From: mmoore@staff.tc.umn.edu (Malcolm D. "None of ya Bizness" Moore)
Subject: California Boy comes home
Summary: general bay area transit ramblings...
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 17:53:28 GMT

...and the transit situation seems to be getting out of hand!  I mean,
$1.35 just for a local trip with a transfer on AC Transit?  And $4.00
for a Super Express day pass on Santa Clara County Transit?  I visited
out there from December 19 thru January 2, and I know I must have
spent at least $50 on transit alone.  I tried to get one of those
Premium BART Plus passes, but of course they didn't sell them after
the 18th.  So I was stuck with paying full cash fare for everything.

Really, I think the Metropolitan Transportation(?) Commission has to
get these transit systems to have some sort of agreement between them,
insofar as transferring between systems.  One example of why something
should be done is the Dumbarton Express fare scheme.  I read
the schedule and couldn't believe my eyes.  It's almost as bad as "If
you're traveling across the bridge and you have a BART Plus pass, and
the moon is in the third quarter, and it's a Wednesday between 3:30
and 5:30PM, and your shoe size is less than 10 or greater than 15, you
pay $1.75."  Here, we have at a bunch of different transit systems (Maple
Grove Transit, Minnesota Valley Transit, the MTC, Plymouth Metrolink,
Southwest Metro, University of Minnesota, to name a few), but you know
that when you get on the bus you will be paying at least 85 cents.
(Not like, $1 on MUNI, $1.10 on AC, $1 on County Transit, 75 cents on
BART Express, 75 cents on Dumbarton Express (provided your mother's
maiden name begins with a letter between A and M and 4 or more of the
9 planets are lined up), 50 cents on Union City Transit, you get the
picture.)  I know things have been straightened out somewhat with the
BART Plus passes, but I don't think some people know BART even exists.
I gave a BART Plus pass to a County Transit bus driver once and he
looked at me like I stole somethin.

I got a copy of the nice little pink guide of County Transit's
schedule changes...oooh, that's baaad.  You *know* when they start
lopping off parts of the 68 and 180 routes, things are quite crusty.  I
don't understand why, though, that they would have the last 68 bus leave
downtown San Jose at 12:45AM and get to Santa Teresa and Cottle at 1:15.
You would think that they would have the light rail come out to Santa
Teresa, and you could pick up a bus there into Gilroy!  That sounded
like either a misprint or some County Transit drone was smokin
something.

I do have one question, though- exactly which tunnel did that BART car
derail in?  I was coming from Richmond to San Francisco the following
Tuesday, and I noticed things were real shaky coming out of 12th St.
If what the Useless Tribune said is true, that train was going to
Fremont from Richmond, that's the upper platform.  But then somebody
said they were doin a reverse direction?  Somebody clear this up for
me...I saw the wreckage of the trains while going by the Union City
BART shops.

Well, let me quit rambling and just say that the California boy may
come home for good in six months or so.

-- 
Malcolm Diallo Moore, CIS-Univ. of Minn.                mmoore@staff.tc.umn.edu
  I represent the U of M's missing                  moor0009@student.tc.umn.edu
       financial aid checks.      
           Oh yeah??  Well, my moms can eat more grits than your moms!