High-speed rail officials focus on details during Fresno visit, omit big picture | Opinion

The California High-Speed Rail Authority gave Fresno residents an up-close look at the finer aspects of the planned downtown station during an evening show-and-tell at the Doubletree Hotel.

Sure, the big picture remains hazy. But let’s set that aside for now and focus on the details.

Poster boards displayed artist’s renderings of the station design, which features a passenger platform stretching more than a quarter-mile and a pedestrian bridge connecting an entry plaza at Mariposa and H streets on the east side of the tracks to one in Chinatown on the west side.

The platform and bridge are covered by distinctive canopies that look modern, but not overly futuristic. Is it just me, or does the platform resemble a refill of giant-sized staples?

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Other exhibits depicted how the station, meant to serve as a multi-modal transportation hub, fits into the downtown street grid and blends with existing structures, such as the Southern Pacific Depot.

“We have an interesting dialogue between the new station and the historical station,” said architect Peter Sokoloff of Foster + Partners, one of the principal designers.

What? You didn’t know buildings could talk?

Following the official unveiling of the four Central Valley station designs earlier this year, we’ve now reached the public comment period. Officials invited attendees of Wednesday’s open house to provide input via sticky notes and interest forms.

(Rae Lakes in the Sierra high country was chosen as one of Fresno’s signature locations. Which tells me someone involved is a backpacker.)

Margaret Cederoth, the rail authority’s director of planning and sustainability, told the gathering their suggestions will be considered, and that she and other officials plan to return later this year or in January 2025 to show everyone the finalized designs.

Cederoth’s power-point presentation included a timeline indicating construction of Fresno’s high-speed rail station was scheduled to begin in 2027 and take roughly three years.

By then, a 171-mile stretch of electrified tracks in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley will be completed so that testing of the 220-mph trains could begin in 2030 with actual passenger service no later than 2033.

That’s if all goes according to plan, of course. Never been the case with California’s bullet train, which is years behind schedule, billions over budget and still has no guarantee of completion.

By completion, I don’t mean Merced to the northern outskirts of Bakersfield. High-speed rail must connect the Valley with the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Anything less than that – “a rump railroad” to borrow Assemblyman Jim Patterson’s colorful phrase – is a failure and won’t be nearly as transformative to downtown Fresno as everyone around here hopes and envisions.

Sorry to be such a spoilsport.

‘This could all come to a stop’

Even though preparations are being made and environmental clearances gathered for a future route to the Bay Area and L.A., getting the Central Valley segment built and operational has been the rail authority’s primary focus.

The plan seems to be, “Once everyone sees how fast and cool our trains are, they’ll kick in billions more to keep things moving ahead.”

Not sure how sound a strategy that is. Especially if a competing high-speed rail project between Southern California and Las Vegas gets completed in the meantime, which would cause this one to be viewed with even more skeptical side-eye from the state’s politicians and voters.

To hear anything but sunny optimism, one had to seek out people like Morgan Doizaki. The owner of Central Fish Company is hopeful for Chinatown’s future, but worried federal funding for California’s bullet train will dry up if Donald Trump gets reelected in November.

“He did it before – delayed, delayed and took funding away,” said Doizaki, mindful of Trump’s first term in the Oval Office.

“This could all come to a complete stop, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

No one associated with the rail authority mentioned the LA to Vegas bullet train Wednesday evening. Nor was Trump’s name uttered. (President Joe Biden did receive thanks for signing off on $3 billion in funding in December.)

Rather, the emphasis was on ironing out the finer points of the downtown Fresno station and its environs. Take a few steps back, though, and the big picture still has some major pieces missing.