From: mikel@dosbears.UUCP (Mike Lipsie)
Newsgroups: ba.transportation
Subject: Re: San Mateo County BART/SFO Resolution
Date: 23 Jul 92 05:54:54 GMT
Reply-To: dosbears!mikel@pyramid.com
Organization: DOS Bears

In article <1992Jul16.225749.15484@s1.gov> lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:
>
>	And why doesn't SFO just raise parking fees or do other things
>to discourage people from going by car to there?

Other posters have pointed out that the airport[s] do not want to cut the
number of parkers by too much.  I just want to point out that they have
a golden ox (with about the same IQ); they could probably double the
rate without a major impact on the number of cars.

>	And I've yet to see how a CalTrain upgraded to BART-quality
>service will avoid BART-level costs.

It is a simple matter of definition.  What is BART-quality?

Stations:  CalTrain does not consider this important.  A station 
	is where ever the train happens to stop.  Examples range
	from the expensive stations which actually have a building
	and do not force the passengers to cross the tracks (e.g.,
	San Jose, Palo Alto, San Francisco -- sorry, that's not a
	list of examples, that is a complete list) to the cheapest 
	stations that are nothing more than a lean-to and a truckload
	of asphalt (e.g. Castro).

	BART stations are large affairs (they need to be, they handle
	more than ten times the number of passengers) with indoor
	toilets, information monitors, and they never force you
	to cross the track.

Tracks:	CalTrain tracks are (a) of lesser standards and (b) are all
	at grade level whereas BART tracks are usually underground
	(in cities) or aboveground (in suburbs).  Side effects of
	this separation are (1) no horn and (2) no effect on local
	[auto] traffic and (3) no one run over.

Trains [number]: BART runs almost 50 trains (of up to 10 cars each)
	every hour.  CalTrain runs 60 trains (of 4 to 6 cars) every
	day.  (A CalTrain car can seat more passengers but can
	probably carry about the same number of passengers.  A CalTrain
	locomotive is probably much more expensive than a BART car
	but a CalTrain car is probably much cheaper -- and there are
	[usually] many more cars than locomotives per train.)

Frequency:  BART tries to service the commuter by running every 3-7
	minutes through the busiest corridors (this translates to
	every 15 minutes on the outer fringes).  This service lasts 
	from about 5am-8:30 and from 2:45pm-6:30.  CalTrain tries
	to service the commuter by running (in the commute direction)
	8 trains from 5:53am-7:10 and 10 trains from 4:20pm-6:00.
	(You might notice that this averages to one train each 9
	minutes in the morning and one train every 8 minutes in
	the evening.)

	BART also services the public transit rider by running a
	train every 15/20 minutes.  CalTrain services the public
	transit rider by running a train every hour (two hours
	on weekends).

It is not quite fair to compare CalTrain which operates a single
line from SF to SJ (and/or Gilroy) and BART which operates several
lines with endpoints at Fremont, Concord, Richmond, and Daly City.

If you compare the SF leg of the lines BART runs every 3 minutes
and CalTrain averages a little less than every 30 minutes.  If you
compare speed on the entire line, BART is faster than CalTrain 
normal service and about the same (?) as the express service
(once BART gets its new schedule together).

Summary:  Don't ever say "BART quality" or any other non specific
	term.  Instead, state the specific feature that you are
	interested in such as "BART frequency".

Personally:  I am convinced the "BART quality" will cost
	"BART dollars".  And it's worth it.  But the train
	freaks here obviously differ.
--
Mike Lipsie                            584 Castro #614, San Francisco, CA 94114
dosbears!mikel@pyramid.com
mikel%dosbears.uucp@ingres.com    Running rn (for DOS) with UUPC/Extended 1.11k