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Re: Marin hires consultant for independent review of SMART bike path route
Author: mook
Date: 01-08-2016 - 13:52
Did you know that BART (the original system, anyway) is almost eligible for the National Register of Historic Places? Just about 50 years old. And they're even still using some of the original cars, rebuilt at least once of course - even New York seldom keeps transit equipment in regular service that long.
Most of the capital money BART will scare up over the next few decades will have to go into reconstructing the original system, bringing it up to a state of fair (not even good) repair, and any extensions will be minor and in the original territory. Extensions into other territory will have to be paid for by the other territory (see VTA shenanigans for example), which kind of makes it difficult if the other territory doesn't want to do it. And the main system that's already there needs significant upgrades if extensions are even to be considered, to handle the resulting extra crowds. Sorry. Ain't happening. And Dumbarton? IIRC Caltrain has had its eye on that for a long time, and they would be a much better operator for something that will run mostly during commute times; only way BART would be involved would be if they take over Caltrain. Not saying THAT couldn't happen, but it would be a political mess given viewpoints and lack of funding (remember, Caltrain is the only transit operation in the Bay Area without dedicated tax support for operations).
So, given the short-term (less than several decades) viewpoint of many (if not most) of us, I wouldn't worry about BART in Marin unless you really have to have something to justify a tinfoil hat.
Most of the capital money BART will scare up over the next few decades will have to go into reconstructing the original system, bringing it up to a state of fair (not even good) repair, and any extensions will be minor and in the original territory. Extensions into other territory will have to be paid for by the other territory (see VTA shenanigans for example), which kind of makes it difficult if the other territory doesn't want to do it. And the main system that's already there needs significant upgrades if extensions are even to be considered, to handle the resulting extra crowds. Sorry. Ain't happening. And Dumbarton? IIRC Caltrain has had its eye on that for a long time, and they would be a much better operator for something that will run mostly during commute times; only way BART would be involved would be if they take over Caltrain. Not saying THAT couldn't happen, but it would be a political mess given viewpoints and lack of funding (remember, Caltrain is the only transit operation in the Bay Area without dedicated tax support for operations).
So, given the short-term (less than several decades) viewpoint of many (if not most) of us, I wouldn't worry about BART in Marin unless you really have to have something to justify a tinfoil hat.
