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Re: Muni Central Subway needs more money
Author: david vartanoff
Date: 11-16-2010 - 14:11
several points. first, there is ample BART documentation of the early plan to go out Geary and thence to Marin. GG Bridge District gave BART the middle finger and nothing was built. Consult Paying the Toll, by Louise Nelson Dyble (U Penn Press 2009) for the details.
Second, you are of course entitled to believe any source you choose. That said, the deliberate choice of a non compatible track guage had little engineering value, but has cost BART millions in custom parts. Whether the fact that SP was adamantly against continuing service on the Peninsula (they offered at one point to buy every rider a van in return for abandonment) and at the time of the engineering decision Bechtel (a member of the design management consortium) was represented on the SP BOD by Chairman S. D.Bechtel SR. and member S. D. Jr. had any effect on decisions is a judgement call.
Thidly, as to your informants who may have worked for BART at some point. If they had ANYTHING to do with the specification and procurement of the ATO system, the OEM seat cushion materials, the lack of handrails in the first order of cars, carpeting, or the intensely wasteful wedge front design, then IMHO they are not reliable witnesses.
Second, you are of course entitled to believe any source you choose. That said, the deliberate choice of a non compatible track guage had little engineering value, but has cost BART millions in custom parts. Whether the fact that SP was adamantly against continuing service on the Peninsula (they offered at one point to buy every rider a van in return for abandonment) and at the time of the engineering decision Bechtel (a member of the design management consortium) was represented on the SP BOD by Chairman S. D.Bechtel SR. and member S. D. Jr. had any effect on decisions is a judgement call.
Thidly, as to your informants who may have worked for BART at some point. If they had ANYTHING to do with the specification and procurement of the ATO system, the OEM seat cushion materials, the lack of handrails in the first order of cars, carpeting, or the intensely wasteful wedge front design, then IMHO they are not reliable witnesses.
