.”

Earlier this year, Hardisty wrote in a Bakersfield Californian opinion column about the need for the city to organize its efforts to become the site of a test track and heavy maintenance facility for the California High Speed Rail system. Several San Joaquin Valley cities, including Fresno, Merced and Bakersfield, are competing for the project, which will bring million of dollars in investments and thousands of jobs to the community that is selected.

But route selection for the entire system has become increasingly contentious.

“If you think getting a freeway alignment adopted is tough, you ain't seen nothing yet. This could be a bigger battle,” said Hardisty.

John Hardisty writes about high speed rail and other land-use issues on his Planning Beat blog.

About the author: Dianne Hardisty retired in 2009 as The Bakersfield Californian’s editorial page editor. She now is a freelance writer in Bakersfield with reporting specialties in business and government. Her work frequently appears on her Examiner webpage.