Once again, you have NO idea what you’re talking about.

If the train box is not included with the new TBT construction you can kiss the downtown station goodbye. The BART alternative would suddenly become a lot more attractive, maybe compelling.

What is so unfortunate about this whole fiasco is that most of the so-called nimbys in Palo Alto, etc. actually are sympathetic to rail transport and public transit. These folks simply don’t want to see their place trashed. I fail to see what is so hard to understand about this.

Find a politically and environmentally acceptable 4 track solution, not berms or elevateds, or face the prospect of BART filling the vacuum. I believe that Kopp has already said that it would be much easier to provide a subway with BART. Doesn’t that tell you something?

One approach, and not that disastrous, would be to pull the hsr from Caltrain and in time relocate to the 101 corridor. I understand that is anathema to the faithful on this site, but is it really such a problem? A dedicated, separate ROW has advantages, even with the curves. Meantime, patrons would transfer from Caltrain to the hsr at San Jose. If the hsr proves to be as successful as we hope, the money will in good time be found for the 101 alignment.

And of course to increase the chance of success move the tunneling to the Grapevine. One less than ideal compromise would be to leave the 99 routing intact and pop over to the Grapevine south of Bakersfield. A west valley bypass line could always be mooted later on.