Plans for a new Transbay Transit Center and bullet train route that would connect San Francisco to San Jose circulated this week. Both involve not just construction but also contentious demolition.
On Thursday the San Francisco Business Times reported on high-speed rail planners narrowing the right-of-way for the San Francisco to San Jose route to minimize the possibility of bulldozing residential areas. Bob Doty, who leads a joint venture between Caltrain and the California High-Speed Rail Authority, told the Business Times that route designers have reduced the width of the right-of-way to 80 feet from 120 feet by running two high-speed rail tracks in between parallel Caltrain tracks.
Other plans to decrease the right of way involve putting part of the route below ground along some parts of the Peninsula. Bullet train planners want to start construction on the $42.6 billion project in September 2012 and possibly finish by 2020.
