FAQ 13 BART Around the Bay rev 0.31
Alan Hirsch
FAQ 13 BART around the Bay
rev 0.31 4-27-96
Send or update or corrections to Ahi...@best.com
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Discussion of history and status of BART around the Bay
(does not include discussion for BART to SFO)
Q Has there been a study of BART around the Bay?
Q. How much would it cost to Ring the Bay with BART?
Q. How much money is $5 billion really? Couldn't we raise Gas
Taxes to fund this amount?
Q. Even with these high costs, isn't it the official policy to
put BART around the Bay?
Q Why after so many years of planning has BART given up on its
extension from Fremont to Warm Springs at the Santa Clara County
Line, and then to San Jose?
Q. Why didn't we get BART through San Mateo County in the 1960's
when it was cheaper.
Q. What is cost of upgrade CalTrain to BART-level service?
Q. What are the advantages of Electrifying CalTrain
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Q Has there be a study of BART around the Bay?
Quentin Kopp, the BART board and some member
of the San Mateo Co. Board are continuing to talk
about BART around the Bay a replacement to CalTrain. BART's
official maps show BART running down the Peninsula along the
Caltrai right of way.
And the extension of BART to Millbrae instead of just to
SFO Airport can be seen as part of this plan. as the extension
south of SFO is unnecessary to serve SFO but does ad 200 million
to the cost.
However though there has been much talk about BART
around the Bay after 20 year there has been no study, funding
plan or timeframe to accomplish this vision so it came be
compared with other alternatives to completing a regional rail
plan.
On the West Bay, the voters in San Mateo Co asked for this study
in Measure B in November 1992. But as far as can be determined
the Board of Supervisors and the BART board refuses to do a
study and present finding to the public.
One of the treasurer of the Measure B campaign
(Rick Silver) has stated on this newsgroup he has no
interest in getting any official costs for extending
BART south of SFO Airport and actually opposes the extension.
San Mateo Co. Supervisor Tom Huening, who put the ballot measure
on the ballot has stated to the media that there is no rush to
report to voters cost or San Mateo Co. ultimate relationship
with BART and cost of the BART extension until after BART to
SFO Airport is funded.
On the East Bay, 1991 was declared "The year of BART to San
Jose" by the President of the BART Board. In fact, at that
time it was already for two years that BART beyond the Alameda
County line was a "non-starter" due to its high cost, low
ridership, and Santa Clara County ability to construct 50 miles
of light rail for the same money as this 12 mile BART extension.
A joint BART/Santa Clara County Study committee was setup in
1988 to study this extension, but did not meet for 4 years after
it was clear from preliminary studies the cost of the line was
out of proportion to the ridership projected. Yet, the
committee did not announce the project was abandoned.
In the mean time available funds
were locked up for other BART and LRT projects, leaving
none available for conventional rail alternatives to
provide transit in the highway 880 corridor, such as a
low-cost upgrading of the AMTRAK line to
commuter service.
In 1994,. BART to San Jose was announce "dead", but BART
announced a plan for Santa Clara Co. to fund
a $200 million project to run a CalTrain-link link
service from Oakalnd to San Jose---which BART
would operate. Santa Clara Co had already made
plans to provide Milpitas/San Jose service
with Light Rail instead was not interested.
The "FAST TRACK" proposal, as BART dubbed its conventional
rail plan, has now all but been forgotten.
Q. How much would it cost to Ring the bay with Rail?
A. BART extesions cost between 80 to 150 million/mile. Assuming
the 12 miles to San Jose and the 30 miles from SFO Airport to
San Jose, the cost would be in the range of $4 to 5 Billion.
Q. How much money is $4to 5 billion to Ring the Bay with BART
really? Couldn't we raise Gas Taxes to fund this amount?
A 18c/Gallon Gas Tax will raise about $145 mil/year in Santa
Clara and San Mateo County combined.
If this money was ONLY spent on BART, i.e. No light rail
extensions in Santa Clara County, we could complete the system
to ring the Bay by the year 2030. In Santa Clara Co, with so
many other corridor needing transit, and LRT costing 1/5 as much
per mile BART a singular focus on BART will never happen
politically.
Q. Even with these high costs, isn't it the official policy to
put BART around the Bay?
According to BART: Yes
According other counties official long range plans: No
Brian Heally stated on KQED radio as part of their
20th Anniversary Celebration BART maintains its "Manifest
Destiny". When asked how this would be funded, he suggested that
if the entire Bay Area work together we could get much of the
money from the Federal Government.
To put this statement in perspective, the ENTIRE Federal
Transit budget for 1993 Fed Transit Budget for the
entire US was $5 Billion. This is pre-Newt Gingricht.
