Here’s how you can learn how high-speed rail is changing the future of downtown Fresno

An open house on Thursday will give the public a chance to see a proposed master plan for the downtown Fresno area surrounding a future high-speed rail station.

The open house is from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Pacific Southwest Building (the former Security Bank building) at 1060 Fulton St., the southeast corner of Fulton Street and the Mariposa Mall. Plan details will be presented at 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. The event is being organized by the Downtown Fresno Partnership.

The Fresno Station Master Plan isn’t a design for the station itself, which will be located at H and Mariposa streets, but a plan for the types of development envisioned on the surrounding blocks to potentially revitalize downtown Fresno.

City planners, working in conjunction with the California High-Speed Rail Authority, have been developing the plan over the course of several years.

City leaders and downtown boosters expect the future station to serve as a gateway into downtown for visitors from the rest of the state.

The train station, which has yet to be designed, is currently envisioned as a main facility at Mariposa and H streets east of the existing Union Pacific Railroad freight tracks.

Passengers would use an elevated concourse over the UPRR tracks and the historic Southern Pacific train depot building to boarding platforms along the high-speed train tracks on the west side of the freight railroad.