Quote:
Originally Posted by IrvineNative
As for transit laggards, I'll actually say San Francisco, because we aren't talking about which cities have the worst transit, we are talking about cities that fail to make much progress, including cities that have rested on their laurels.
Even pre-COVID, SF transit was a disaster. BART violent crime per capita was quadruple that of the DC Metro. BART headways were abysmal, 15 minute workday rush hour frequencies if your station was served only by one line. (Even DC Metro stations served by only one line have 6-8 minute rush hour frequencies). And Muni Metro was the slowest urban rail transit system in the nation, averaging less than 10 mph.
And expansions like the Silicon Valley BART were moving at a snails pace with cost overruns second to only NYC. A second Transbay tube has been discussed for ages but so far no progress. Ditto with Caltrain to Downtown. Meanwhile, SF spent over 2 billion on a lavish Transbay Transit Center for a high speed rail and Caltrain extension that may never come.
And topping off the Bay Area transit fiasco is VTA light rail, which gets some of the lowest ridership of any light rail system in the country and actually closed a light rail spur (the Almaden shuttle), which I believe is the first LRT line in the US to close in fifty years.
The only bright spot is Caltrain, which was the second busiest commuter rail line in the nation, featured express service, and is even electrifying most of the line to provide 10 minute headways during rush hour. But even CalMod has been delayed.
|
Disagree. Like the CTA system, a lot of the improvements have been behind the scenes, with improving reliability with new track, cabling, and other critical components. Transbay Tube seismic retrofitting has been ongoing since 2017 and should be completed by early 2023.
BART also has a new fleet of 775 train cars being incorporated into service with improved digital screens and dynamic system mapping, more doors, and new wheels to reduce noise by 50%.
There are also station modernization programs and multiple TOD projects being built and proposed on BART-owned property adjacent to the stations. So far, over 4000 units have been completed with another 2000 more in the pipeline.
BART extension to SJ has been slow, but I'm not sure how that's different than any other transit extensions currently underway in the US.
Then we've also got the Muni Central Subway extension and the new Van Ness BRT line.
Obviously there could be a lot more done. A second Transbay Tube, a Geary subway line either BART or Muni, a Dumbarton rail crossing, and completed HSR are all on the bucket list, but that's obviously limited by the amount of funding is received and our nation's miserly attitude towards transit investment, not a Bay Area specific fault.