Ferry Is A Check Box, Not A Draw
Author: Sammy Smart
Date: 09-09-2019 - 10:40
SMART goes to the ferry, approximately speaking, to connect it to regional transportation via the ferry. I don't think SMART expects much ridership via the ferry, certainly not from Marin origin points. SMART is premised on intra-system commuters not commuters going out of system, e.g., to San Francisco or the East Bay. The importance of the connection to regional transportation has to do with getting funding for stuff. Also has the benefit of letting folks who don't understand the system think of it as a "commute to SF" system, which it isn't. That's a double-sided sword though as lots of people now wonder what the point is to riding the train to a point ten minutes away from the ferry terminal.
At least they are pretending for the moment that they are going to start running full complement of commute trains now, at least in the afternoon, instead of ending the commute at 5:29 followed by running a wave of post-commute trains that are mostly empty.