Mayoral appointed Ad Hoc Committee comprised of four Council Members with specific approved guidelines to follow. The Committee has regularly scheduled meetings involving the community in an effort to bring the High Speed Rail into Palo Alto with minimal impacts on the infrastructure and community. The Ad Hoc Committee deals directly with the High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/.

On May 18th 2009, the City Council adopted Guiding Principles to provide direction to the City's High Speed Rail Ad Hoc Committee. Mayor Drekmeier appointed Council Members Barton, Burt, Kishimoto, and Klein to this Committee. The Ad Hoc Committee has been working closely with the Peninsula Cities Consortium (PCC) http://www.peninsularail.com/ to develop public outreach and education efforts and to explore urban design solutions that consider community values for the high speed train project. As reported in the last HSR staff report on July 20, 2009, the California HSRA team released the draft scoping report for the San Francisco to San Jose High Speed Train project in June.

The Palo Alto High Speed Rail Sub-Committee (PAHSR) continues to meet bi-weekly and will focus much of its efforts on working with the other peninsula communities who may potentially be impacted by High Speed Rail. The Peninsula Cities Consortium (PCC) also continues to engage various community groups organized around the potential impacts of high speed rail to coordinate local, statewide and national legislation.

The 2010 PAHSR Sub-Committee members are Mayor Pat Burt, Council Members Nancy Shepherd, Gail Price and chaired by Council Member Larry Klein.