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Politics : IMPEACH GRAY DAVIS! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (1328)	10/2/2003 6:27:13 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1641

Back to cost: $100 a rider? JUST for construction? bizjournals.com San Jose BART line to cost $100 per rider Timothy Roberts Plans to extend BART to San Jose may face a new hurdle as federal transit officials take a second look at the city's projected population growth. How CAN you cover the Bay Area with BART, Caltrain, or Light Rail, or all 3 together, at any affordable cost? That growth, based on an expanding economy and a downtown packed with residents and workers, is important in calculating the cost per new rider for building the 16-mile extension from Fremont to San Jose, a criteria used by the Federal Transit Administration in deciding whether it will fund projects. U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, who has played a key role in getting the BART extension on the federal agenda, blamed the economic downturn for the pessimism over the numbers. "We can't lose sight of the goal just because we have a recession," he said. "Nothing would ever get accomplished that way." But many of the questions concern pre-recession planning, when the Valley Transportation Authority gave a very optimistic assessment of the number of people who would buy tickets to ride BART. After federal officials expressed doubt about the validity of the original projections, the VTA decided to develop a new set of numbers. The new numbers are to be contained in a draft environmental impact review due this spring. Santa Clara County taxpayers are providing about half the cost of the $4 billion BART project through a half-cent sales tax. Alameda County taxpayers are putting up $546 million, the state has promised $760 million, and the VTA, which is building the project, is counting on $494 million from the federal government. But these are dark days for the VTA, whose sales tax revenue is dropping like a rock. Gov. Gray Davis further dampened hopes on March 13 when he told CEOs of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group that the state's transportation money was no longer a sure bet, given California's fiscal meltdown. Now the Federal Transit Administration is warning that it wants to take a second look at the VTA's promise of ridership. The Federal Transit Administration's concerns were evident as far back as September, when it issued preliminary approval of the project. But in a letter dated Sept. 2, from Leslie Rogers, FTA regional administrator, to Pete Cipolla, the VTA's general manager, Rogers questioned the VTA's numbers. The federal agency said it has serious concerns regarding "the travel demand model and resulting technical analysis" used by the VTA and "the operating financial plan and the ability of the VTA to operate and maintain the existing bus and rail transit system." Rogers said the VTA is working on new population estimates as part of the environmental impact review. The report is to be submitted to the Federal Transit Administration this spring. Portions of the report may be available as early as April. One of the most critical calculations will be the construction cost per new rider. That cost was pegged at $100.49 in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's June 2000 Transportation Blueprint. By comparison, various forms of rapid bus lines would cost from $3.55 to $9.68 per new rider. Running BART just to Warm Springs, which is between Fremont and eastern San Jose, and connecting San Jose's light-rail system to BART at Warm Springs would cost just $21.55 per new rider, according to the Transportation Blueprint. The Transportation and Land Use Coalition, an Oakland-based critic of the BART extension, says the numbers used by the VTA were inflated to make the project look more affordable. "With the downturn in the economy there's no indication that even lower numbers will be met," says Stuart Cohen, the executive director of the coalition. "This could turn out to be a real ridership boondoggle." But San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales says San Jose's downtown development plans will help create a sufficient ridership base to ensure that BART rolls into San Jose early in the next decade. "The whole corridor from Fremont through San Jose will be will be very transit-oriented," he said. "The area is going to grow." Meanwhile, another battle brews in Congress. Democrats and Republicans want to boost the funding for new transit initiatives such as the BART extension, raising the total from $1.2 billion a year to $50 billion. The president wants to draw a line at $39 billion. Says Honda: "We are going to be actively engaged with the administration so that we can get that money." ======================================================== RBOCs will continue to get their lunch eatern. An not just by cable. Cell phones are also killing them. They used to be considered "natural monoploies". The arrival of cell phones changes that. Now the argument for monopoly- -that as a practical matter you can have only one set of phone lines in an area- -is gone. But you forgot electric power. Regardless of what you say of monopoly status, they operate without tax subsidies. If your trains can't, let 'em die. You cite Caltrain. Looked at SJ light rail? The cost? The empty trains?