tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11021719.post112728449659332953..comments2024-03-01T02:02:02.520-08:00Comments on VTA Watch: Clear cut fraudulent ridership projectionaccountablevtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14035365902584938185noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11021719.post-49556704544268176062010-06-28T22:01:12.692-07:002010-06-28T22:01:12.692-07:00is quite a difference from the old estimate for th...is quite a difference from the old estimate for the first, the blog talks about something very interesting in that I actually thank provide this information!teething symptomshttp://www.teethingsymptoms.net/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11021719.post-72938610500721432502007-01-29T22:33:00.000-08:002007-01-29T22:33:00.000-08:00Arthur, perhaps you don't realize that San Jose ca...Arthur, perhaps you don't realize that San Jose can't build skyscrapers due to the proximity of the airport. see for example<br />http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/02/27/story4.html<br /><br />San Jose also has a high water table, which makes constructing basements costly and difficult.<br /><br />San Jose also has vocal neighborhood groups that oppose density.<br /><br />I'm familiar with Atlanta, though I haven't lived there in 10 years. Atlanta has skyscrapers. It also has lots of low-density suburban development like San Jose, but there is more of a hub to Atlanta than San Jose in terms of top job destinations, so it is easier to serve in a spoke and wheel pattern. In San Jose, most suburban San Joseans don't work downtown.<br /><br />Finally, MARTA has had major financial problems for years, and when I rode it, it was unreliable. It appears to continue to suffer from frequent breakdowns, and hardly seems to be the system that San Jose wants to emulate.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11021719.post-1141444946213539982006-03-03T20:02:00.000-08:002006-03-03T20:02:00.000-08:00Gonzo signed a back room deal with BART to gain en...Gonzo signed a back room deal with BART to gain entry into their build queue ahead of already promised Livermore and other extensions. The deal promised $12M a quarter as soon as BART started up operations crossing the County Line. That has sinced morphed to $10M a month in the current VTA spend plan scenario - seen in the March 2nd Board Packet on vta.org<BR/>With the proposed new County tax bringing in $163M a year - according to the 28FEB SCC BOD Mtg. agenda item 78 first attachment - where is the $120M "subscription fee" to BART going to come from? The County was hoping to net half of the additional tax so it looks like another $40M shortfall to the County to add to their current $111M shortfall.<BR/>Shortfall numbers change but the fact of sending $2.7B out of the County for something that doesn't feed riders into the local transit grid but only results in further dismantling of it is repugnent. VTA continues to reduce bus service when it is provided more than enough dedicated transit tax money to run y2k levels of service. Why? Where is all of the transit money being spent?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11021719.post-1133304871259510712005-11-29T14:54:00.000-08:002005-11-29T14:54:00.000-08:00What about this CalTrain Metro East plan to expand...What about this <A HREF="http://www.sfcityscape.com/log_05_10-12.html#1126" REL="nofollow">CalTrain Metro East</A> plan to expand CalTrain instead of BART?<BR/><BR/>It seems like it would be a lot less expensive.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11021719.post-1128705304475616522005-10-07T10:15:00.000-07:002005-10-07T10:15:00.000-07:00VTA and SJ leaders should get in touch with realit...VTA and SJ leaders should get in touch with reality and come up with realistic numbers. To project out to 2030 is absolutly ridiculous when it is very clear the real demand for BART to SJ Downtown is no where near reality anytime now or even in the year 2030. Those numbers show that they are fraudulently pushing fiction. I just do not see SJ citizens approving massive developments that are bigger then SF's current office space. I am willing to bet without a doubt if they did build the $5 to 6 billion project(we sure know about estimates, e.g. Bay Bridge) the ridership would be less then the current SF to SF Airport route. Clearly the best and efficient alternative is to extend the VTA light rail to the future Warm Springs BART station or to another BART station.