SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News

[quashlo]

Speaking of BART, I just realized their website changed. Looks a lot better than the previous one, plus they have the real-time arrival times on the bottom left.

And if you're interested in how ridership is doing at each station compared to previous quarters:
http://bart.gov/docs/station_exits_quarterly.pdf

[BTinSF]

Local
BART bigwig blasts Muni’s big dig


(Cindy Chew/The Examiner)
Powell to the people: The SFMTA is slated to begin work in two years on the Central Subway, which would cross Powell Street station perpendicular to existing Muni Metro lines.
Tamara Barak Aparton, The Examiner
2008-07-29 10:00:00.0

SAN FRANCISCO -
The Powell Street station is in jeopardy of being damaged because of lax planning by engineers working on the Central Subway project, according to a BART board member.

The $1.3 billion, four-stop Central Subway would connect Little Hollywood and Visitacion Valley with Union Square and Chinatown by 2016. To lay tracks for it, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency must dig underneath Powell Street station to within six feet of it. Construction is slated to begin in two years.

BART board member and longtime Central Subway opponent Tom Radulovich said the draft environmental impact report released last year did not adequately address the problems inherent with displacing groundwater during construction. He said digging underneath the Powell Street station could cause damage to the BART stop and possibly cause it to sink or collapse.

Radulovich said he remembers the lesson of BART’s Peninsula extension, the construction of which caused the Tanforan Mall parking structure to sag and spawned a successful $27.5 million lawsuit against the transit agency. He does not want to see a repeat at the Powell Street BART station, he said.

He said is also worried that the influx of Central Subway travelers who will transfer at the busy Powell Street Station may present a fire hazard and that current turnstiles will be unable to accommodate them. The station already handles 28,000 BART passengers each day.

“I’ve seen a lot of large capital projects and a lot of transit projects planned,” he said. “And I’d say this is one of the worst-planned that I’ve seen.”

The final environmental impact report on the project will be heard at the Aug. 7 Planning Commission meeting. A series of environmental concerns first raised last year by BART because of the Central Subway project are expected to be discussed.

Those issues came to light Dec. 10, when BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger wrote a letter to SFMTA detailing concerns about effects on passenger safety, groundwater, BART service and asbestos abatement.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson said Monday that SFMTA had been responsive to BART’s concerns and that subsequent meetings had been productive.

MTA spokesman Judson True said the raising of concerns and back-and-forth between the two agencies is part of the normal review process and represent technical issues currently being addressed.

Nevertheless, Radulovich says his worries remain.

“The official story is that they’ll address our concerns in the final EIR,” he said. “Whether they’ll address them to everyone’s satisfaction, I don’t know.”

[email protected]

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Upgrades to strengthen system

A facelift for the busy Powell Street BART station and a seismic upgrade for the Church Street Muni station are poised to begin, though train service will not be interrupted, transit officials said.

Last week, BART’s board awarded a contract to San Francisco-based Fibrwrap Construction Inc. to begin strengthening the columns in the Church Street Muni station, which is owned by BART.

The project is the first major construction work that riders will see after passing a bond four years ago to strengthen the system for a massive temblor, BART spokesman Linton Johnson said. To date, most of the $1.3 billion project has focused on retrofitting the Transbay Tube.

In addition, BART will embark on a $36 million remodeling project to spruce up Powell Street station, as well as the Ashby, Union City and Pleasant Hill stops.

Preliminary recommendations at the downtown San Francisco station include modernizing the Market Street entrances, removing partitions at the southwest entrance, improving lighting and security-camera systems, making trash cans more accessible and making the trackway more visible, Johnson said.

The initial $36 million project is part of a larger, $400 million station modernization plan that will eventually affect all 43 BART stations. — Tamara Barak Aparton

Source: http://www.examiner.com/a-1510337~BART_bigwig_blasts_Muni_s_big_dig.html

[quashlo]

He said is also worried that the influx of Central Subway travelers who will transfer at the busy Powell Street Station may present a fire hazard and that current turnstiles will be unable to accommodate them. The station already handles 28,000 BART passengers each day.

I can understand the other concerns about tunneling underneath the station, but the above sounds silly to me... Even if there were "difficulties" handling the additional passengers, what's the problem with adding a few faregates? The only gates that get crowded are the ones that open onto Hallidie Plaza... if that's perceived to be a problem, I don't see why they can't add more gates on the side facing the wall. The three new gates off to the side are poorly placed and woefully underutilized.

[Gordo]

"Being able to do something" and "Actually doing something" are two entirely different things for Muni. Amazing stuff how you can't insert a dollar bill into the turnstiles, but must first go over to either a Muni machine (at Castro and maybe Church? - I can't remember) or a BART machine downtown to get change for your dollar. In 2008. In a rich city in an area known for technology. WTF.

