HANFORD, Calif. — The proposed high-speed rail system that would link northern and southern California has drawn a number of questions from Kings County residents, including where the new tracks required for such a system would go, reports The (Hanford) Sentinel.
A question also remains on whether the community would get on board and support having such a system go through Hanford.
Wednesday, the Hanford Chamber of Commerce’s Governmental Relations Committee discussed the high-speed rail issue and opted to try to get more information on the state proposal.
The committee plans to discuss the rail issue again on May 1.
“I think we’re more in a mode of just gathering information right now that we can provide to the community,” Glen Cardaronella, committee co-chairman, said.
Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Frazier said the chamber had received several telephone calls and e-mails after the committee’s meeting last month when Carrie Pourvahidi, a deputy director of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, made a presentation on the proposed rail system.
“Basically, it was right in the middle,” Frazier said of the local response. Some people favored the system, others opposed it and some raised questions, he said. The biggest question was “how much land would the railroad be buying to cut through California?,” Frazier said.
Hanford City Manager Jan Reynolds said much of the specific information on the high-speed rail doesn’t yet exist.
Pourvahidi said last month that the authority hasn’t determined a final San Joaquin Valley route, which could go through either Visalia or Hanford.
However, Reynolds said that there’s not enough room to add extra tracks down either Highway 99, the Visalia route, or for a route alongside the existing Burlington Northern Santa Fe track, the Hanford route.
High-speed trains also wouldn’t go through the center of cities, as Amtrak does now with Hanford. Instead, they would go around towns.
According to Pourvahidi, the proposed high-speed rail system would have trains that could take passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2-1/2 hours. And she said that the authority hopes to have some high-speed trains operating by 2016.
At Wednesday’s meeting some said it was critical that Hanford get the high-speed rail rather than let the benefits of having such a system go to another city.
“I think it’s one of the most exciting projects that could come to the Valley,” Hanford businessman Ed Jones said.
Jones said the system would bring jobs and people to the area, including the possibility of a 200-employee repair depot for the trains.