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.

The update’s big news was a delay for the proposed high-speed 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 big change was the 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. Nonsense.

Hardly anyone commutes from Fresno to San Jose now, so why would they start? But people do commute from Merced and Stanislaus counties to the Bay Area every day. All those paying customers – anxious to get onboard – would be left waiting for a train 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 to some tough talk from the Valley’s legislative caucus and county officials.

“John Pedrozo, God bless that guy,” said Stanislaus Supervisor Vito Chiesa. “The way it went, he gets a lot of the credit.” But so should Gray, Sens. Anthony Cannella of Ceres and Cathleen Galgiani of Manteca, and others working on the Valley’s behalf.

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

Now, Merced is back in the plan with a single-track extension running to the Chowchilla “wye,” where the tracks turn west. Money has been promised to extend the Altamont Corridor Express to Modesto and possibly Merced and to increase Amtrak service north of Stockton to Sacramento.

This isn’t about quick trips to see an A’s game. Eliminating Merced 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.

If the authority keeps its word Thursday, 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 Fremont Sen. Bob Wieckowski.

“That’s what makes it good,” said Cannella, who didn’t originally support high-speed rail but does now.

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

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 8:47 PM with the headline "We have to fight for our seat on the bullet train."