HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > Transportation


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1581  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 12:16 AM
Pedestrian's Avatar
Pedestrian Pedestrian is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 24,177
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChargerCarl View Post
Whether or not its worth it in the end is besides the point, a $60 billion project is far more likely to be killed than a $30 billion one. By not caring about high unit costs you're actually HURTING the cause of quality rail transit.
I think it IS the point and who doesn't care about "high unit cost" whatever that means (I assume you mean cost per mile)? You got a cheaper way to connect the principle cities of CA with HSR than what they are doing?

I glanced for the first time in a long time at the LA thread and now I'm guessing your negativity has to do with the issues involving HSR in the LA metro (with which I'm not very familiar and about which I don't much care--it's your fight). I also suspect that all has to do with politics and local NIMBYism. I wish none of those things were factors but unfortunately, to get something important done in a place like California, compromises have to be made. The overall goal of having HSR from the downtowns of Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose and LA (and, one hopes, irrespective of the LA wars) San Diego is the overarching goal.
__________________
Rusiya delenda est
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1582  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 12:38 AM
WrightCONCEPT's Avatar
WrightCONCEPT WrightCONCEPT is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Long Beach
Posts: 200
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian View Post
I think it IS the point and who doesn't care about "high unit cost" whatever that means (I assume you mean cost per mile)? You got a cheaper way to connect the principle cities of CA with HSR than what they are doing?

I glanced for the first time in a long time at the LA thread and now I'm guessing your negativity has to do with the issues involving HSR in the LA metro (with which I'm not very familiar and about which I don't much care--it's your fight). I also suspect that all has to do with politics and local NIMBYism. I wish none of those things were factors but unfortunately, to get something important done in a place like California, compromises have to be made. The overall goal of having HSR from the downtowns of Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose and LA (and, one hopes, irrespective of the LA wars) San Diego is the overarching goal.
It's not NIMBYism in the case of LA some of us lived through our own high cost project 20 years ago that went through the ringer in the court of public opinion when there were both financial and literal sinkholes and how that can effect the ability and public trust in financing infrastructure projects because taxpayers are naturally more conservative in how they spend money because they see it as THEIR money.

With HSR as I've followed this for a long time, the key piece is that the environmental reports and the process has driven up the cost more than anything but it is also a necessary evil needed to build the consensus as over the years the actual needed planning has been starved of the needed funds to do proper work.

Democracy is messy, Dictatorships are lazy.
__________________
"Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamp post: for support, not illumination." -Vin Scully

The Opposite of PRO is CON, that fact is clearly seen.
If Progress means moves forward, then what does Congress mean?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1583  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 5:24 AM
OhioGuy OhioGuy is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: DC
Posts: 7,649
Maybe California Democrats in the state legislature need to strip transportation funding for any projects in McCarthy's district. Make sure his supporters lose out for supporting this dick.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1584  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 5:38 AM
electricron's Avatar
electricron electricron is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Granbury, Texas
Posts: 3,523
Lightbulb

Quote:
Originally Posted by OhioGuy View Post
Maybe California Democrats in the state legislature need to strip transportation funding for any projects in McCarthy's district. Make sure his supporters lose out for supporting this dick.
Now that is being petty. Do that in the California Legislature and then watch the US Congress eliminate all transportation funding for the entire State of California. A game of one-upmanship usually means everyone loses in the end.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1585  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 5:41 AM
OhioGuy OhioGuy is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: DC
Posts: 7,649
Quote:
Originally Posted by electricron View Post
Now that is being petty. Do that in the California Legislature and then watch the US Congress eliminate all transportation funding for the entire State of California. A game of one-upmanship usually means everyone loses in the end.
If he's gonna f&ck over the Bay Area, then f&ck over his district.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1586  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 5:45 AM
Pedestrian's Avatar
Pedestrian Pedestrian is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 24,177
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhioGuy View Post
If he's gonna f&ck over the Bay Area, then f&ck over his district.
Unfortunately, I don't think the Bay Area carries enough sympathy in other parts of the state, even the Democratic parts, to pull anything like that off. But I don't put it past one of the Bay Area reps or state senators to try something similar. CA is a huge state and its regions are awfully parochial.
__________________
Rusiya delenda est
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1587  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 6:06 AM
electricron's Avatar
electricron electricron is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Granbury, Texas
Posts: 3,523
Lightbulb

Quote:
Originally Posted by OhioGuy View Post
If he's gonna f&ck over the Bay Area, then f&ck over his district.
Maybe all California DOT projects should receive an audit, then every project gets delayed. Fair for everyone?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1588  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 6:31 AM
northbay's Avatar
northbay northbay is offline
Sonoma Strong
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Cotati - The Hub of Sonoma County
Posts: 1,882
Anyway...

