Downloadable BART schedule for your PALM PDA here, for those who ride it (I don't)
Posted on 07/08/2006 9:48:17 AM PDT by george76
Three years after the extension opened, ridership is nowhere near what BART officials had hoped.
The route is losing money, and BART is embroiled in a funding fight with another Peninsula transit agency.
Prior to construction, BART projected there would be 17,800 average daily boardings to and from the airport by the year 2010.
During the first year of operation that began in 2003, there were 5,864 daily boardings, the second year 6,675, and the third year 7,116.
Likewise, ridership to and from the three other stations on the airport extension route -- in South San Francisco, San Bruno and Millbrae -- have not met expectations since opening at the same time.
The forecast for the Millbrae Station, for instance, anticipated 33,000 trips on an average weekday by 2010. The number now is about 6,400...
deficit spending. Among the options: raise fares, adjust service levels, find new sources of revenue ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Perhaps they could tap into the usual AMTRAC Subsidy.
Or they could let the rails rust.
When I go on trips, I would take Bart to SFO in a heart beat, BUT I can't park at the other end. It's a long term parking problem not a Bart problem.
Downloadable BART schedule for your PALM PDA here, for those who ride it (I don't)
It would be interesting if a group of patriotic Americans began to target all businesses which accept federal money unconstitutionally stolen from the people. That would include Trains that accept money from AMTRAC, aircraft that accept subsidy for not flying.
I wonder if a political party could have a plank that damage done to property belonging to such companies and personal properties of people working for such companies should not be prosecuted. I have a short list of unconstitutional functions (and could have a much longer one).
Firearm part of ATF
Department of Education
Department of Agricultural
Center for Disease Control
Department of Transportation
Just for a start.
Isn't the Blum group (and spouse of Feinstein) heavily involved in all the building construction at SF airport....?
Just another fine example of liberal emotion running the spending of tax monies, instead of reality and FACTS. If BART covered areas that NEED the transportation, and would find it useful, they would not have this problem. People would use it if they had reasonalble access to it -- I know, I live here and I would use it if it were. But I still drive my car to SFO because BART access sucks and is horribly inconvenient and time wasting.
I'm less than a mile from Springfield station on the DC Metrorail system. Last trip we took (5 weeks ago) we had someone else drive us to National Airport (on the same line), and someone else pick us up at National when we returned.
Taking a cab from my house to the station is $5 per person.
Any transportation planning specialist who ever comes up with large numbers of people taking the train to the airport is running a scam, or he or she is hopelessly ignorant of the ins and outs of airtravel.
Apparently not.
Wonder if you'd continue to believe that if the fare reflected ALL COSTS.
I never thought of it before, but you're quite right.
On the other hand, do you think if they put a long-term parking option near a station like Castro Valley or Hayward that the nearby residents might fill the lot up without even using BART? I'm not sure, but I once parked a car at Dublin/Pleasanton for 4 months (right after the station was built) and just moved it every weekend. Then they got their parking patrol in gear and threatened to tow me.
Agree regarding renting a car, which should be avoided if not required -- but regarding cabs, the cab ride is 15-25 minutes and costs approx $25.00 -- whereas the train costs $5.00 but takes an hour once you've boarded, and you may have to wait 25 minutes or longer to get the train. And you may still have to take a cab (or a long walk) to get from the inner city train station to your destination. If you're traveling in a group of two or three, the train provides little savings ($10.00 total savings) but much more inconvenience.
And you have to find your way from the airport area to the BART area, which is not at all easy to do (long walk, complicated/confusing signs, walk through parking lots, take elevators, Skyway, etc).
So it's not surprising to me that ridership is disappointing and below the original optimistic estimates.
"...were 5,864 daily boardings, the second year 6,675, and the third year 7,116.
That's about the number of people who try to get on a NY subway train at 42nd Street during rush hour, when it's already packed.
Public transportation NEVER makes money. It doesn't save energy, and never goes where you want it when you want it.
It's another boondoogle by the "good government" crowd.
They really need to market this better to folks in Sacramento. I plan on taking a flight out of SFO in the fall because it was so much cheaper than out of Sacramento. I can take Amtrac and connect to BART out to SFO cheaper than the parking fees.
But the Department of Transportation is not under the Post Office, is it? I guess I must have missed that part.
Whaddaya expect from San Franciso liberals?? And folks with the same mindset want to re-design the REST of our lives, too.
The "Self-anointed", as Thomas Sowell called them.
Yes, you can, and it's a lot cheaper than airport parking. Go to the BART web site under "Parking" and there is a place where you can pay $5 a day in advance to buy a long-term parking permit for any BART parking lot. A lot of people don't seem to know about this - they don't advertise it well enough.
The biggest headache is dragging a lot of luggage onto a overcrowded BART train if you happen to be flying at a time that requires you to contend with commute traffic.
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