Re: SMART could start work on rail project Tuesday
Author: OldPoleBurner
Date: 01-07-2012 - 16:55
BART's Central Contra Costa line started out with its passengers transferring to old rickety charter buses in a not so pleasant part of Oakland, in order to complete the ride to the Transbay terminal; where they had to transfer again to muni buses or streetcars to complete their journeys.
BART ran it this way for the first 3-4 years. But still, amazingly, it managed over 10,000 (and rising) riders each day from day one; more than double what its predecessor (greyhound) ever did with a much better service from Concord (every 30-60 seconds during the rush, direct). BART's C-line trains didn't even get as far as downtown Oakland. Go figure!
But now that service has been direct ever since the opening of the Transbay Tube, ridership on that line alone often exceeds 100,000 each day. Hopefully, SMART will be smart enough to also run fast and frequent, as BART does - and extending to both Marin ferry piers as soon as is possible.
If not - then they should change their name to "DUMB".
Note also, that the North Bay's population is certainly no smaller than the area served by BART's Central Contra Costa line. Given that, and their professed environmental ethics, they should flock to such a service - certainly more so than us unwashed lowlife troglodytes in the inland Eastbay actually did.
But again, if not - then the two-faced nature of all that environmentalism, surely becomes obvious!