Anyone interested can sign the petition for the FTA to approve Caltrain electrification here: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...lectrification
__________________
"I firmly believe, from what I have seen, that this is the chosen spot of all this Earth as far as Nature is concerned." - Luther Burbank on Sonoma County.

Pictures of Santa Rosa, So. Co.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1589  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 7:12 AM
electricron's Avatar
electricron electricron is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Granbury, Texas
Posts: 3,523
Lightbulb

Quote:
Originally Posted by northbay View Post
Anyway...

Anyone interested can sign the petition for the FTA to approve Caltrain electrification here: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...lectrification
Caltrain needs to hang those 25k VAC catenaries to run those new 16 6 car Stadler built in America double level EMU trains which should start arriving in San Jose around 2020. The trains have already been ordered, although not entirely paid for yet.

It'll be interesting to see what projects remains in Trump's budget, but we all know that the POUS budget always arrives at Congress DOA.
Let's hope some budget compromises are made this year.

Yet, whether it is in his budget or not, somebody will cry about it here long before the budget and appropriations bills are passed and signed into law.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1590  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2017, 7:46 AM
Pedestrian's Avatar
Pedestrian Pedestrian is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 24,177
^^I believe there's a time limit to pick the electrification contractor which is coming very soon so they need the money they were due to get NOW (from the 2017 budget), not when the 2018 budget is eventually approved.
__________________
Rusiya delenda est
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1591  
Old Posted Feb 25, 2017, 5:07 PM
electricron's Avatar
electricron electricron is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Granbury, Texas
Posts: 3,523
Lightbulb

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian View Post
^^I believe there's a time limit to pick the electrification contractor which is coming very soon so they need the money they were due to get NOW (from the 2017 budget), not when the 2018 budget is eventually approved.
Has the USDOT 2017 appropriations bill been finalized?
The Transportation Department along with others have been funded by Continuing Resolutions, two so far that are in effect only until April 27, 2017.
http://www.crfb.org/blogs/appropriations-watch-fy-2017

Apparently not yet. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Federal government final appropriations bills to pass since President, Senate, and House are now in the hands of the GOP. And I wouldn't be surprised to see some changes (cuts) amongst those appropriations. Will Caltrain electrification be amongst those cuts? Only time will tell.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1592  
Old Posted Mar 11, 2017, 6:39 PM
Pedestrian's Avatar
Pedestrian Pedestrian is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 24,177
Quote:
Virgin America’s new owner plans big route expansion from the Bay Area
Mar 9, 2017, 5:00am PST
Mark Calvey
Senior Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
RELATED CONTENT

Alaska Airlines, which acquired Virgin America late last year, said Thursday that it’s adding more than a dozen new routes from the Bay Area later this year. . . . after the route expansion the company will fly to 13 of the 15 largest markets from the Bay Area.

Alaska (NYSE: ALK) is adding 10 routes from San Francisco and three from San Jose later this year. Bay Area residents soon will be able to fly Virgin America planes on daily nonstops from San Francisco to southern boomtowns such as Nashville and Raleigh-Durham, along with popular destinations such as New Orleans and Kona, Hawaii. Other daily nonstop destinations being added include Baltimore, Philadelphia and Indianapolis. Those flights also will be on Virgin America planes . . . .

Alaska is also debuting daily nonstop flights from San Fransisco to Albuquerque and San Francisco to Kansas City, which will be flown by Alaska and operated by subsidiary Horizon Air.

Alaska . . . is also introducing service from San Francisco to Mexico City later this year, pending government approval . . . .
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...256&j=77622251
__________________
Rusiya delenda est
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1593  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2017, 8:15 PM
Pedestrian's Avatar
Pedestrian Pedestrian is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 24,177
Quote:
March 13, 2017, 8:38 pm Updated: March 13, 2017, 8:38 pm
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Demolition work along the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge has reached another milestone.

A massive section of the old roadway was removed on Monday and the remaining sections could be gone in just a matter of weeks.
http://kron4.com/2017/03/13/video-ol...h-on-new-span/
__________________
Rusiya delenda est
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1594  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2017, 6:55 PM
Pedestrian's Avatar
Pedestrian Pedestrian is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 24,177
Quote:
I-580 pay-to-use lanes are a success, report says
By Michael Cabanatuan
Updated 4:38 pm, Thursday, March 16, 2017

The Bay Area’s newest express lanes — on Interstate 580 through the Tri-Valley region of Alameda County — are just a year old, but drivers are already pouring into them, eager to pay for a quicker commute.