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11021719.post-1128704487052291302005-10-07T10:01:00.000-07:002005-10-07T10:01:00.000-07:00San Jose BART Death Watch: Caltrain Electrificatio...San Jose BART Death Watch: Caltrain Electrification Lives Edition<BR/>How's this for ironic: The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which for years has been doing everything in its power to spike Caltrain electrification and anything else that might endanger its mission of BART über alles, is rallying South Bay officials around a plan that would delay BART-to-San Jose for three years to pay for Caltrain and rapid buses. No, Carl Guardino and company haven't had a change of heart — they've just come around, apparently, to the idea that without support from parts of Santa Clara County that won't benefit from BART, the additional tax needed to not just build but run the train doesn't stand a chance of the two-thirds approval necessary for passage. Is San Jose BART too high a price to pay for Caltrain electrification? It's too high a price to pay, period — over $6 billion for a line that, we're willing to bet, will have less patronage than Muni's 38-Geary bus. But at least the silver bullet might come with a silver lining. Oh, about those rapid buses: They would take the place of planned (before BART came along, anyway) light rail lines, including one along East Santa Clara Street, part of the South Bay's first BRT line and the one corridor in the Valley where streetcars might make sense. 17 Sep 2005Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11021719.post-1128704427403252952005-10-07T10:00:00.000-07:002005-10-07T10:00:00.000-07:00San Jose BART Death Watch: Lies, Damned Lies and S...San Jose BART Death Watch: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics Edition<BR/>Now this one is from the Are you f***ing kidding me? file: Backers of South Bay BART have upsized ridership estimates yet again, this time to 111,500 boardings per weekday (just to be clear, that's a year-2030 projection; previous figures were for earlier years). Let's review, shall we? In 1999, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission projected, preliminarily at least, daily ridership of just 10,000. A year later, San Jose and Valley Transportation Authority officials predicted ridership of 45,000 — unless another 144 million square feet of buildings were to be added to Downtown San Jose, increasing the amount of office space by 600 percent and its population by 3000 percent. In that case? 78,000 riders. When their number was roundly criticized, they forecast a new figure, based on "more sophisticated modeling," of ... 78,000. That was for the year 2020; later, the VTA revised the count to 84,000 for 2025. So what's new? Officially, local planners expect denser development along the line; unofficially, federal planners rated the project's cost-effectiveness "low" — not that it really matters, since politicians got it and a handful of other projects exempted from a new requirement that recommended projects be rated at least "medium" (and even with the new numbers, the cheaper surface segment the Federal Transit Administration will now review would still rate a "low"). Still, the project's going to need three-quarters of a billion dollars from the feds, and for two-thirds of Santa Clara County voters to agree to tax themselves, again (see below). Hey, at least VTA finally admitted the project will cost more than $4.2 billion: The new estimate is $4.7 billion, still a billion-and-a-half dollars less than the FTA figures it will cost — but then who's counting?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11021719.post-1128469302465970582005-10-04T16:41:00.000-07:002005-10-04T16:41:00.000-07:00Top average daily weekday volume stations for the ...Top average daily weekday volume stations for <A HREF="http://www.bart.gov/docs/Adopted_FY05_SRTP_CIP.pdf" REL="nofollow">the entire BART system in FY04</A><BR/> (NB national security secret BART webmaster-password-encrypted eyes-only document):<BR/><BR/><B>Montgomery</B> 29706<BR/><B>Embarcadero</B> 29438<BR/><B>Powell</B> 22491<BR/><B>Civic Center</B> 18609<BR/><B>12th Street</B> 11899<BR/><B>TOTAL</B> 112143<BR/><BR/><BR/>Compare to seven SJX stations in <A HREF="http://mtcwatch.com/pdfiles/10-05_BART-SJ_rdrshp.pdf" REL="nofollow">2005-10-05 VTA staff memo</A>:<BR/><BR/><B>Capitol</B> ???<BR/><B>Berryessa</B> ???<BR/><B>Alum Rock</B> ???<BR/><B>SJSU</B> ???<BR/><B>Market Street</B> ???<BR/><B>Father of VTA Light Rail Memorial</B> ???<BR/><B>Santa Clara</B> ???<BR/><B>TOTAL</B> 111500<BR/><BR/><BR/>Hmmm.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com