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Will Hanford HS Rail Station Be Built? Rail Authority Says ‘Yes’

July 20,2015-
Light Rail Could Connect To Visalia
Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 5.30.51 PMThe Hanford City Council will meet Tuesday, July 21, with state high speed rail staff to hear about the proposed Kings/Tulare high speed rail  station just east of Hanford.
At issue is whether city should accept a $600,000 grant to carry out out a planning study for the proposed station and area around it requiring the locals to come up with a $200,000 match in the bargain.
The station has been listed as a big maybe in the past with the rail authority’s EIR maps showing the 22 acre location as approved but only as a “potential” station.
The uncertainty has been an issue for critics of the bullet train who see no need for a study for station they say probably wont be built. In truth they want nothing to do with the state project and don’t want Hanford to play footsie with the Authority no matter what they promise.
That includes Kings County chair of the Board of Supervisors Doug Verboon who told the Hanford Sentinel the other day ”There’s no firm language in the document that we will be getting a station.”
“We could start fighting among ourselves, if that’s what [Pyle] wants. I don’t think that’s good for our community.”
Verboon is referring to Hanford City Manager Darrel Pyle who asking his city council if they want to accept Authority money to plan for a station that will be in Hanford’s new general plan area.
“The world has changed” Pyle observes, with the route for the bullet train now finalized, a $1.5-2 billion contract let to build it through Kings County and the Authority closing escrow on properties each week in Kings County on land where the train will run.
In the past month the Kings County Grand Jury waded into the high speed rail issue suggesting in a report that ”Supervisors should not be blocking or denying beneficial funding sources for the county residents and businesses.”
They titled their report The Train Has Left The Station” urging the Board to stop years of battling.
Supervisors have opposed the rail project for years in court but lost and denied an effort earlier this year to get money that would have helped local businesses relocate if they are in the path of the route.
Even though this is Hanford’s decision – they are not happy.
Kings County chair of the Board of Supervisors Doug Verboon said he was “disappointed in the grand jury’s report adding that”I don’t know where they have been.”He says as a supervisor, it his role to”protect private property rights.”
As for efforts by Hanford to secure funds for their station planning,Verboon said “I don’t agree with what the city manager is doing.”
But Pyle says the plan is good for Hanford. “The idea is to do the planning we need to do anyway and send them (the Rail Authority) the bill.”
For the Rail Authority it seems the world has changed as well.
Now they are saying with much more certainty that indeed “the Hanford station will be built” says spokesperson for CHSRA Lisa Marie Alley.
Construction Could Start In 2017
“We plan to advertise for an architect by the end of the year to design three stations including Kings/Tulare” says Alley. Further along in station design is Fresno who already is going through the station planning process.
As to what the Hanford station will look like ”that will depend on what the community partners want that will come out during the planning process” she says.
Alley says construction of all three stations, Hanford ,Fresno and Merced, could begin as soon as 2017 to 2019 to be ready to accept passengers by 2020. A builder would be hired to construct them. Prior to that,Alley says they want to do test runs for about a year on the 130 mile Central Valley leg of the route before it opens to passenger traffic.
A key issue for the Authority is “connectivity” at the station, says Alley – how the new station will interface with the roads, Downtown Hanford  and transportation alternatives to other nearby communities like Visalia.
To that end Hanford’s Darrel Pyle is piggybacking on the project with the idea of building a light rail project east and west of the station tying in NAS Lemoore, the City of Lemoore to the west and Visalia/Tulare/Exeter to the east along the Cross Valley Rail Line alignment.
The HSR station location will sit astride both the north/south HSR line and a newly built east/west light rail line near the intersection of SR 43 and SR 198.
Pyle says there is opportunity to apply for millions of dollars in Prop 1A monies available for construction to connect communities like those in Tulare County to the high speed rail line.
Bringing light rail to the table in the same planning grant may help Hanford cut their $200,000 match in the study down to $50,000 with funding by partners like the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG), the City of Visalia and others.
Even so the Hanford City Council is divided on the idea and with all interested parties being invited including vocal critics like the local farm bureau and board of supervisors  –  to weigh in at what will be a stormy July 21 study session – the outcome is uncertain.

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