SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News

[northbay]

from the future:

BART Gets Federal Dollars On Accident
by North Bay
July 8, 2016

In a request for federal money from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to the Federal Transit Administration, the SFMTA accidentally wrote "BART" instead of "BRT" (Bus Rapid Transit) in key sections, meaning the Bay Area Rapid Transit system will be receiving the money instead a supreme court judge ruled yesterday.

Judge Anthony Hexter ruled that "legally, the documents state the money is for 'BART', so the money has to go to BART." Muni chief Chris Daly issued a press release, countering: "This ruling is ridicolous. It is clear that we intended the money to go for the Geary BRT line."

The money is part of the FTA's Tiger 25 transportation grants. The agency has been forced to use the grants to fund transportation construction with Congress's continual failure to pass a long-term transportation funding bill.

BART says it will use the money for an extension to gilroy....

source: me

[Gordo]

Originally Posted by fflint

Not one dollar of the federal money can go to any other use, so while I also would prefer rail on Geary the choice is ultimately between this subway or nothing.

That's certainly true, but federal dollars aren't the only ones being spent on the project. The current breakdown is:

Federal: $983,225,000
State: $471,100,000
Local: $123,975,000

Source: http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mcsp/docume...t2011-06v5.pdf

Wasting a hundred million dollars of local funds just because it allows you to waste five hundred million in state funds and a billion in federal funds is not a particularly good thing, IMO.

I think it's basically too late to stop this trainwreck now (pun intended), but I'd be opposed to the current plan even if it were "free" and entirely funded by federal dollars. The operational damage that this is going to inflict on current Muni operations is going to last a loooooooong time. We might as well just shut down one of the other Muni Metro lines now.

[electricron]

If the legal documents read BART instead of BRT, then that's where the money should go, whatever the intent was. It's important to proofread and correct these typo mistakes earlier, close enough only counts while playing horseshoes.

This is just one example of the failure of American schools to teach proper grammar - when bureaucrats, the experts at dotting i's and crossing t's, fail us.

[dchan]

Originally Posted by electricron

If the legal documents read BART instead of BRT, then that's where the money should go, whatever the intent was. It's important to proofread and correct these typo mistakes earlier, close enough only counts while playing horseshoes.

This is just one example of the failure of American schools to teach proper grammar - when bureaucrats, the experts at dotting i's and crossing t's, fail us.

While what you say may be true, northbay's "future article" was meant only as a satirical joke.

[CyberEric]

Originally Posted by northbay

from the future:


source: me

Wow, that's simply incredible. Somebody is sitting in a hot seat at the MTA right now. Maybe BART will put the money into running a line out to the Richmond District.

Originally Posted by Gordo

That's certainly true, but federal dollars aren't the only ones being spent on the project. The current breakdown is:

Federal: $983,225,000
State: $471,100,000
Local: $123,975,000

Source: http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mcsp/docume...t2011-06v5.pdf

Wasting a hundred million dollars of local funds just because it allows you to waste five hundred million in state funds and a billion in federal funds is not a particularly good thing, IMO.

I think it's basically too late to stop this trainwreck now (pun intended), but I'd be opposed to the current plan even if it were "free" and entirely funded by federal dollars. The operational damage that this is going to inflict on current Muni operations is going to last a loooooooong time. We might as well just shut down one of the other Muni Metro lines now.

I agree with FFlint, I'd rather have this central line than nothing, even if it means shutting down or reducing service to a line that serves the outer parts of the city, which may or may not happen of course.

I don't see this as wasting money. Just my perspective. SF's inner city rapid transit is not robust enough, and while I'd rather have a line that ran out to the Richmond District, this is better than nothing for the long term. The densest part of this city is being served by slow, over packed buses that contribute to traffic problems.

This is just my opinion, and we shall see, but I think this is far better than not taking than money at all.

[Gordo]

^I've got no issues with improving Stockton-corridor transit before improving Geary-corridor transit. You can take a look back through this thread (I think there might also be a Central Subway-specific thread) for past discussions from years ago and links to the various studies.

There is precious little evidence that this project will make transit in that area "more robust" - in fact, most independent reports state that it will do the exact opposite. Building something underground or as a train or as both does not automatically make something better or make something even good. It takes careful planning to create a robust transit network.

I realize that the lines on the map will look nice and spiffy with this done, but that doesn't mean that it will automatically and magically translate into better service. We're talking about a corridor that already serves tens of thousands of people per day, not some new corridor where adding anything will be better than nothing. The Central Subway has repeatedly been shown to be expected to do little for the vast majority of current riders AND is unlikely to create a bunch of additional riders.

Losing some outer service in order to not improve inner service for actual riders (rather than folks looking at a map and seeing a nice pleasant little line) doesn't seem to be a good tradeoff to me.

All that we know now is that this will in fact create a tunnel under the ground from SOMA to Chinatown and some light rail trains will be able to use it. We do not know if people will actually use it, once they find out that it's slower than the current situation (when you combine walk+wait+ride+transfer+etc).

