San Diego residents will have the chance to weigh in on the three proposed routes for the California High-Speed Rail line that is expected to run from Los Angeles to San Diego by 2019. The state is planning to construct a high-speed train that will ultimately run from San Francisco and Sacramento to San Diego. The railroad line is being planned in eight segments by the California High-Speed Rail Authority with input from regional planning groups.  Three meetings will be held, on Oct. 13, 14 and 15, for the public to comment on the three proposed routes that will stop in University City and then continue downtown. The meetings will feature various information booths — rather than a lecture presentation— to discuss environmental issues, stations, the process and so on.  “It’s an opportunity for everyone to look at the alternatives, say whether they are the correct alternatives; to indicate where there are flaws [with the proposed routes] or to say whether they think something else should be looked at,” said Mike Zdon, project manager for the Southern California segment of the High-Speed Rail Line, and a consultant with the engineering group HNTB. The public will have 60 days to submit comments on the proposed routes, either at the meetings (a court reporter will be present) or in writing, until Nov. 21. The California High-Speed Rail Authority will likely choose one route to study in-depth for the state environmental impact report (EIR) and the federal environmental impact statement (EIS). Zdon said he expects the EIR/EIS process to take four years, followed by preliminary design work beginning in 2013 and completion of the track by 2019. “This is the most optimistic scenario,” Zdon said. Each of the eight sections that make up the California High-Speed Rail Line is being constructed as a complete corridor within itself – meaning that it can operate even if some of the other sections are never completed. Zdon estimated that the Anaheim to Los Angeles connection will be finished first, followed by the San Jose to San Francisco line and then the Merced to Bakersfield track. In 2008, voters approved Prop. 1a to allow the state to issue $9.95 billion in bonds for the line. The federal government has also allocated $8 billion for high-speed rail, and Zdon estimates that a third of those funds will go to California. Congress is also updating the transportation bill, and Zdon said that an estimated $1.5 billion is expected to go toward high-speed rail.   The proposed routes From Los Angeles, trains will travel east to the Ontario Airport, cut through San Bernardino and Riverside counties and head into San Diego County along I-15 to the first station in the county, Escondido. From Escondido, the train will head to Mira Mesa Boulevard. Two alternatives are proposed when the train hits Mira Mesa Boulevard: to either travel through Carroll Canyon to I-805, or to travel alongside Miramar Road to I-805. From I-805, the train will head into a tunnel and stop at an underground station at University Towne Center (UTC) at Genesee Avenue and La Jolla Village Drive. Instead of building a tunnel to UTC, however; a third alternative is to bring the train through Rose Canyon at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar along the existing Amtrak lines and to stop at a station in Rose Canyon. City planners discouraged this alternative in 2005, however, which Zdon called the “least likely alternative.” From the proposed UTC tunnel, the train will surface either at the corner of Rose Canyon or, as an alternative, travel along I-5 to either Lindbergh Field or another downtown stop. Building a station at Qualcomm Stadium has been ruled out by the High-Speed Rail Authority. Zdon said the engineering for the proposed tunnel under UTC has not yet been studied.  “We have to check soils. There are earthquake faults. There could be a whole series of reasons that this doesn’t work, but in the scoping process we have to make the decision about whether we check this out or not, and that’s what’s happening,” Zdon said.   Scoping meetings: • Tuesday, Oct. 13, 3-7 p.m. Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, 4126 Executive Drive.  • Wednesday, Oct. 14, 3-7 p.m. Ramada Inn, 1403 Rosecrans St.  • Thursday, Oct. 15, 3-7 p.m. Escondido, California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd.