Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Wednesday Wishlist: Light-rail Expansion

I think it's time to start pushing expanding our rail infrastructure, especially with several factors that are going to increase ridership substantially over the next four years such as:

  • Increased density and new housing and jobs being built near transit lines
  • BART extension to San Jose
  • The new 49ers Stadium
  • Increased traffic on our freeways as the economy grows
However, I'm not sure if the proposed Los Gatos extension is the way to go. It would cost $175 million to add two stations extending from Campbell to the Netflix Offices in Los Gatos. The estimated increase in ridership is about 200 people. Even though this number seems too low to be true, the actual number probably won't be dramatically higher. I think we should focus on improving service where there is already some density such as Downtown, First Street, Japantown, Midtown, etc. The ultimate light-rail line would be along Stevens Creek connecting Downtown to Santana Row, Valley Fair, DeAnza College, Valco Mall, and the new Apple HQ. Unfortunately, that will probably cost the same amount as building the BART subway or even more, so I don't have high hopes for that.

What likely makes the most sense is to start working on the extension to Eastridge mall, where there is a huge bus hub along with future planned BRT. That is expected to cost $310 million and get around 1,000 new riders a day. Still quite expensive but the larger the network becomes, the more riders it will attract system-wide. 

Where would you like to see the next Light-rail extension?

Source: The Merc

21 comments:

  1. A line running from Alum Rock on the east side directly through downtown and extending to Stevens Creek & Winchester seems like it would make a lot of sense. Right now you have to take a long roundabout way to get from Alum Rock to downtown, and there is no service to much of the west side and Santa Clara at all.

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  2. Not so much an extension, but I'd like to see light rail become a streetcar downtown for improved speed and efficiency. Taking a page out of San Diego's trolley system, I'd place the lines on 1st/2nd streets onto the streets and off the sidewalks. This would not only allow greater speeds through downtown but would free up vast amounts of sidewalk for dining and pedestrians.

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  3. I agree with Anthony... Also get rid of the cars on 1st and 2nd and allow bicycles and pedestrians only. Make downtown more people friendly, rather than car/train friendly.

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    1. I would actually make 1st street light rail, bus and bike only; run north/southbound tracks in the 1st street median. 2nd would revert to two-way status to make up for "loss" of 1st street downtown.

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  4. I suggest you check out the Light Rail Efficiency project. The focus is to improve VTA's existing system. It is designed to address the 49ers and BART. Ridership growth is a vast improvement over light rail expansion.

    http://www.vta.org/lightrail/index.html

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  5. Both proposed extensions are completely rediculous IMO...all that money for such a few riders. I'd be amazed if either of them ever got funded. I really like the potential of the existing system given the current developments - BART to Milpitas is 2016 (?), the 49ers stadium (2014 season) with potential for Raiders to share the stadium, all those apartments along North 1st, River Oaks, Tasman, etc...it's thousands & thousands of people, new offices along North 1st (N1, Samsung). Plus there is always our hope for the A's downtown. There is actually a lot to look forward to.

    I guess my vote would be the East-West as mentioned above.

    I also once (a long time ago) read about a plan to extend the terminus beyond Mountain View along Central Expressway as far as the current San Antonio Caltrain station and perhaps as far as Palo Alto. That would serve 2 purposes - to service those areas and also to potentially eliminate Caltrain stations i.e. have the stations flip from being Caltrain stations to being VTA light rail stations (San Antonio & California would be the stations to change over).

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  6. I have been wanting to see Light Rail go towards Santana Row and Valley Fair and beyond, towards Cupertino. I would hardly drive if this existed.

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  7. I love the idea of extending Light Rail down Stevens Creek to Cupertino. This makes a lot more sense than a Los Gatos Extension. Run the lines to where people want to go.

    And on a side note, I think BART should only go to Milpitas where we can build a large Transit Hub. Buses and ideally Light Rail to bring people to the BART lines in Milpitas.

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  8. I am going to have to completely disagree with this entire post. Though the idea of light rail is great on paper,but I think we should reduce its use throughout the city and expand our Bus system. VTA is an absolute failure for many reasons, but the fact that each fare is 85% tax funded is reason enough to kill the system. I would love if the city would add street parking to 1st and 2nd street to encourage people to come and shop downtown IE San Francisco. San Jose should focus on getting Bart downtown and tunneling to dense neighborhoods to make that the local option throughout the city.

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  9. If you are upset at this, wait till we start paying for that estimated $69 billion bullet train in California. Yikes!

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    1. That figure is in 2030 dollars and includes interest paid on the bonds. So yes, it's a "huge" figure but manageable over the long haul. Kind of like taking a mortgage out on a house for $500,000, but when all is said and done the house really cost close to a cool million $.

