TASMAN WEST LIGHT RAIL OPENING DATE SET!!
Adrian Brandt
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Tasman West Light Rail Project Newsletter
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VTA OFFERS AN EARLY HOLIDAY PRESENT TO SANTA CLARA COUNTY TASMAN WEST
LIGHT RAIL TO BEGIN OPERATION ON DECEMBER 20, 1999
(San Jose, CA)-Immediately past midnight on December 20, 1999, the
Tasman West Light Rail Project will open for service to the public. Jim
Lawson, Chairperson of the VTA Board of Directors and Milpitas Vice
Mayor, made the announcement this morning. With a newly painted VTA
light rail vehicle as a backdrop at the Downtown Mountain View station,
Lawson said, " The $327 million project will open about a year ahead of
scheduled completion date and is tracking on budget to date."
On Friday, December 17, 1999, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation
Authority (VTA) will hold the first event to celebrate the expanded
light rail service. The communities will have the opportunity to get
acquainted with the system during the weekend of December 18 and
19,1999.
VTA's Tasman West Light Rail Project is a 7.6-mile extension to the
existing 21-mile light rail transit system. Running east-to-west across
the northern part of the county, the new line will link employment
centers and residential centers in San Jose, Santa Clara,
Sunnyvale and Mountain View. An estimated 180,000 jobs are located
along the Tasman corridor.
In Downtown Mountain View, a multimodal transit center with park and
ride facilities will provide connections between light rail, VTA buses
and shuttles and Caltrain, the heavy rail commuter train service between
Gilroy and San Francisco. In addition to connecting the cities it
serves, passengers will also be able to connect with, Amtrak
service to Sacramento, bike routes and county expressways. In his
comments, Lawson also indicated that "The Tasman West Project will
maximize transit ridership, not only on today's rail system, but on
future rail and transit systems as well."
In anticipation of the Tasman West Project, numerous efforts are
underway to plan and promote land uses that take full advantage of
current and future rail service. VTA's transit-oriented development
program encourages projects that support transit and enhance the
community. In this trend, the cities of Mountain View and Sunnyvale
have actively pursued policies that maximize their proximity to light
rail. Mountain View rezoned 40' acres of industrial land for 520 housing
units embracing a light rail station within the residential development.
Sunnyvale increased the intensity of development allowed within its
Northside Industrial areas, now home to a variety of high tech related
businesses.
Over the course of the next eight months, VTA will complete construction
along the Tasman West line including the Downtown Mountain View Transit
Center and Evelyn park and ride lot. VTA will also be testing all new
systems between Mountain View and the extension's eastern terminus in
Santa Clara.
In his closing comments, Lawson told the audience that the Tasman West
Project has set a new standard for cooperative efforts among cities and
organizations. Lawson indicated that VTA, San Jose, Santa Clara,
Sunnyvale and Mountain View all worked as equal partners with the
Federal Transit Administration, the California Transportation
Commission and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to achieve the
goal of getting the Tasman West Project completed. He said,"Thanks to
the help of hundreds of people, businesses and organizations, the Tasman
West Light Rail Project will address major concerns of traffic
congestion and air quality in this region. The new line offers a
transportation alternative that indeed moves us towards a brighter
future."
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is an independent
special district responsible for bus and light rail operations,
congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and
countywide transportation planning. As such, VTA is both a transit
provider, and a multi-modal transportation planning organization
involved with transit, highways and roadways, bikeways and pedestrian
facilities.
Be sure to visit the Tasman West Light Rail Project On-Line at,
http://www.tasman.vta.org.
--
Adrian Brandt
(408) 565-7291 / abr...@nortelnetworks.com
Fred Young
**** Posted from RemarQ - http://www.remarq.com - Discussions Start Here (tm) ****
James D. Umbach
keyboard and wrote:
>(San Jose, CA)-Immediately past midnight on December 20, 1999, the
>Tasman West Light Rail Project will open for service to the public.
Maybe shortly after midnight on January 1, 2000 would be more
appropriate; "The transit system of the future!"
Anyway, I trust it WILL be Y2K compliant. Sacramento opened its new
line last September, and that line is not ready. Of course, that's
what you get when you get MUNI reject equipment.
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| James D. Umbach | apostle (at) mother.com |
| Citrus Heights, California | my web site: http://www.mother.com/~apostle |
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My pet peeves, installment #2: When people shortcut through a gas station
to avoid having to wait their turn at a red light.
Greg Howard
> what you get when you get MUNI reject equipment.
*MUNI* reject equipment? good god.
greg
--
Greg Howard
gr...@sfbike.org
Reading is nourishment which, fortunately, never fills one up.
- Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos (EZLN)
Jim Middleton
VTA's equipment IS NOT Equipment rejected by MUNI, but is equipment
"speced" specifically for VTA and acquired in 1987. The vehicle is
manufactured by UTDC.
VTA's current equipment may be seen @
http://www.lightrail.com/systems/sanjose/sanjose.htm
San Jose's Car Specs may be seen @
http://www.lightrail.com/carspecpages/sjspecs.html
--
Jim Middleton
mailto:j...@lightrail.com
http://www.lightrail.com
Silas Warner
>
> VTA's equipment IS NOT Equipment rejected by MUNI, but is equipment
> "speced" specifically for VTA and acquired in 1987. The vehicle is
> manufactured by UTDC.
>
It's not the rolling stock that was rejected by Muni. It's the ticket
vending machines. As usual, Muni managed to scrow up their procurement
plans for TVMs on the light rail lines. They rejected an order for
simple ticket vendors, which VTA snd Sacramento RT snapped up. Muni
then bought talking video vendors at three times the cost, and watched
them break down about twice as fast (those few that actually got
delivered.)
Silas Warner