The $43 billion endeavor is in jeopardy, if Palo Alto has its way, because the project calls for some parts of the rail system to be located above ground in several cities. This situation is not tolerated by Palo Alto, who believes the rail may harm communities along the route.
The rail system is also being opposed by the Stanford University, who rallied with the city of Palo Alto, citing increased traffic and intense parking requirements (the builders of the rail system ask each city to provide 3,000 parking spots for a rail station).
"The city and its surroundings have very little available traffic and parking capacity for such a facility (7,800 daily boarding, 3,000 parking spaces), and a station for HSR would not, in our view, constitute a priority justifying further reduction of this limited capacity," the University says in a statement.
Back in August, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) announced it has begun working on the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, the northern terminus of California's high-speed rail network.
The Transbay Transit Center will be capable of handling 45 million passengers a year. When it will be ready, the train station will comprise one above-grade bus level, a ground floor entrance on Mission Street, concourse level, and two below-grade rail levels serving Caltrain and the California High-Speed Rail.
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