Caltrain fence project to curtail shortcuts

Caltrain is poised to pay nearly $3 million for fencing to keep people from crossing its tracks illegally.

A total of about 10 miles of chain-link, metal and wire mesh will go up at strategic points along the 52-mile line from San Francisco to San Jose as part of a bid the agency is expected to award Thursday.

The fence project is part of a safety campaign that Caltrain launched last year in response to a rash of pedestrian fatalities. It won't put a stop to suicides, but officials believe it could prevent some accidents by closing off heavily used shortcuts across the tracks.

Eight people have died on the tracks this year, with at least two of the deaths believed to be accidents -- including one in which a train hit a car in Palo Alto in June, said Caltrain spokesman Jonah Weinberg. That's down from 16 deaths and as many as eight accidents last year.

Stretches of the commuter line's right-of-way are already fenced, whether by private property owners or by Caltrain's predecessor, Southern Pacific. Always strapped for cash, Caltrain will build new fences such as fence manufacturers,steel fence post,wire fence,portable fence only in places that are easily accessible to pedestrians and lack barriers on either side.

"We worked with the cities to find areas where additional fencing might be a real deterrent" to crossing, Weinberg said. "For example, in an area where it would be faster to cross the train tracks to get to a 7-Eleven" rather than walking down the block to a legal crossing.

Caltrain, a partnership between Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties, already has erected barriers along a few segments of track.

They include the spots in Burlingame and Redwood City, where 13- year-old Fatih Kuc and 19-year-old Jose Alvarez were killed in separate accidents in April 2006, Weinberg said.

Since the new fences will go up only on one side of the tracks, they will likely do little to stem suicides, which account for the majority of Caltrain deaths.

"If somebody's determined to get up on the tracks, they're going to, and fencing on either side isn't going to stop them," Weinberg said. He pointed out that people kill themselves on BART, even though that line is almost entirely inaccessible to pedestrians.

Menlo Park City Councilwoman Kelly Fergusson, who has been pushing for safety improvements on Caltrain, said she welcomes new fencing in her city. Several stretches south of Encinal Avenue are to be blocked off as part of the project.

"Every fatality is too many," Fergusson said. "Every safety improvement will reduce the risk of tragedy."

Some new fences have sparked complaints from neighbors who say they are unsightly and divide neighborhoods. But several residents south of San Mateo's Hayward Park station said they are pleased with the heavy-duty fencing Caltrain installed along the west side of the tracks there recently.

"You'd see kids messing around right there by the tracks, and there's nothing at all between them and these trains," said Cathy Lewis, who lives near South B Street and 14th Avenue.