SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Something tells me their bridge tolls are their bread and butter, not bus and ferry fares.

Yes. According to wikipedia, "The District's primary revenue source is tolling on the southbound lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge. (The last of the bridge's construction bonds were retired in 1971, with principal and interest raised entirely from bridge tolls.) A mix of tolls, transportation subsidies, and grants is used to support bus and ferry services."

[38R]

Oakland Assemblymember may revive Bay Bridge bus lane proposal
Rob Bonta exploring legislation with support of BART board member

Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) has directed his staff to research legislative solutions to reviving a bus-only lane on the Bay Bridge, spurred by a suggestion from one of his constituents.

To be clear, his spokesperson Jerome Parra said, Bonta is “not committed to a bill,” but he is “researching the idea.” Yet even at this early stage the effort has the support of a member of the BART Board of Directors.

Bonta’s interest in bus-only lanes on the Bay Bridge was sparked by Oakland resident Carter Lavin, who responded to a call from Bonta on Facebook to “please share your best bill ideas with me! The more transformative and impactful, the better!”

Lavin’s suggestion was quickly seconded by BART board director Rebecca Saltzman, who responded “Absolutely this! AC Transit and BART would love to work with you on this,” to which Bonta replied “Let’s do it Carter Lavin & Rebecca Saltzman! Reaching out to you separately now! Rob.”

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/oakl...-lane-proposal

[homebucket]

Is the J Church San Francisco's worst Muni line?
By Amy Graff, SFGATE Updated 7:10 am PST, Thursday, January 23, 2020

"I hate the J Church" are words I've read from my teenagers many times. Our family lives near San Francisco's Muni light-rail line that runs between Noe Valley and downtown, and my kids hop on the train to get around the city. But often, they end up waiting so long that they become frustrated and fire off texts, alerting their parents to the train's unreliability.

"The app keeps saying it will be here in five minutes but it doesn't come. I'm going to be late for school!!!" is just one example of a text I have saved from her on my phone.

...

There are many ways of evaluating each of the lines, and for this story I decided to focus on the percentage of time the trains are late or very late, looking at data from December 2018 to December 2019. Here's what my math revealed:

-KT Ingleside/Third: 50.1%, late or very late

-E Embarcadero: 47%, late or very late

-J Church: 46.5%, late or very late

-M Ocean: 45.9%, late or very late

-N Judah: 39.5%, late or very late

-F Market: 38.9%, late or very late

-L Taraval: 38%, late or very late

The exercise reveals that the J is the third worst and, if you look at the chart in the gallery above, you'll see that the train's recent improvement in performance in November and December helped this line not fall into the worst category. The L Taraval, mainly serving the Parkside District, wins as the best.

https://www.sfgate.com/public-transp...A-14995692.php

^ Speaking of which, where has J Church been?

[SFBruin]

I recall the 43 Masonic being both (a) pretty bad at being on time and (b) taking forever to get anywhere.

I would give it a run for its money with the J Church.

[CharlesCO]

I once heard the J as described as being there when you don't need it, not being there when you do.

[craigs]

I'm closest to the J Church, but it's almost never the line I eventually end up taking downtown.

[Pedestrian]

The concept of a Muni vehicle being "late" is one I just don't understand. It suggests there is a schedule and anyone expects it to be followed. No one I know does and no one I have known in 40 years ever has.

It's more sensible to expect the busses or trains to come along more or less at the advertised interval--every 8 minutes, every 15 or whatever--and we all know that's a struggle for Muni as well (the infamous no bus for half an hour, then two together is far too common).

One problem the J-Church has, aside from a long slog on city streets, is the junction behind the Market St. Safeway where it joins the main sub-Market St. line and where it may have to wait to join a line of Ks, Ls and Ms.

PS: I'm closest to the cluster-F sometimes known as the Van Ness BRT project and am wide-eyed with expectations as to how that's actually going to work if it's ever finished.

[hallelujah]

You could get off the J at Church and walk to Van Ness quicker than the train.

[craigs]

"Get off the J at Church?"

It's a line, not a stop.

[SFBruin]

I think that the poster is referring to getting off at Church and Market and just walking to Van Ness.

[craigs]

Sonoma-Marin commuter rail sees 26% ridership rise in January after new ferry link, more frequent trains


Passengers disembark the SMART train at the newly opened Larkspur SMART Train Station after taking the inaugural ride to Larkspur, Calif., on Saturday, December 14, 2019. (Photo by Darryl Bush / For The Press Democrat)

Jeff Quackenbush
North Bay Business Journal
February 6, 2020

Train ridership between Sonoma and Marin counties appears to have received a sizable January boost, which the transit agency attributed to a number of service upgrades in the past two months such as a new San Francisco ferry link and shorter times between trains.

And the initial figures may point to SMART as not just a north-south commute option.

SMART trains last month had 26% more riders than a year before, according to spokeswoman Julia Gonzalez. . . In mid-December, the Larkspur station opened, realizing . . . a link to the terminal for ferry travel to and from San Francisco. The agency also launched a $12 “sail and rail” pass that includes a midday and weekend ride on the train and the ferry.

Last month, SMART also cut the time between trains to 32 minutes, filling in gaps in services of an hour and a half during parts of the midday and evening. Another service addition was the opening of the downtown Novato station. . . .

It's not rocket science--connectivity and frequency are paramount for good public transportation.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Does anyone have any recent photos of the Caltrain electrification?

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Does anyone have any recent photos of the Caltrain electrification?

I found a couple of photos (not terribly recent):




Source: https://www.google.com/search?rls=en...kT3d7bzBKdXYxM

The construction site has an image gallery but the pictures there don't tell me much: https://calmod.org/construction-photos/

[urbanflight]

Thanks for the pics.

Do we know what the new train fleet will look like?

[Busy Bee]

^^^
http://calmod.org

[SFBruin]

Looks great! More cities should do this.

[urbanflight]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

^^^
http://calmod.org

Thanks for the answer. It is a nice improvement.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Looks great! More cities should do this.

I know capitol corridor has plans for it and I see that it would be easy to convince SMART to do a study on it.

[craigs]

I've seen some aspirational 'vision statements' for electrifying the Capitol Corridor, and I'm all for it, but do they really have a credible plan?

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by craigs

I've seen some aspirational 'vision statements' for electrifying the Capitol Corridor, and I'm all for it, but do they really have a credible plan?

All it really takes is money and also the Capital Corridor route may be a bit easier to do than the CalTrain because on the Peninsula there are so many grade crossings which, if not removed (by making the crossing above or below grade) will slow even an electric train to a crawl. I don't recall so many such crossings on the Capital Corridor route. What can slow that down, though, is the Sacramento River bridges. I was in a train one time that waited 4 hours while the bridge was open for a ship to pass which turned out to be a phantom ship--didn't exist.