^^^I think we also need a modern bus terminal where the decrepit TransBay sits. But as a pure bus station, it doesn't have to be multi-blocks long and it doesn't have to be fancy or terribly expensive. To me, we are spending all that money to have a terminal making it possible to what? Get off CalTrain and onto a bus? Off a bus and onto Caltrain? As opposed to taking Muni metro to the existing CalTrain location? I just don't see that what we get for $2.4 billion transit dollars with this project is worth that much.
Clearly we need good transit into and out of the city--a fully electrified "mini-bullet" CalTrain with a spur across the lower Bay connecting with the ACE line would be nice. Unlike those here who aren't fans of BART, I'd like to see it go to San Jose and maybe someday cross the northern Bay to Marin (I think the engineering to cross the Golden gate strait is prohibitive). There are all sorts of improvements that could solidify SF as the core of the Bay Area. But $2.4 billion to make unnecessary a short ride on Muni metro and/or bring the heavy rail terminus what? 6 blocks closer to Market St.?
Read what I posted above about the funding. It's pretty clear where the funding is or isn't coming from at this point. Here, once again, is an exerpt:
Quote:
In February, however, Ed Harrington, San Francisco's city controller, who also serves as the authority's chief financial officer, questioned the assumptions the authority leadership seemed to be making about how it was going to get its job done - meaning extending Caltrain to downtown.
In a report, Harrington described the rail extension as a "very high-risk project," given that no money had been identified to cover most of the $2.4 billion cost.
Some funds have been secured, but a state high-speed rail bond, which could have brought $475 million to the terminal project, has bogged down in the Legislature. Meanwhile, a proposal for an extra fee on AC Transit riders traveling to the terminal has not been finalized.
Call for clarity
In an interview in February, Harrington said that those officials leading the terminal project need to devise a clear plan to fund the rail work.
"The fact that there is no one talking about where the money might come from is simply not good enough," Harrington said at the time. "A solution is not going to come out of nowhere."
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Source:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&sn=003&sc=386
So--the state money is "iffy", the AC Transit contribution is "iffy", as of yet there is no Federal contribution and so on. Maybe Nancy Pelosi, if she remains Speaker, can get us some money. Maybe the state HSR bond will eventually happen. Maybe AC transit (i.e. the East Bay) will kick in. And where, since this is so much about CalTrain, by the way, is any money from the Peninsula or South Bay?? Right now, though, this is pretty much a San Francisco project.