From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Newsgroups: ba.transportation
Subject: 20th Birthday Party for BART
Date: 11 Sep 92 23:52:06 GMT
Distribution: ba
Organization: LLNL


	I was at the 20th anniversary celebration for BART, and here
is what I found out:

	The celebration itself consisted of some speeches, rather
self-congratulatory ones (not surprisingly), and the cutting of a BART
cake. In one of the speeches, BART's first head suggested two
assignments for two current BART board members: one was to talk the
officials of San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties into joining the BART
district, and the other was to bring out an old study claiming that it
was safe for BART to go across the Golden Gate Bridge and take it to
Marin County. San Francisco's mayor, Frank Jordan, also showed up. He
expressed hope that the voters of San Mateo County would choose to
join the BART district this November.

	The BART cake? Certain net.CalTrain-champions will probably
make fun of me because of this, but I actually ate a slice of it. Not
bad, actually. It was in the shape of two short BART trains that
spelled out "20". The cake was for anyone who showed up there who
wanted a slice.

	Also there were representatives of several transit agencies,
from San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, Marin and
Sonoma Counties, Union City, the Pittsburg-Antioch-Oakley-Brentwood
area, Vallejo, Benicia, and the Napa Valley. There were also some
representatives of carpool and vanpool organizers there, and someone
who had an electric-powered van, courtesy of PG&E. This vehicle was
essentially ready-to-go for regular users.

	I even got a sheet advertising some trial runs of a commuter
train from Suisun City / Fairfield to West Oakland and back, courtesy
of Southern Pacific and using some of the new Los Angeles commuter
train rolling stock. Dates: Sept. 17 and 21-25. I noticed that SP's
announcement featured SP's old logo, of the Sun rising above a
railroad track pointing forward, something that I haven't seen on much
SP rolling stock recently.

	While there, I picked up a lot of literature, including plans
for BART expansion. One interesting side note is that one place, along
Rte.4 near Willow Pass Rd., a grade of 7% will be reduced to 3.5% for
the BART line; I guess that's the maximum grade permitted along the
BART lines.

	Be that as it may, I did get a copy of BART extension plans
from a handout, one that gave plans after the ones most familiar. Here
they are:

	Phase I:

	(Concord) - North Concord - West Pittsburg

	(Fremont) - Irvington - Warm Springs - Milpitas

	(Bay Fair) - Castro Valley - Dublin/Pleasanton

	MUNI Metro Extension Project

	(Daly City) - Colma - South SF - Tanforan - SFO Airport

	Phase II:

	(West Pittsburg) - Pittsburg - West Antioch - East Antioch

	(Dublin/Pleasanton) - West Livermore - East Livermore

	Northwest San Francisco

	(Richmond) - San Pablo - Hilltop

	Oakland Airport Connector

	(SFO Airport) - Millbrae -- Menlo Park

	Milpitas - San Jose

	Phase III:

	Northwest San Francisco

	(Hilltop) - Pinole - Hercules/Rodeo - Crockett

	San Ramon Corridor

	Menlo Park -- San Jose


	Notes:

	The MUNI Metro Extension Project goes from Market Street to
the CalTrain station

	The Oakland Airport Connector is supposed to to be built
before the BART connection to SFO; it will probably be a
"people-mover" or a similar system. It will presumably run from the
Oakland Coliseum BART station and Amtrak station-to-be.

	The San Ramon Corridor will run between the East
Dublin/Pleasanton and the Walnut Creek stations. No hints on what
stations are planned for it.

	Northwest San Francisco may be tricky to connect to because SF
has some pretty big mountains in it -- more than a 3.5% grade, I'm
sure. I'd have to consult some maps before I can even guess at the
routing.

	No dates were given beyond what I already knew about.
Newsgroups: ba.transportation