Everything about this plan north of the Moscone station is an absolute disaster in the making, which will result in worse transit service in SF on the Stockton corridor for decades or centuries to come, without even talking about the negative effect that this will have on other lines and the system as a whole.

[fflint]

Both the proponents and the opponents of the Central Subway are making claims I find far too sweeping and extreme to be plausible. This isn't going to transform Chinatown or Moscone; it also isn't going to wreck Muni service on that corridor for 'centuries.' If built as planned, it will be another sluggish, overcrowded Muni Metro line. Big whoop.

[CyberEric]

It seems we'll find out how much of a great idea this is or isn't, as it appears to be moving forward. When it's a disaster for centuries, feel free to rub it in my face.

[Gordo]

It was a bit of hyperbole, sure

However, transportation decisions do affect land use and other related factors for centuries, so I don't think it's completely outlandish to say that the decisions (good or bad) made about a major piece of transit infrastructure (and its affect on the rest of transit infrastructure in the city/region) will affect things for centuries. Of course, it doesn't matter for any of us, so "several decades" is just as good of a time period.

[northbay]

anyone else notice the orange catwalks on the new bay bridge?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by fflint

Not one dollar of the federal money can go to any other use, so while I also would prefer rail on Geary the choice is ultimately between this subway or nothing.

You know as well as I do that if San Francisco changed priorities, with the support of state and Federal-level politicians, it could easily find a work-around to this.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by ardecila

You know as well as I do that if San Francisco changed priorities, with the support of state and Federal-level politicians, it could easily find a work-around to this.

I don't know that there is any easy way to retain the money while canceling the CS, and I don't think you know either.

My local transportation planner friends who are familiar with the issue insist there's no way to get this particular federal outlay to pay for anything else. Since I can't say one way or the other I'm trusting the pros on this.

[CyberEric]

Originally Posted by northbay

anyone else notice the orange catwalks on the new bay bridge?

You mean the ones suspended from the top coming down? Yeah, I assume that is to help them suspend the cables...

It seems like for such an exciting project, there has been precious little talk of it on these forums. It doesn't even have a thread to my knowledge.

[northbay]

Originally Posted by CyberEric

You mean the ones suspended from the top coming down? Yeah, I assume that is to help them suspend the cables...

It seems like for such an exciting project, there has been precious little talk of it on these forums. It doesn't even have a thread to my knowledge.

yup. the catwalks will be used to suspend the single main cable, which won't happen until early next year.

it's location makes it hard and dangerous for photo updates. there are multiple construction cameras here: http://baybridgeinfo.org/construction-cams

[CyberEric]

Originally Posted by northbay

yup. the catwalks will be used to suspend the single main cable, which won't happen until early next year.

it's location makes it hard and dangerous for photo updates. there are multiple construction cameras here: http://baybridgeinfo.org/construction-cams

I keep thinking I should drive up and park in the far right lane on my way home from work to have a look, snap a few pics for you guys.

Thanks for the link.

[ElDuderino]

Supes OK $57 million for Central Subway tunnel

Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Despite continuing criticism and increased uncertainty of federal funding for the Central Subway, the Board of Supervisors gave the $1.6 billion project a strong vote of support Tuesday by approving $57 million in transportation sales tax money to buy tunnel boring machines and start the tunneling process.

The board, acting as the County Transportation Authority, approved the allocation of Proposition K sales tax funds without discussion or dissent.

Last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Agency awarded a $233.6 million contract for the tunneling work. Tuesday's money will help pay for that work, which includes purchase of two oversize tunnel-boring machines and the construction of the starting point for the tunneling operation near Fourth and Bryant streets.

"This clearly signals to the federal government that San Francisco intends to complete the project on time and under budget," said Debra Johnson, the agency's acting executive director.

The federal government already has steered $95.9 million toward the subway, which will run from the Caltrain station to Chinatown, and the MTA is on track for a full-funding agreement worth $942 million by the end of the year...

Full Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz1SgHGczNY

[fflint]

Originally Posted by The Bay Citizen

The BMW contract is worth about $500,000, according to Jim Allison, a BART spokesman. BMW said in its press release that the exterior of the new cars will "will convey a style and shape with unique signature expression to the exterior passenger information system." Whatever that means.

http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/puls...m_medium=email







----

Drool over the huge, awesome renderings here

[CyberEric]

Originally Posted by ElDuderino

Full Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz1SgHGczNY

Thanks for the update!

Originally Posted by fflint

Drool over the huge, awesome renderings here

Wow, BMW huh, cool!

[ardecila]

They look a lot like an updated, sleeker version of the current Muni Metro trams. Maybe this was intentional?

I was hoping the new design might preserve the asymmetry of the original BART trains. That was a very unique design decision when it was made back in the sixties, and I think it's a huge part of the BART identity.

[Clevelumbus]

That's not the design they are using, just an example of the selected manufacturers work.