As more facts come out, it is becoming clear that of the three proposed routes for the envisioned high-speed rail right-of-way through Madera County the one known as A-1 would be the least harmful.

None of the routes will be beneficial to our county.

There will be no stops here.

Riders who want to head for Yosemite National Park will stop in Merced or Fresno, where depots will be established. They’ll never know Madera is a Yosemite gateway.

All the trains will do is roar through 40 or 50 times a day as they speed like shells from Navy guns, carrying people who, for the most part will not live here or be headed here.

The proposed A-1 route would generally follow the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad right-of-way. While its presence would not be without negative effects — some homeowners adjacent to the line would have to move, some agricultural land would be sliced off — at least the cities of Madera and Chowchilla would remain whole.

The A-2 route would roll right through Madera and Chowchilla, dividing those two cities even more than they are now with a wall of steel and wire some 40 feet to as much as 90 feet high. It would wipe out Fairmead.

The A-3 route, which would run through agricultural land west of the cities, would carve up some of the world’s most productive farmland, taking it and a lot of its infrastructure permanently out of production and destroying forever the income it brings the farmers and our county.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe route, on the other hand, already traverses farmland. Another 100 feet or so would have to be shaved off to accommodate the bullet train, but that would be the least damaging result.

We support the high-speed rail system, but we also support causing the least harm possible.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 4:14 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.