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I tend to align with what Alon Levy called "technicals" in my criticism of CA HSR[0]. I think Fallows comes across as uninformed as to the details of railroadin
by ZanyProgrammer 12y ago
I tend to align with what Alon Levy called "technicals" in my criticism of CA HSR[0]. I think Fallows comes across as uninformed as to the details of railroading and public transit in CA, and Dan Richards is a rather one sided mouthpiece. The biggest challenges to HSR that I see are:
1. Pacheco vs Altamont. Altamont is faster, involves less travel through the Santa Clara County suburbs, is faster to Sacramento, and gives us a second bay rail crossing.
2. Tejon Pass vs the detour to Palmdale. Yep, HSR is going to make a big detour out to Palmdale to help build up exurban sprawl. Never mind that its more properly a Metrolink concern, the state is subsidizing sprawl.
Finally, this whopper from the article:
"Uh, I helped build that project [JF note: Dan Richard was on the BART board from 1992 to 2004] and it is a smashing success. The ridership projections proved inaccurate in its first few years only because of the effects on air travel of Sept 11th and the ensuing economic downturn. Within five years, the project was quite robust and today is operating at 105% of its costs from downtown SF to the airport, extraordinary for an urban mass transit system. "
Jesus, what a joke. BART to Millbrae ruined SamTrans financially, and has been underwhelming performance wise. Does anyone think the current system works well? What should've happened is that the people mover at SFO should've been extended to Millbrae or San Bruno. The Millbrae BART station is nothing more than a massive gift to contractors (my god, how much concrete was used?), and is horrible to actually get around in. Oh, BTW there are three BART tracks in Millbrae, and one is never used.
I remember hearing plans of building an HSR tunnel under Millbrae BART (in a world where money grows on trees) rather than having BART give up a track or two.
[0]http://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/politicals-vs-technicals-the-primary-division-of-transit-activists/ http://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/polit...