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Mayor Hosterman questioned and confirmed with the City Manager that a draft letter would be ready in the next couple of days which would be circulated to all Councilmembers. Councilmember Sullivan questioned if the Council was going to be silent on the one bullet, and suggested not leaving the I-580 median option off the list for study. City Manager Fialho offered an option which would serve as a compromise for Council's concerns and also addresses the region's concerns-with the mindset of extending BART, that the Council is supportive of high speed rail into the Tri-Valley but that it have a terminus in Livermore, which is supported by them, and that it be built around an intermodal environment with buses, improved ACE train service and expansion of BART, which would be the other hybrid model. Board Director Tom Radulovich said they have not studied this recently, but they did in their preliminary screening look at a few models where high speed trains would be taken to the edges of metropolitan areas and drop people off at BART or other regional services. Mostly these were dismissed because they found that the travel markets dropped away. Regarding with speed through urban areas, much of it has to do with how many grade separations you have and how close houses are, so the maximum safe speed should come out in the environmental analysis and it could be a good deal lower than what has been heard tonight. Councilmember Cook-Kallio said if one was coming from Los Angeles to San Francisco with a suggested terminus in Livermore, one could change trains in Merced and go through Pacheco and up, given the ultimate hybrid. So, it was not to prevent high speed in San Francisco, but to prevent it going through multiple downtowns in the East Bay. Boardmember Radulovich said in European examples, going into the main train stations, both the regional and high speed trains will come in on the same track and the difference is how fast they come through and not whether it is necessarily a regional or high speed train. It is mostly whether the train is electric or not, the weight of the trains, and how fast it is going. The advantage with the hybrid alternative is that even if the high speed train is coming through or the regional train is coming through, it would be an electrified and improved, so you get an environmental benefit by having the different types of trains. Councilmember Sullivan asked if the EIR for the high speed train hybrid option look at both alternatives; the Union Pacific right-of-way and the I-580 median, regardless of what the policy document states. Boardmember Radulovich said the EIR currently includes both the I-580/1-680 option as well as the Union Pacific alignment and those options can be evaluated regardless of what the policy states from an environmental standpoint. Mayor Hosterman confirmed with the City Manager draft copies of the letter would be provided for additional comments from Councilmembers, as necessary, that the Council is supporting bullet number two, that the Council has several concerns about the regional policy decision as it relates to high speed rail, and other comments will be captured and reflected in writing. Councilmember Thorne asked to eliminate the words, "significant" and "major" and the City Manager noted this would also be included in the letter. Councilmember McGovern asked that the next time the Council reviews an issue like this, that the Council receive more information such as what the EIR contained, what kinds of things have been reviewed prior to the meeting, and felt she would have been much better prepared. City Council Minutes 13 September 18, 2007