Silicon Valley could be in for years-long battle over HSR

From the SJ Merc: Most people agree the concept is cool: a 220-mph electric train that will zip passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2 hours and 40 minutes. In November, California voters took a big step in making that happen by approving Proposition 1A, a $10 billion bond measure that will provide a down payment on the system. Silicon Valley residents were particularly excited about the plan. More than 60 percent of voters in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties approved the measure, compared with 52 percent statewide. Yet that support has been shaken as residents and officials in some cities have begun to take a closer look at the details. Although the California High Speed Rail Authority's initial study assumed the trains would race through much of the Peninsula atop a 15-foot-high, 75-foot-wide concrete platform along the Caltrain corridor, most of the project's early supporters didn't read deep enough into environmental reports to discover that. Now they know, and visions of a concrete monolith are generating fear and outrage in cities such as Palo Alto, where the tracks cut through quiet — not to mention expensive — residential neighborhoods. Menlo Park and Atherton are so alarmed they have joined a lawsuit challenging the rail system's environmental approval.