If the billions needed to build the high-speed rail line from the Central Valley through San Jose and onto San Francisco can ever be raised, we may soon know the route for the nearly 130-mile link.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority on Tuesday made recommendations for the preferred alternatives in Northern California with public meetings to begin next month and a vote in September.

The price of the California bullet train project could be as high as $98.1 billion. The rail authority said the earliest trains could operate on a partial system between San Francisco and Bakersfield would be 2029 — four years later than previous projections. The full system to Los Angeles would not begin until 2033.

In the San Jose to Gilroy stretch trains would use the Union Pacific Railroad corridor before continuing to a dedicated high-speed rail alignment through a tunnel under Pacheco Pass.

“The Diridon Station will transform the transit experience with an electrified Caltrain, BART, light rail, Amtrak, ACE, the capitol corridors, high-speed rail, buses, express buses and shuttle buses,” said Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino. “It will grow our economy by shrinking the time of our trips, benefitting residents throughout our region and state.”

Northern California Regional Director Boris Lipkin called this “an important step in defining the program and advancing the implementation of the Authority’s Silicon Valley to Central Valley Line that will ultimately bring high-speed rail to Northern California.”

Draft environmental documents are due in December for the San Jose to Merced section and in March 2020 for the San Francisco to San Jose link. Final route decisions will be made at the conclusion of the environmental review process.

The projection for completing the full Los Angeles-San Francisco system assumes that the project gets fully funded. Even then it is extremely ambitious given the engineering challenge of building across the San Gabriel and Tehachapi mountains.

The San Francisco to San Jose section is part of the first phase of the California high-speed rail system connecting San Francisco and Silicon Valley to the rest of the state. The approximately 51-mile project section will travel between stations at the Transbay Transit Center, 4th and King, near the San Francisco Airport (Millbrae), and in San Jose (Diridon).

Caltrain and the California High-Speed Rail Authority are in the process of electrifying the corridor, which will allow for both operators to share tracks in a blended system. The service will ultimately run to the Salesforce Transit Center once it is connected to the existing rail corridor, replacing Caltrain’s 4th and King Station as the ultimate northern terminus for high-speed rail trains.

The San Jose to Merced project section is part of the first phase of the California high-speed rail system that will provide a critical rail link between the Silicon Valley and the Central Valley. The approximately 84-mile project section will travel between stations in San Jose (Diridon Station) and Gilroy and (after passing through the Central Valley Wye) to Merced or to Fresno.

High-Speed Rail

Meetings will run from 5-8 p.m.

August 6: Adrian Wilcox High School, 3250 Monroe Street, Santa Clara

August 8: IFDES Lodge-Portuguese Hall, 250 Old Gilroy Street, Gilroy

August 12: Bay Area Metro Center, Yerba Buena Room, 375 Beale Street, San Francisco

August 15: City Hall, Council Chambers, 200 E Santa Clara Street, San Jose

August 19: Sequoia High School, 1201 Brewster Ave., Redwood City

August 21: Los Banos Community Center, 645 7th Street, Los Banos