It's sad to see that so many who feel they've been left behind by change, and haven't left California yet, are foaming and frothing tonight about the evil conspiracy at VTA.... But, it's just another sign of the times. In other words, just another chronic case of @#$%& and whining about how terrible we have it in these awful times we live in, right?

Thank you to that ever vigilant watchdog of the public good the moribund Mercury News for uncovering this disaster and evil conspiracy... I'm so happy to see all of this foaming and frothing over an article that is mistating some facts and presenting a somewhat selective "narrative" as news or analysis.

Yes, VTA is a system that is very far from perfect, and it is a relatively poor performer per mile and per dollar compared to anything in LA, San Diego, or the much better job done in Sacramento, which could have been a better model for VTA. However, not every "suburban" LRT system can be a Blue Line, with a far higher passenger density per line mile than even BART has, at a much much lower cost, right?

VTA has had some very notable operational problems, too. This includes things like unnecessarily slow running times from things like the failure to fully integrate stop signals to priotize train operations, like is commonly done in Europe. This is also a common failure of almost all American LRT systems, even in LA on the Expo Line, though it's actually pretty easily done elsewhere in the world.

VTA is also a system that has been built almost at cross purposes with the development and planning done by the City of San Jose, and the County. It tried to be center oriented system, which is a very small part of travel demand, in San Jose. Existing geography and sprawl were not taken into adequate consideration. Policies which continued to promote more sprawl have been encouraged. And, compared to things like the development along the Gold Line, or San Diego Trolley, not much thought (or more important: action!)appears to have been given to integrating the LRT with new or existing development opportunities, either downtown, or along the corridors.

Leadership at VTA has been a problem, too. Ron Diridon is certainly no Jimmy Mills or Kenny Hahn, and never will be, from my personal experience with the man. I don't usually think of Norm Mineta first when the subject of poor leadership at VTA comes up, though. But, since I'm not an expert on the latest LRT conspiracy theories, maybe he is actually part of that vast evil conspiracy, too?

As I was thinking about how good it was to see so many expert and knowledgeable opinions about how to do it better at VTA on this thread tonight, I suddenly remembered the secret pledge of some folks who visit this site:

Trains Suck and Evil Thomas must be stopped!