In a milestone for one of the most ambitious public works projects in California history, a state agency this week may adopt preferred routes and train-station sites for a proposed $37 billion high-speed rail system like those in Europe and Japan.

Among anticipated preferences are an inland route through Riverside and San Diego counties, stations in Murrieta and Escondido, and a San Diego route that avoids Qualcomm Stadium and slants over from Interstate 15 toward downtown along Carroll Canyon Road.

At a Wednesday meeting in Los Angeles, the California High-Speed Rail Authority may identify route and station locations from San Diego to San Francisco for a final environmental study for the project.

If the 700-mile rail network is built, futuristic trains may one day whiz passengers across the state at speeds of up to 200 mph. People could board in San Diego and arrive in San Francisco 3 1/2 hours later, according to the authority. And commuters could hop on as far north as Riverside and reach downtown San Diego in 34 minutes.

A long way off

All of that is decades away, transportation officials say, if indeed high-speed rail arrives at all. No funding has been set aside for construction, and a $10 billion bond that would start work on the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco leg won't appear on the statewide ballot until November 2006.

Consequently, freeway-weary commuters in Riverside and San Diego counties will have to continue driving their cars or rely on limited mass-transit options in the region, rather than pin hopes on superfast trains.

"I don't think you're going to see anything for 15 years," said Temecula Councilman Ron Roberts, a Riverside County transportation commissioner and president of the Southern California Association of Governments, a six-county regional planning agency.

"I may never see it," said Murrieta Councilman Kelly Seyarto, who also serves on the Riverside County Transportation Commission. "Or maybe I'll be the old guy on hand to cut the ribbon."

Not only is the system many years away, but the Rancho Bernardo Community Planning Board, a city of San Diego-recognized planning group, also suggested that its design was "seriously flawed" because rail would duplicate a transit system along Interstate 15 from Escondido to San Diego. It would be better, the group said in an Aug. 30 letter, if the authority built high-speed rail only between major cities, and tied into those cities' existing public transit systems.

But despite objections, the huge cost and lack of money, Gary Gallegos, executive director for the San Diego Association of Governments, said he believes the high-speed rail system eventually will arrive because of increasing congestion in the sky and on the ground.

"I don't think it's pie in the sky," Gallegos said. "It's a tool that California should continue to explore. If Southern California continues to grow at a fast rate and quality of life continues to suffer, we may reach a point where high-speed rail becomes a very attractive alternative."

Still, plan on

Seyarto said the slim likelihood that tracks will emerge anytime soon does not negate the need to plan now for a system that may play a leading role in moving people in the future. And for that reason, he said, there is reason for his area of Southwest Riverside County to cheer Wednesday's anticipated decision to focus on an inland route through Riverside and San Diego counties.

"It's hugely important," Seyarto said. "We have a lot of growth and a lot of transportation issues as a result, and the growth is not going to stop. With a high-speed rail line going through the area, we could actually start getting people off of the freeway and onto an alternative transportation system."

An inland focus also is preferred by many on the North San Diego County coast, which already is served by rail. Coastal residents have said they are wary of squeezing in another train system that could block access to beaches and compromise ocean views.

Solana Beach Councilman Joe Kellejian, chairman of the San Diego Association of Governments' transportation committee, said, "I've been a strong proponent for high-speed rail going to the (inland) part of the county. They don't have a transit service there. And this will provide a way for the people who live there to get up into the Temecula area and all the way to Los Angeles."

At the same time, Kellejian said, there is money in the bond issue to pay for improvements, such as tunnels and bridges, to the conventional rail system on the coast.

When it comes to station location, there is strong support in Southwest Riverside County for the authority staff's recommendation that trains stop at the so-called Golden Triangle at Interstates 15 and 215 in Murrieta.

"It could probably fit in very well with any future plan for the Triangle," Seyarto said. "Its location near the two freeways is ideal."

Those highways would provide an easy way for tens of thousands to reach the train. And the station would drop droves of train riders in the middle of what is one day expected to be a major commercial center, making it "a whole lot more successful," he said.

Location, location

In Escondido, the city and San Diego Association of Governments -- San Diego County's regional planning and transportation agency -- are pushing for a location by the Escondido Transit Center on Valley Parkway, about a half-mile east of I-15.

However, the rail authority staff is urging its board to endorse the freeway site. The staff suggests it would be better to stay within the rail corridor that is expected to follow I-15 than to bore a tunnel under Centre City Parkway, at an estimated cost of $900 million, to reach the transit center.

That is disappointing, said Escondido Mayor Lori Pfeiler, chairwoman of the San Diego association's high-speed rail task force, because the transit center offers a connection to buses crisscrossing North San Diego County, planned I-15 bus rapid transit and the east-west Sprinter light-rail line under construction.

"You always want to try to tie as many modes of transit together as possible," Pfeiler said. But the important thing is the authority is considering building an inland line with a stop in Escondido, she said. A station also is proposed for Mira Mesa.

Pfeiler said another good thing is the authority is proposing to take the high-speed train all the way to downtown San Diego. Originally, the end of the line was to be Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley, several miles to the north.

The authority staff is recommending that its board scrub the stadium spur, and instead adopt a preferred route that angles over to the coast along Carroll Canyon Road. That route would wind south past Lindbergh Field to downtown.

Refinement counts

With Wednesday's expected adoption of preferred routes, said Dan Leavitt, authority deputy director, "We're not going to be talking about the coast any more for high-speed rail. We're going to be talking only about conventional, non-electric feeder-type service for the coast south of Irvine."

But Leavitt said routes are still relatively general in nature, and further refinements will be required up and down the state.

And many people will be closely watching those refinements.

In commenting on the authority's environmental study, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians near Temecula said it was not opposed to the project but expressed concern about the potential for rail-line construction to disturb a significant archaeological and cultural site.

"The tribe is particularly concerned about one segment of the proposed route that passes through the city of Temecula, as it appears to impact one of the tribe's sacred sites, known as Temeku," said Laura Miranda, attorney for the band, in an Aug. 30 letter. "This site is of great importance as it is a chronicled Luiseno village and plays a central role in Luiseno creation stories." Miranda requested that care be taken to protect the site.

As well, Temecula's Roberts said his city will work to ensure that the line goes around developed areas, rather than through them, and that care is taken in crossing the environmentally sensitive Santa Margarita River area on the city's southwest side.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2616, or ddowney@californian.com.