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Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

eastbaytimes.com

21–30 of 45 posts

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#21
post #19

I'd love to see what a $2.3 billion investment in cycling could do for a locality. A quick search says the population of East Bay is 2.5 million – that would be a fairly decent bicycle with lights, locks and helmet for every person. The number of cars taken off the road would make the others flow freely.

And a 50 mile ride to work in Sunnyvale? Get real. I bike everywhere but I also put my bike on a train when that is possible and faster than just riding the bike.

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#22

Trains to SF on the Fremont line are already crowded as hell before you even get to Oakland. If you live there and are trying to get to the city, good luck finding a seat, plan to stand for as long as 30 minutes in a crowded cart. I hope they thought this through and are adding more trains so that it doesn't make it even more unbearable.

I used to take BART from Fremont to Civic Center daily. Good luck getting a seat after Union City.

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#23
post #13
post #9

This is fantastic. I live in the east bay and have close friends in south SJ. The best option thus far has been going to Fremont, taking the 181 bus to downtown SJ, and ridesharing it down. This will shorten that ride.

Not Capitol Corridor rail direct to SJ?

Single tracked, UPRR has right of way, etc etc etc.

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#24
post #6

It's a good start, but as someone who live in Cupertino, my options are now: - Drive to Sunnyvale (15min) and then take CalTrain to SF (45-75min) - Drive to the Great Mall (30 min) and then take BART to SF (60 min) Would be nice if they let them electrify CalTrail or bring Bart all the way south. I can keep hoping!

One of the things on VTA's plan for Measure B funds is to extend the light rail further down 85. So, with any hope, you should have a transit station that's a lot closer.

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#25
post #20

Can someone explain why 162 employees are needed to drive a single station?! This sounds extremely inefficient to me, particularly as it closes as night too. I'm generally curious what the break down would be.

It's open 20 hours a day, so you're going to need at least 3 shifts. It's open 7 days a week, so you're going to need at least two sets of employees per shift, and there are two stations for the extension. When you start considering ticket agents, janitorial staff, security, etc, having 13-14 people on site per shift seems pretty reasonable.

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#26
post #21
post #19

I'd love to see what a $2.3 billion investment in cycling could do for a locality. A quick search says the population of East Bay is 2.5 million – that would be a fairly decent bicycle with lights, locks and helmet for every person. The number of cars taken off the road would make the others flow freely.

And a 50 mile ride to work in Sunnyvale? Get real. I bike everywhere but I also put my bike on a train when that is possible and faster than just riding the bike.

I don't know where your "50 mile ride" comes from when we're talking about a ten mile extension. I put my bike on Bart all the time.

Given ~95% of households in the locality own cars, I assume this extension is addressing congestion or pollution; it's hardly a $2.3 billion investment so 77k people don't have to drive as far to the next Bart stop. I wasn't suggesting taking cars away from people, I was trying to make the existing roads work better, not just in the locality but throughout the area.

[] http://www.governing.com/gov-data/car-ownership-numbers-of-v...

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#27
post #15

Funny that BART got to SJ via the East Bay first, but I hope they make the most of it. This does complete a missing (edit: rail ) link around the Bay -- though sadly across three different transit systems. Some time ago I wrote that the geography of the Bay is unfortunate for transit in many ways [1] but notably because there's no express way to get from one side to the other; instead you have to travel along the Rin…

When a large body of water is the primary geographical obstacle, investing in boats seems the logical choice.

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#28
Related, but not mentioned in the article, is that the start of BART service in Milpitas will trigger a large reorganization of the VTA bus network. The existing BART stations with VTA service, and the surrounding region north of Santa Clara county, will lose VTA service as those routes move to target Milpitas.

Also, to be clear, the "Next Network" affects more than the lines connecting to BART, but the opening of the new stations is one of the main reasons for the reorg (another is a change to the coverage/ridership ratio).

More info here: http://nextnetwork.vta.org

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#29
post #15

Funny that BART got to SJ via the East Bay first, but I hope they make the most of it. This does complete a missing (edit: rail ) link around the Bay -- though sadly across three different transit systems. Some time ago I wrote that the geography of the Bay is unfortunate for transit in many ways [1] but notably because there's no express way to get from one side to the other; instead you have to travel along the Rin…

It's worth noting that, at least during weekdays, you can "cut" the bottom of the bay off of your loop using the Dumbarton Express, which goes from Union City BART to Palo Alto Caltrain (ending at Stanford). It runs from ~5:30 or 6 AM to 7 or 8 PM.

More info here: https://dumbartonexpress.com

EDIT: To head off one complaint: Yes, it's an expensive trip ($4.20 one-way). But, if/when Dumbarton rail gets off the ground, I would expect it to cost the same or more.

Re: Milpitas BART Station to Open in December, VTA Says

#30
post #20

Can someone explain why 162 employees are needed to drive a single station?! This sounds extremely inefficient to me, particularly as it closes as night too. I'm generally curious what the break down would be.

It's open 20 hours a day, so you're going to need at least 3 shifts. It's open 7 days a week, so you're going to need at least two sets of employees per shift, and there are two stations for the extension. When you start considering ticket agents, janitorial staff, security, etc, having 13-14 people on site per shift seems pretty reasonable.

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