From: adrian@ntmtv.UUCP (Adrian Brandt)
Subject: SFO rail transit setback?
Followup-To: ba.transportation
Keywords: Kopp SFO BART CalTrain
Organization: Northern Telecom Inc, Mountain View, CA
Distribution: ca
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 00:42:38 GMT


From the Peninsula Times Tribune, Saturday, November 14, 1992, page A-5:


Ballot drive could spell trouble for rail transit at SFO, experts say
by Doug McMillan

An initiative that state Sen. Quentin Kopp is trying to qualify for the the
San Francisco ballot next year could effectively keep rail transit service
away from San Francisco International Airport for at least 11 years, transit
advocates and airport officials warn.

A key part of the proposed law would ban the San Francisco Airports
Commission from extending a "people mover" west across the Bayshore Freeway
to connect with a CalTrain station proposed for airport land there.  The
extension has been in the airport's master plan for more than 15 years, and
airport officials say they can do it by late 1996 or early 1997.

If qualified by Kopp's Good Government Committee and approved by the voters,
the initiative would force the Airports Commission to build an underground
BART station in the airport's core instead of the people mover.

Although a Bay Area Rapid Transit station at the airport is not scheduled
for completion until the year 2001, transit officials say privately they
think a more realistic goal is 2003 at the earliest.

Airport Director Lou Turpen opposes the initiative drive.

Turpen said connecting an airport people mover to CalTrain would cost only
$20 million, an amount already included in estimates for a $400 million
airport light rail system that would deposit passengers in front of their
airline ticket counters.

Tunneling BART under the airport, on the other hand, would add $425 million
to the $700 million San Mateo County BART extension, according to estimates
of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Kopp's initiative would force commissioners to impose a $3 passenger landing
fee to raise the $425 million needed.  That would cost San Francisco
residents $73 million over a four- to five-year period, according to Turpen.
Passengers from the Peninsula and South Bay would pay a similar surcharge on
their airline tickets.

Even if the BART station were built underground, it wouldn't help passengers
from south of the airport much, said Adrian Brandt, a director of the
CalTrain support group Peninsula Rail 2000.

Peninsula residents would have to take CalTrain to a San Bruno station north
of the airport, then pay an extra fare to double back to the airport on
BART, Brandt said.  The people mover, besides being more convenient, also
would be free.

Brandt called Kopp's attempt to stop the people mover "a stealthy,
mean-spirited and somewhat cannibalistic attempt to deny good CalTrain access
to the airport."

Kopp, vacationing in Turkey, could not be reached for comment.

His aide, Joan Rummelsberg, said a CalTrain transfer station could still be
built outside the airport after the BART extension is completed.

"It's premature to say that the initiative would preclude it," said
Rummelsburg.  And a people mover could still be built inside the airport,
she added.

But Turpen said that would force people hoping for rail transit into the
airport to wait longer.

"It makes us wait six or seven more years for a mass transit connection into
the airport, and there is no logical reason to do that," Turpen said.

Turpen said Kopp is trying to stop the the airport from building a CalTrain
connection sooner because "nobody in their right mind would spend $425
million for this boondoggle in the year 2003 when they could do it for $20
million in 1997."

However, Turpen and regional transportation officials acknowledge that the
idea of an underground BART station at the airport may appear too attractive
for San Francisco voters to resist.

Kopp needs only 9,700 signatures by late April to put the question before
San Francisco voters.


			<-- end of article --->


I suggest anyone concerned about this to contact Kopp's office.

Better yet, write a letter to Kopp and/or to the editor(s) of your favorite
newspaper(s)--especially if you live in Kopp's district (San Mateo thru SF).
Obviously the best papers to hit would be the SF Chronicle, the SF Examiner
and the San Mateo Times.  Kopp's office number is (415) 952-5666 and the
address is 363 El Camino Real, South San Francisco, CA 94080.

-- 

Adrian Brandt (415) 940-2379
UUCP: ...!ames!ntmtv!adrian
ARPA: ntmtv!adrian@ames.arc.nasa.gov