They're already siphoning off $600M from the HS Rail project to retrofit Caltrain? This is a joke. The HS rail line will never happen.

Fuhgedaboutit...

If it never happens then at least some of the money will have gnoe to something useful by upgrading caltrain.

Why not just upgrade Caltrain into BART (with below or above grade crossings)and have one system that circles the Bay?

You cannot simply "upgrade Caltrain into BART" because the two systems are incompatible. This is due to some stupid engineering mistakes made back in the 1960s. The #1 mistake was building BART to a wide track gauge. Caltrain, once part of the Southern Pacific Railroad is part of the standard gauge national railroad system. You would have to replace the standard gauge Caltrain tracks with wide gauge BART tracks and still keep a standard gauge line for the remaining Union Pacific-operated freight service on the Peninsula.

Unbelievable.

Whether high speed rail gets screwed or not, a 4-track system is absolutely critical to brining Caltrain up to a meaningful standard. [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language] of the peninsula are screwing the entire bay area over their precious backyards. Sickening

Although I feel that it should be a 4 track system, I am confident that once the Caltrain tracks are completely upgraded, with all car traffic going either under or over the tracks where there are now currently intersections, that not only will the high speed rail be able to move at 80+ miles an hour, but Caltrain speeds will also be forced to use trains that can be run at increased speeded to keep out of the way of the high speed trains while keeping a full schedule of trains leaving regularly. Win, win.