From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Subject: Re: SFO rail transit setback?
Keywords: Kopp SFO BART CalTrain
Organization: LLNL
Distribution: ca
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 09:42:53 GMT

	[I wonder if this is the same fellow who had snickered abou
putting "Big Ding-Ding" into the Smithsonian some time back. And I
wonder if he's just trying to get Adrian Brandt's goat. It works every
time :-)]

In article <5629@gold.gvg.tek.com> mikea@zorba.gvg.tek.com (Michael P. Anderson) writes:
>I support what Kopp is doing. BART under the airport is the only solution.
>SOME sort of tunnel needs to be under there, and it may as well be sooner
>rather than later. A people mover is yet another short-term solution to
>a long-term problem, mainly, the LACK OF VISION of Bay Area politicians and
>planners. 

	I don't think that that is quite fair. I think that BART
should be built to an external station, right alongside Big Ding-Ding
-- er -- CalTrain. The people-mover will get people closer to ticket
counters than BART underneath the garage will.

	The train-to-plane access I've used is at the Philly Airport.
A SEPTA commuter train (two cars, like some high-performance LRV)
would come from Center City and the 30th St. Amtrak station and stop
at four places inside the airport. The airliner desks would be a short
escalator ride away. The planned people-mover will probably offer
similar access. I hope the BART folx settle on the external plan and
try to get the line there not too long after the people-mover is built.

	And Big Ding-Ding may not be very elegant or efficient, but it
does work after a fashion. It is worth noting that BART is considering
its own version of Big Ding-Ding to run out to Antioch and Fairfield
until its Silver Train lines can be built out to there. And the Union
Pacific has proposed its version of Big Ding-Ding for Stockton to
Livermore to Fremont to San Jose. And what did they start in LA not
too long ago? Yet another version of Big Ding-Ding.

>Saying that a people mover is needed because of Big Ding-Ding is like
>saying there should be hitching posts at the Kiss 'N Fly roundabout.

	What's the "Kiss 'N' Fly" monument?

>Put Big Ding-Ding to rest. Send BART to San Jose. Just because the San
>Mateo Board of Supervisors (alias Southern Pacific BODs) blocked BART
>during the corrupt 60's doesn't mean the future is forever theirs. It's
>time for change. Find the money and do it right this time.

	I agree that it had been a blunder for the San Mateo folx not
to have joined in on BART in 1960 and thereabouts.

	It will be a lot more expensive now to build a BART line
through the county, and it's not likely to be finished any time soon.
Myself, I'm eagerly awaiting BART out to Livermore. Even BART out to
Dublin will be an improvement over riding that bus.

	BART to San Jose would be nice, though going underground in
downtown SJ will be awfully expensive. Even going part of the way
would be good, however, since BART's Silver Trains good at going very
fast. The SC 180 express bus goes from Fremont to the San Jose
Amtrak/CalTrain station in an hour; a BART train could probably make
it there in less than half the time, and with a much more pleasant
ride.

>(Ever been to Frankfurt? THREE levels of trains to all of Germany! Is it
>that they're just smarter than us?)

	They have a three-level station??? I've heard of two-level
ones, but three levels?

	But I certainly agree that they're smarter than us, railwise.
That massive post-WWII commitment to the car has turned out to be a
disastrous blunder.

/LOren

Newsgroups: ba.transportation,ba.politics,rec.railroad