2001 August 01 Lisa Ives VTA - Planning and Programming, Building B 3331 North First Street San Jose, CA 95134-1906 Dear Ms. Ives: Here are my comments regarding the VTA's Silicon Valley Rapid Transit Corridor project. 1. Timeliness The the criterion 'time to delivery, where sooner is better' should be included and weighted when judging and screening proposed options and alternatives. Also, capital intensive alternatives with long construction periods should be considered in phased segments. For example, don't just consider BART to San Jose, but consider extending BART to Warm Springs, extending BART to Milpitas light rail, extending BART to East Valley light rail, extending BART to San Jose Diridon, extending BART to Santa Clara, in a way that early extensions can be opened before completion of later extensions. 2. Public access to planning materials The planning materials for this project should be readily available and discoverable in a timely manner on the VTA's web site. I should not need to evangelize the WWW in this year and County, but my experience so far with this project has been disappointing. For instance, the proposed alignment maps were available only to those who attended in person meetings. And as of today, the proposed eleven alternatives are not published in even the briefest form on http://www.vta.org/svrtc/ . 3. Local representation on operational authority If BART is chosen, and BART is constructed to and in Santa Clara County, will Santa Clara county residents be represented on the BART Board ? Will Santa Clara become an official BART county ? These questions need to be addressed before Santa Clara spends billions of dollars on BART. 4. Budget uncertainty and contingency If an option is chosen and construction undertaken, what is planned if that option goes over budget ? What components of the approved plan would be deleted to get the project back on budget, and how would these cuts be determined ? 5. Plan to add intermodal stations where lines intersect. At Tasman and Stars and Stripes in Great America, a combined Amtrak/ACE/proposed-new-service and Tasman light rail station should be considered. Similarly, add a Shinn Station at BART in Fremont. For the conventional rail, bus, BRT, and LRT alternatives, please add a "transfer only" station in Fremont near Shinn Rd. where BART and the regional rail lines intersect. This Shinn station would be allow only passengers transferring between BART, ACE, or the Capitols to board another transit system at that location, and would not require any automobile parking amenities. 6. Diesel light rail I agree with the VTA's sentiment to eliminate diesel light rail from further consideration. 7. Trip origin and destination data. The VTA should provide a detailed forecast of trip origin and destinations for people residing in, working in, or travelling through this corridor. The maps of residential and employment density presented in the 2001 July public workshops did not reflect office and commercial development in Fremont west of I-880. These data should be provided before eliminating any potential routes or alignments. 8. 2000 Measure B The voters of Santa Clara voted in 1996 Measure B to provide commuter rail from Fremont to San Jose. The VTA has failed to deliver on this commitment. These funds should be made available immediately to upgrade the existing ACERail and Amtrak Capitol Corridor service to provide interim service as directed by the VTA South Bay Commuter Rail Policy Advisory Board, at least until whatever becomes of the SVRTC studies and 2000 Measure A funding are completed. |