I don't blame him at all for bringing it up - there's no way that Muni would have thought of that on their own, but rather they'd figure it out two months after opening the new Central Subway, spend two years trying to figure out what to do about it, then purchase some new turnstiles, install them wrong and somehow destroy them, purchase more, install them wrong in a different way and somehow destroy them, purchase more, then somehow figure out the most inconvenient place to put them (so that they won't be destroyed). I think that Muni does a relatively decent job (not good, but I've seen worse) with buses, but everything about the Muni Metro is pathetic and embarrassing. If VTA weren't so close, I would think that Muni runs light rail worse than anyone else.

[BTinSF]

Let's remember that BART's record isn't so great either. Have they EVER had all the escalators working? Half of them? I think I recall they keep blaming the fact that they are unprotected from the weather but they've had how many decades now to either cover them or find some other solution?

I'd like to see Radulovich, who's basically an SF Democratic Machine wannabee who has never had a "real" job, concentrate on fixing BART.

[Gordo]

That's very true, and I'm often critical of BART as well. Muni tends to have more of the "WTF?" moments than BART though, which is mostly what I was referencing here. Anyone remember last year during the T rollout fiasco when Muni put an "important message" on their website in the form of a two line Word attachment, rather than just posting a message that said "Delays in the Market Street tunnel are currently 30-45 minutes"? That one blew my mind.

[alexjon]

I always forget how much of a love-hate(-more hat) relationship they have...

Can BART challenge the Draft EIS?

ETA: "more hat" sounds funny. Leaving it.

[Gordo]

Not in an official way, no. This is as much as they can do to challenge the draft.

[CityKid]

I remember finding the original BART plans somewhere from 1961, and it may have been on this board. I tried googling them and looking through bay area urbanism websites on archive.org without much luck. Does anyone know where I can find more information about that? I'm specifically looking for maps within San Francisco of it's original incarnation for curiosity's sake.

[WildCowboy]

Do you mean this one?

[OhioGuy]

^^^ It's too bad about the Marin line.

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

^^^ It's too bad about the Marin line.

It's not only sad that Marin didn't get a desperately needed BART line, but also because San Francisco would have been much better served by BART had it been built with this original configuration. Imagine two stations on Van Ness today, etc.

Some will disagree with my opinion that San Mateo county should have gone along with the plan also. Both Marin and San Mateo were very short sighted and held the Bay Area back as a result.

[northbay]

Originally Posted by viewguysf

Both Marin and San Mateo were very short sighted and held the Bay Area back as a result.

is it any coincidence that these are also the most expensive areas in the bay area? i guess rich people dont care about the rest of us (surprise surprise).

marin is even 'holding us back' (i mean 'us' here up in sonoma county) by not approving the SMART train

[quashlo]

I'm kind of torn on this issue, as I feel we've dug a hole for ourselves by building transit systems that are incompatible and at times compete with each other (BART, Muni Metro, Caltrain) when a synthetic approach would probably have worked better.

If we were to extend some type of rail service to Marin, I think the better choice would be Caltrain (if and when it gets converted to EMU) and not BART. We could stick some additional stations within San Francisco, and then we'd actually have a decent chance at capturing trips along the Marin-SF-Peninsula corridor. That would also hopefully relieve some of the regional traffic that bombards 19th Ave. and makes it a pedestrian wasteland.

[travelinmiles]

^^^^^^^^^^^

This brings to mind two questions:

What are the chances of direct Marin-SF rail across the Golden Gate or through a tunnel under?
What are the chances of Bart down Geary to 19th?
What about Amtrak through a 3rd Transbay Tube?
I know there are long term plans place for the last two but is there any political backing?

[Gordo]

Originally Posted by travelinmiles

^^^^^^^^^^^

This brings to mind two questions:

What are the chances of direct Marin-SF rail across the Golden Gate or through a tunnel under?

Absolutely zero.

What are the chances of Bart down Geary to 19th?

Maybe in 30-40 years. Maybe.

What about Amtrak through a 3rd Transbay Tube?

Absolutely zero.

I know there are place for the last two but is there any political backing?

Not sure what you mean by "place" for the 3rd Transbay Tube (I've never heard of such a thing - there has been talk of a second, which in theory could accomodate both BART and HSR), but there is no political backing for any of these dreams, unfortunately.

[CityKid]

Originally Posted by WildCowboy

Do you mean this one?

Thank you!

[c1tyguy]

Not sure if this is the best place to post.. But I was wondering, does BART run at normal hours during labor day weekend? I heard it was 24-hour last year and the year before due to the Bay Bridge construction.

I plan on visiting the city during labor day weekend and knowing whether or not Bart stopped running at midnight would be helpful.

[CHapp]

Apparently not, but it doesn't run long after midnight. I just went to the BART page and entered an imaginary itinerary from Powell Street in downtown SF to Rockridge in Oakland for Labor Day, Sept. 1. Result: last departure from Powell Street is at 12:22am. The next train is at 4:23 am.

[quashlo]

The last train varies depending on the station and the destination, although midnight is around the time when the last trains depart the terminal stations. If you're heading south from downtown SF, the last train is actually around 1:00a.

There's also All Nighter bus service for when BART isn't running... It pretty much parallels most of the BART routes. SF Muni also has pretty extensive night bus service within the city.