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It's not as if Caltrain is required to run at grade. It's just a historical artifact of how the system evolved. If we had the money and political will to replac
by mtviewdave 11y ago
It's not as if Caltrain is required to run at grade. It's just a historical artifact of how the system evolved. If we had the money and political will to replace Caltrain with BART, we'd have the money and will to create a grade-separated Caltrain.
What would be the advantage of BART over electrified, grade-separated Caltrain? I'm hard-pressed to think of one, and there's definitely one major disadvantage: the nonstandard rail gauge.
- ThrustVectoring 11y agoIt'd remove an onboarding/offboarding/payment stop at the Millbrae station.
- mtviewdave 11y agoYou don't need to replace Caltrain to achieve that. A easier solution would be to convert Caltrain to a gated fare system (like BART is now), and then put a combined BART and Caltrain station behind one set of turnstiles at Millbrae.
- ubernostrum 11y agoWhile we're at it, why the hell isn't there all-day, every-day direct service from Millbrae to SFO? Having a massive multi-transit-agency station right by the airport, only to tell people "nope, can't get there from here, you have to go to San Bruno and change trains" is just dumb.
- mtviewdave 11y agoEvery day direct BART service between SFO and Millbrae was the original intent, and they provided that level of service when the station opened. But ridership fell well below expectations, and BART eventually limited that service to nights and weekends only.