The following needs to be included as part of the MIS for the SVRTC:
 
 1)  Ridership and revenue analysis of commuter rail options on the Alviso
 rail line should include the planned commuter rail station at Pacific
 Commons.  The City of Fremont has already budgeted and approved $5 million
 in Redevelopment Agency funds for construction of this station which will
 include a station building, parking, bus areas, and boarding platforms.
 The station will be located at Auto Mall Parkway.
 
 2)  A possible commuter rail/BART "transfer only" station at Shinn on the
 Centerville rail line should be considered.
 
 3)  Realistic ridership estimates based on practical development of
 downtown San Jose need to be used.  The bogus figures touted by the San
 Jose administration during the past year need to be discarded as wholly
 unrealistic.
 
 4)  The option of shifting the majority of Union Pacific's north/south
 freight traffic off the Alviso line and the ex-SP Milpitas line and onto
 the former Western Pacific line should be considered.  As it stands now,
 UP wants to sell the lightly used ex-WP line for either a San Jose BART
 extension or for a commuter rail project.  I suggest that use of the ex-WP
 line for the majority of UP's freight traffic would permit UP's freight
 trains to avoid the congestion of travelling through the heart of San Jose
 via Diridon Station, avoid meets with Caltrain, ACE, and Amtrak trains
 between Diridon and Santa Clara (CP Coast), and bypass the ACE and
 Amtrak's Capitol Corridor passenger train traffic between Santa Clara (CP
 Coast) and Niles Junction.  Having UP's freights to and from south of San
 Jose traversing the ex-WP line would avoid all of the passenger traffic
 between Tamien and Niles Junction.  All that would be needed is for UP to
 upgrade its ex-WP line to mainline track standards, installation of a
 modern signaling system, and inclusion of necessary passing sidings.
 Public monies could be used to upgrade the ex-WP line so that ACE, Capitol
 Corridor, and possible Union City to San Jose commuter rail trains can be
 expanded on the Alviso and Centerville lines and so that BART or an
 alternate Commuter Rail option could use the ex-SP Milpitas line which is
 the most direct route between Fremont and San Jose.  Also, moving freights
 off the Centerville line would make it easier to operate Dumbarton
 Commuter trains on the Centerville line between Newark and Niles.
 
 5)  Commuter Rail traffic on the Alviso line should assume two options,
 one that includes double tracking of the rail line through the wetlands
 between Alviso and Albrae, and a second option where all of the Alviso
 line, except for the section through the wetlands is double tracked.
 Double tracking through the wetlands should not be a deal buster.
 
 6)  All of the Commuter Rail options need to include sufficient
 frequencies so as to fairly compare the cost/benefit with the BART option.
 It isn't fair to compare 15 minute interval BART trains with a commuter
 rail option that only runs a few round trips per day.  Commuter rail
 frequencies need to be at Caltrain levels on an entirely modernized,
 double-track infrastructure.
 
 7)  BART extension costs need to include a Santa Clara County buy-in
 calculation and an Irvington BART station.  Since the Irvington BART
 station is likely not part of the Warm Springs extension due to a lack of
 funding, this station needs to be funded as part of the San Jose extension
 analysis.  That station would cost between $60 million and $100 million.
 
 8)  The Commuter rail options could include optional enhancements to the
 slow-speed rail junctions at Newark Junction and Niles Junctions that
 could improve capacity and transit times (like flyovers or curve
 realignments).  All of the commuter rail options should include rail
 infrastructure improvements that would permit operation at maximum speeds
 of 79 mph, Class 5 track conditions, superelevated curves to permit
 maximum speed, and other engineering improvements to permit the fastest
 possible transit times for commuter trains.
 
 9)  The commuter rail option on the Alviso line should assume planned
 improvements at the Centerville station that include a second boarding
 platform on the new second main track, dual track usage by all commuter
 and Amtrak trains, and planned parking expansion.  Funds for these
 improvements have already been budgeted for by the City of Fremont out of
 Redevelopment Agency funds.  Ridership projections for the commuter rail
 option on the Alviso line should include the 20,000 - 25,000 new jobs that
 will come to the Pacific Commons development when that development is
 fully developed..
 
 Thanks for considering my comments.
 
 William G. Wullenjohn Sr.
 Fremont, CA 94536