[lbo-talk] RE: Consumer goods

Jordan Hayes jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com
Wed Feb 11 15:16:23 PST 2004



> Wojtek is talking about Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).

I guess. I don't think BART needs to go to San Jose down the Peninsula; from Fremont, sure. But Caltrain does a good enough job. And now there's an intermodal station at Milbrae (close to SFO) that gives direct access to San Jose riders to BART.


>> Those two cities have been connected by rail since the 1860s.
>
> which has not been upgraded since that time :-).

Completely false. Caltrain has seen incremental upgrading despite fierce opposition. And they are just about done double-tracking:

http://www.caltrain.com/news_ctx_fact_sheet.html


> Sure, Caltrain runs from Gilroy, CA all the way to San
> Francisco -- at about 30 mph. The extension of
> BART to San Jose is still in limbo, I think.

On the other hand, Caltrain from San Francisco to Milbrae runs in about 25 minutes (best express time :22), compared with BART/Embarcadero to Milbrae in about :36 ... BART, despite futuristic looks (and costs!) isn't actually all that fast. Yes: you can go under the bay at 80mph, but average scheduled speeds show a different story:

The best San Francisco -> San Jose (47.5 miles) express train is presently 1:15 which will go down to :57 (=50 mph) with the introduction of skip-stop express ("baby bullet") service in May:

http://bayrailalliance.org/caltrain/bb/

Here's some info about BART, mileage, scheduled time and speeds:

A-line from Fremont to Lake Merritt, 23.8 miles [:33 43mph] M, W and Y-line from Oakland West to Millbrae, 27 miles; [:42 38mph] R-line from Richmond to MacArthur, 10.6 miles; [:19 33.4mph] C-line from Pittsburg/Bay Point to Rockridge, 29.3 miles; [:32 54mph] L-line Dublin/Pleasanton to Castro Valley, 14 miles. [:11 76mph]

Note that last one is a short extension that has no stops in between those two stations. So: just because it's BART, doesn't mean it's fast
:-)


> I have to admit, however, that a surprisingly large crowd
> demanded expansion of the transit system, even though there
> is no political will in Annapolis to do so.

Again making my point; thanks!

/jordan



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