Conlon will make protecting the Town from the negative impact of High Speed Rail.
The potential negative impact the High Speed Rail (HSR) running through Atherton will likely cause serious environmental impact on the Town. When ultimately constructed it is suppose to have four HSR trains an hour during the peak hours of each day. The plan is to also have six commuter trains per hour during the same peak hours. If you count both directions then there will be up to 20 trains an hour running during the peak. According to the State Proposition that approved the bonds to build the HSR it is suppose to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two hours and 40 minutes, to do this it must run over 100 miles an hour through the Peninsula. This will add up to almost 100 trains a day traveling at over 100 miles per hour. I believe that the additional sound and vibration at that speed from that many trains will devastate and divide the Town in half with the gates being down a great deal of time each day. It will also probably require more than the present two tracks that Caltrain commuter trains are running on today. It is likely to have three tracks and probably four tracks to run the speed required and the estimated number of trains each day.
My solution is to work with Menlo Park and Palo Alto and Cal Train and HSR to have the HSR built in an open trench below ground, rather that at surface, in an open trench that would be covered when running through heavily residential areas like Atherton and the downtown areas in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. These decisions will be finalized in the next year or two, at the worst, and I will continue to work, if elected, with the Rail Committee of Atherton and the town council to get this accomplished. I have been on the Rail Committee helping work this issue for over five years.
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