Standout Facts from Gilroy’s Rail Workshop

of Gilroy’s high-speed rail visioning project, organizers gave an overview of existing conditions and some significant facts that planners will need to consider.

Some standout figures included:

• PARKING: 10,000 parking spaces will be needed in Gilroy when the system reaches full operation over several decades. For comparison, the Millbrae BART station parking structure holds 2,900 cars.

• PLATFORM SIZE: 1,500 feet long, to accommodate a full-sized train.

• POPULATION GROWTH: Gilroy has doubled in size in the past thirty years, at a rate of 2.6 percent a year. That is double the county’s rate as a whole.

• JOB GROWTH: Gilroy has also doubled its available jobs in the past thirty years, with 22,560 jobs in 2011.

• AGRICULTURE: Six percent of the jobs in Gilroy are agricultural, while the rest of the county has one percent.

The visioning project, after several community workshops and studies, will present a recommendation to the Gilroy City Council that will then pass on to the California High Speed Rail Authority.

Check out the visioning project Web site, launched on Thursday.