More drivers will get that option in the next few years as the lanes spread across the Bay Area at an accelerated pace.

Since the combination express and carpool lanes opened in February 2015 on I-580, along the main route between the Bay Area and the Central Valley, more than 7.6 million drivers have taken advantage of them, according to a report released Thursday by the Alameda County Transportation Commission, which operates the lanes.

By paying an average toll of $1.62 westbound and $2.13 eastbound, drivers get to drive about 10 mph faster than those in the other lanes. On an average day, about 11 percent of the vehicles traveling on I-580 through the area use the express lanes. That’s about 30,000 cars and trucks a day.

Express lanes are carpool lanes equipped with signs and technology that allow solo drivers to buy access using a FasTrak toll tag. They’re charged a continually adjusted toll that rises and falls with the level of congestion. Critics deride them as “Lexus lanes,” saying they allow the wealthy to buy their way past the backup . . . .

So far, the region has just 50 miles of express lanes along three stretches of slow-moving freeway, mostly on the outskirts of the urban core. But plans call for a regional network that includes 550 miles of them around the Bay Area by 2035. By then, every carpool lane will be converted to an express lane and gaps between the lanes will be filled in . . . .
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/articl...a-11007105.php
__________________
Rusiya delenda est
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1595  
Old Posted Apr 6, 2017, 12:09 PM
OhioGuy OhioGuy is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: DC
Posts: 7,649
SMART trains set to roll into North Bay
(includes video news story)

Quote:
APR 04 2017
SAN RAFAEL (KTVU) -- The long-delayed SMART train service to the North Bay counties of Sonoma and Marin is expected to start rolling this summer despite a significant landslide that is still under repair.

Once the transit agency launches its service, it will be the first rail alternative for Marin and Sonoma counties in generations.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1596  
Old Posted May 1, 2017, 12:54 PM
OhioGuy OhioGuy is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: DC
Posts: 7,649
Milpitas BART Station to open in December, VTA says

Quote:
The 10-mile, $2.3 billion Bay Area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension project is on track to be completed by December, according to Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Test trains are expected to start running through the Milpitas BART Station this summer.

The station, the newest gateway into the city near the corner of Montague Expressway and East Capitol Avenue adjacent to the Great Mall, is 96.5 percent complete, according to VTA spokeswoman Stacey Ross.

She added the station is expected to be open and running by late December, six months ahead of the original schedule.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1597  
Old Posted May 1, 2017, 1:01 PM
OhioGuy OhioGuy is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: DC
Posts: 7,649
It would be cool if they could stick to the December 2017 opening. I'll be in the Bay Area the first week of January and plan on staying with friends in San Leandro but heading down to the SAP Center in San Jose most days. I could simply hop on BART at the San Leandro station and take it to San Jose. Granted I'll have to transfer to get downtown or use Amtrak's Capitol Corridor train (which I did while there this past February), though it's not as frequent and doesn't run as late as BART.

On top of that, VTA is about to implement an overhaul of its bus network after years of planning, including consultation with Jarrett Walker.

San Jose / Silicon Valley: A New Bus Network
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1598  
Old Posted May 4, 2017, 4:17 AM
Eightball's Avatar
Eightball Eightball is offline
life is good
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: all over
Posts: 2,301
Yikes, bus ridership went down in Houston after Walker's revamp. Be careful what you wish for
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1599  
Old Posted May 5, 2017, 12:02 AM
OhioGuy OhioGuy is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: DC
Posts: 7,649
^ Odd, I found an article dated December 8, 2016 from the Texas Tribune and a different article from the Houston Chronicle dated December 16, 2016. Despite being published only about a week apart, they report completely different stories.

From the Texas Tribune: As Houston's overhaul draws new riders, other cities mulling bus changes

From the Houston Chronicle: Metro ridership in reverse after transit officials boasted bus system revamp would add many riders

And from Streetsblog: Transit Ridership Falling Everywhere — But Not in Cities With Redesigned Bus Networks

Last edited by OhioGuy; May 5, 2017 at 10:56 AM.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #1600  
Old Posted May 6, 2017, 12:42 AM
Pedestrian's Avatar
Pedestrian Pedestrian is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 24,177
New SF Central Subway construction photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/municentralsubway/page1
__________________
Rusiya delenda est
Reply With Quote
     
     
This discussion thread continues

Use the page links to the lower-right to go to the next page for additional posts
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > Transportation
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 1:55 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.