BART's plans contradict San Mateo and Santa Clara
Co funding plans...though the officials in those counties
are so cowed by BART's public image they don't have
the courage to publicly correct BART's long range
"Manisfest destiny" plans and say they are a myth.
Santa Clara County put no funding for BART for the next 20 years
in its T2010 and funds ear marked in the 1992 Measure A Transit
Sales Tax extension to fund this plan excluded BART extension.
While San Mateo Co seems to have found the money to
contruct BART to SFO/Millbrae, it is unclear they will be
able to continue to operate BART, SamTrans buses, and
CalTrain after this extension is built, much less further
extend BART.
Q Why after so many years of planning did BART given up on its
extension from Fremont to Warm Springs at the Santa Clara County
Line, and then to San Jose?
A. Money. Cost of the BART extension in Dublin was double the
original estimate. Then the City of Fremont, and local
environmental regulations required that BART be put underground
and no through a tunnel to get to Warm Springs in South Fremont.
The Extension further south to San Jose was even more
a political hot potatoe, but reason for lack of progress here is
again, cost-and money. A Santa Clara Co/ BART Taskforce was
formed in 1988 to discuss this. After BART took position that
Santa Clara County would have to come up with a Buy in, and then
pay for a large chunk of the construction cost (with Fed and
state picking up rest of tab), County Supervisors looked at $1
Billion price tag for this 13 miles of rail line and thought
they could do better things with the money. Trouble is, they
never told the public this conclusion... The joint BART/Santa
Clara Co. Taskforce was theoretically working together for 5
years, even though they never met for three years of that
time...as they were afraid to acknowledge thet truth to the
public. (Who wants to say the emporor has no clothes)
No one was willing to acknoledge that BART to San Jose,
and ultimately "BART around the Bay" is a dead issue.
Only after funding for the other three BART extensions were
lined up was the Warm Springs extension, and BART to San Jose,
acknowledge to be dead.
Q. Why didn't we get BART through San Mateo County in the 1960's
when it was cheaper.
The state legislation stated to get the OK for the
formation of the BART district a 60% vote of all counties was
involved. In San Mateo Co, there was significant citizen
opposition to BART, lead by David Bohannon, the developer of
the City of Hillsdale & its Shopping Center.*
Base on this opposition and need to get combined
total of supermajority vote on BART,
it was decided not to have San Mateo County join with
SF, Alameda and Contra Costa on the Vote.
BART just squeeked by in winning this vote, but only
because at the time SF has a mucher greater percentage of the
population compared to East Bay at the time, and they voted
overwhelming more in favor of BART vs East Bay's bare
majority approval votes.
If San Mateo County voted for BART and its sales tax, it
BART would probably not have been approved anywhere.
However, BART was never cheap. If you remember the BART district
had to go back to the votes for exra money due to 100% cost
overruns during its initial construction.
Q. I have been told that to upgrade CalTrain to BART-level
service will as expensive as bringing BART down the Peninsula.
A. This is just not true. For two reasons.
1. The CalTrain Upgrade is Just Plan Cheaper-you can use
off the shelf technology vs BART's custom/high-impact design
2. CalTrain upgrade can be done incrementally, so we can
use the system as it is improved, and not wait 25 years for a
return on our tax investment or pay high cost of "work around"
during the 25 years of construction disruption as CalTrain
tracks are torn up to put in BART.
3. CalTrain tracks can't be totally
elminated. You need to maintain freight rail tracks on
Peninsula for the PORT to SF. So every grade crossing
now built will have to enlarged.
4. CalTrain was is needed to service the new Mission Bay
Ball Park in San Francisco.
Consider BART to SFO: San Mateo County residents will be
paying taxes for 15 years before the first riders get into SFO
Airport. If BART does further south, we will have to end
CalTrain service and force a transfer, i.e. we won't get much of
the benefit from BART until the Entire system is completed.
Q. What is the cost of the CalTrain Upgrade?
Cost of BART from SFO to San Jose at 30 miles x $100mil/m:
$3.0B
Cost of CalTrain Upgrade: SF to San Jose (50 miles):
Here are the rough costs for the CalTrain Upgrade;
Electrication: $250 million (1992 study)
SF Extension: $600 million (1995 study)
Station Improv $150m (guess)
Total Additional $1000 M for 70miles of BART-like transit
service
People who state the CalTrain upgrade will be as expensive as
BART include cost of grade separations and new passenger cars in
upgrade costs, even thought is money is already commited and
can't be diverted to BART or other transportations projects.
Q. What are the advantages of Electrifying CalTrain
> Speed--10-30% faster
> Safety new engine will be able to stop quicker
> Quiet
> Operating cost. much reduced