VTA Safety Video

Surprisingly entertaining (intentionally and unintentionally) VTA safety video. "Remember, the lightrail train is electric. It's stealthy like a tiger. It can sneak up on you... silently. So you better keep your whits about you." Thanks Jen!

VTA Spending $488 Million on New Bus Projects

Next year the VTA is going out to bid on some substantial public transit projects. One will be at $128M project that will run 7 miles through the heart of Downtown San Jose from Santa Clara Street all the way down to Alum Rock Avenue. This route will have bus stations at one mile intervals that look more like Light Rail stations with ticket machines, nice landscaping, and additional security features. There will also be dedicated bus lanes along 2 miles of Alum Rock. Completion is set for Summer 2014. 

VTA is also planning to do $200M worth of work along 17 miles of El Camino from San Jose to Palo Alto and a $160M project on Steven's Creek between San Jose and Cupertino. Both are expecting to have greatly improved stations and dedicated bus lanes when possible. The VTA is shooting to have all of these projects completed by 2018 when BART begins service to San Jose.

Fore more info, click here.

VTA Offering Free 4G Wireless to Riders

VTA is the first mass transit agency on the globe to offer a 4G wireless network on ALL trains. The new system launched a week ago on the entire fleet of 100 light rail trains. This is a huge value add that will hopefully get more Silicon Valley residents taking public transit. More info right over here.

Grand Plans for the Diridon Station

Some very exciting changes are in store for the Diridon area. It's a key transit hub in the bay area that connects Caltrain, Light Rail, Ace, Capital Corridor, Amtrak, and multiple Bus lines. By the end of 2012 it will also be home to a bike sharing station and by the end of the decade it should also house BART and High Speed Rail. It very well may become one of the busiest transportation depots in the US someday. Add to that a potential ballpark across the street, and you have an area with a lot of potential.

Below are some images from the planning department showing 3 planned "zones" the Diridon area is being divided into.  The innovation zone is going to be focused around housing emerging companies, the central zone will feature retail and entertainment, and the southern zone will be primarily residential. A lot of thought has also been put into an art plan that will blanket all three zones. Have a look at some of the images below for more on the overall vision!

Wednesday Wishlist: Light Rail Tunnel

The Achilles heel of the VTA system is unfortunately the Downtown segment where trains slow to a 5mph crawl. My wishlist item for the week is to move all of the light rail track in the Downtown area underground. Some benefits:

• It would cut ~5min from most light rail commute times
• Downtown would be safer as patrons wouldn't have to look over their shoulder for trains
• It would open up key spaces along 1st and 2nd St. (perhaps for kiosks)
• Less noise (wheel squeaking and bells)
• Traffic flow could be improved for cars, bicyclists, and pedicabs
• Easier to keep homeless people from using it as a free transit system

A project like this would have massive costs, but perhaps some of those could be shared with the BART tunneling project. What do you think? Would you miss seeing/hearing the trains?

VTA Express Light Rail Coming on Monday

Looks like Light Rail users received a new express option starting today! New express trains will shave up to 6-8min of commute time and finally offer WiFi (after all we are in Silicon Valley right?). The current express route will bypass the Highway 87 portion of Light Rail, but express trains are expected to be deployed to the entire system soon. Fore more details, check out this Merc article.

San Jose Metblogs: Vote for your favorite BRT station design

Personally, I really like the Matrix option. It seems inline with the art style that is helping define San Jose's unique identity. Which one did you vote for and why?

Vote for your favorite BRT station design

from San Jose Metblogs by Matt Bruensteiner

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a system where specially designed buses in dedicated lanes enable highly efficient public transit comparable to light rail with much lower construction and vehicle costs. VTA has completed an environmental impact report and begun preliminary engineering to build a BRT system for the Alum Rock-Santa Clara corridor (replacing the current Rapid 522 service). A future project would add BRT service between Eastridge Mall and De Anza College via Stevens Creek Blvd, supplementing the current route 23 local bus.
Now they’re asking for your input on two options for the design of bus stations along this route. The designs and survey are here.
Thanks to Carrie on the NNASJ mail list for pointing out this survey.