for public transit fans

[jfb]

San Jose's mayor is trying to expand the airport without enhancing transit to it. An agreement had been made that would connect San Jose's light rail system to the airport as it expands, but then 9/11 happened, airport security got bigger, and the mayor wants to hurry up the airport work and leave the light rail work behind.

The article offers the metaphorically intriging statement: "The airport is an island; it's landlocked."

Sources say that the mayor would work on a connection to the BART station--further on the outskirts of the city, and more useful to its suburbs--before the light rail connection, more useful to the city. I don't know a lot about San Jose politics, but this story arc I do know: Former mayor Tom McEnery, a Democrat and a film buff, was focused on San Jose as a city. A lot of his work as mayor was on the creation of a healthy downtown. He was voted out in favor of Ron Gonzales, a Republican and a regionalist, focused on San Jose as a part of a wider area. That's the context in which his support for suburban access to the airport can be read.

For more on that drama, see yet another Metro article.

Comments

[wrog]

And then there's Seattle's light rail plan, which is just fucked up beyond belief (the projected line doesn't go anywhere useful, they can't afford to make it go anywhere useful, it will thus not have any real impact on traffic, it's already horribly overbudget and they haven't even laid any track yet --- original estimates seem to have been based on outright lies), and even though a recent initiative has blown away a good chunk of its funding, they're still going to charge ahead, gutting other (useful) Sound Transit programs to pay for it.

Meanwhile, there's the monorail plan that is (1) cheaper (2) has less of a footprint (3) is arguably better suited to the terrain (4) has significant popular support, and, as of the last election (5) has actual funding, but of course the mayor's office and the county have been obstructing it at every turn since it's Not Light Rail.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds bad. And then there's the L.A. subway, the most commonly expressed opinion of which is: "L.A. has a subway?!"

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

LA has a subway?!?!

I'm completely unsurprised to hear this, and in fact there MAY be wheels within wheels: oftentimes local governments can get funding from federal sources for airport infrastructure, which means runways, taxiways, baggage handling, and parking garages, but NOT rail, roadways, and all the stuff it takes to connect to the rest of the world. So it is possible to get a nice shiny new airport with nothing but an interstate hookup. (That's what happened at Denver International Airport, for instance; early plans for rail and bike/pedestrian access were shelved as the budget crunched and then were unfundeable afterwards because they were not airport items.