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  10. I've mentioned this in a previous thread, but I'd prefer a Las Vegas style monorail along the W. San Carlos/Stevens Creek corridor from Diridon to future Apple HQ. You'd have less of a ground footprint (vs LRT/BRT) and complete grade separation. Yes, probably more expensive then LRT/BRT, but perhaps you could leverage the VTA funds with private sources (someone told me Apple had a little cash on hand...).
    As for current system, the efficiency program probably calls for (I'm hoping) grade separations at major intersections. My downtown streetcar idea would be nice as well :)

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  11. Honestly, my top choice for transit would the be a city-wide PRT system. You hop in a pod on an elevated guideway, tell it where you want to go, and you're off. There is a company in Mountain View developing this technology right now and it may cost 90% less to build than lightrail with increased speed and convenience.

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  12. This may sound counterintuitive, but there should be an express line that goes around Downtown and gets to North SJ much faster. I know we want people to go Downtown, but to really reduce traffic and increase ridership we need a quick way to get to the jobs further north.

    Maybe it could go along or in the middle of 87... in fact, every freeway really should have light rail in the middle like the south parts of 87 and 85. The 87 extension would skip around Downtown, stop at the airport, then connect back to the 1st street line somewhere in North SJ. A 280 line would stop at Winchester for Santana Row, De Anza Blvd for Apple's current HQ, and Wolfe for Apple's new HQ. An 85 line would get to De Anza College... I'm drooling at the prospect.

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  13. I live and work downtown. My observation is that lightroom is dumb... slow... doesn't go anywhere I need to go... utilized mostly by crackheads and other freaks. And I'm not even kidding. Stand at the Santa Clara Street for 5 minutes and observe for yourself. St. James Park if you're really daring. And pods on elevated rails? Yeah, like San Jose --slow to adopt-- would ever pursue anything the least bit cutting edge.

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    Replies
    1. LightRAIL... still dumb and useless.

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    2. Where does it not go? It generally connects to all major points interest via the LR itself or by offering connecting service....the only major places where LR would be beneficial have all been mentioned (Stevens creek, eastridge, etc). Between Bart, LR, Caltrain and Ace....there are rail connections to pretty much the whole region.

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    3. I think the big mistake they made was not going to the airport. Everywhere else is pretty well covered.

      I don;t disagree with the crackhead comment though. I ride it from time to time (to go downtown) and it's always a bit of an adventure :)

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  14. Are all the people mentioning an E-W line down San Carlos/Stevens Creek simply ignoring the 323 Limited bus line?

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  15. First things first: Sorry for the following tldr

    I think the most important corridor for light rail expansion right now is along santa clara st between capitol expressway and the diridon station. The only way to make this line work would be to have grade separation along most of the corridor, especially between 19th st and diridon. I'd imagine that area between 6th and 17th streets has much less stringent FAA height restrictions. As such there should be a push for high rise development in that area (but not to relocate the downtown core there).

    Next, the area along w san carlos st has much potential for densification, and could benefit from light rail infrastructure (also preferably grade separated, at least between diridon and bascom ave). I'm thinking the area withing a quarter mile of san carlos (until 880/17) could have buildings between maybe 6-12 floors, (think slightly less dense than the DC core) all served by a quick, high capacity rail line. However, to keep the system efficient, light rail should only really go as far west as valley fair or maybe san tomas expressway. The key is that keeping the line shorter keeps the trip between termini more competitive with driving. Anyway, I think the santa clara subway could be financially feasible by either scrapping the bart subway project (probably unlikely), or by using cut and cover subway construction, swallowing the disruption, and building a shorter version of the market st subway, with bart on one level and vta light rail on another. The cost of light rail construction would be offset by the switch from expensive deep bore tunneling, and the project could be sold because of how popular bart is (for some unknown reason)

    I think some other corridors that could see increased densification and require improved transit infrastructure (starting with express bus and brt of course) would include, Monterrey Highway (between downtown and curtner), McLaughlin ave (between Mckee and Story), First street (from downtown to hedding, then a less dense area, then something like charcot to montague or tasman), 10th st (between downtown and 101), and southwest expressway. I dont know, this is just some stuff ive thought about.

    Still, thats not to say I dont have my own complaints about the design of the vta light rail system, and certainly understand where a lot of vta hatred is coming from. Santa teresa should have stopped at ohlone, the downtown section shouldn't be so slow, a third of the first street stations should not exist, tasman was too far north to be the east west street, wtf is with the mountain view branch alignment?

    But my post is getting long and its getting late so i'll just end by saying: in the end, the real reason for vta performing poor as a transit agency mainly has to do with south bay city planning (or lack thereof) and land use. Given these constraints, the vta does a good job at trying to provide a good level of service, but it is a very hard job. Plus, the south bay actually ranks very high as far as transportation accessibility, just not that many people choose to or cannot reasonably take advantage of it.

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