High Cost Rail - Part 97 "Caltrain crisis"

You have to love the tongue-in-cheek headline in the Daily Post on Monday:  "Caltrain crisis:  too many riders".  That's correct, the struggling rail line has too many riders and some have to stand at certain times of day.  The article reports that

Ridership has risen to 47,060 boardings on weekdays in 2013, up from 42,354 in 2012 and 37,779 in 2011, according to Caltrain statistics.

That's almost 25% growth in two years for the constantly-broke railroad.  So you ask "what is the crisis?"

"We (meaning Palo Alto) plan our transportation demand management around Caltrain and yet it's so limited...they're capped at six trains per hour in peak hours," Palo Alto city councilman Pat Burt said, referring to an agreement Caltrain made with the High-Speed Rail Authority.  That agreement says that Caltrain will limit its trains so that high-speed rail can use the same tracks for its trains.

Nice, huh.  The trains people want are unavailable because of the ones they don't want......

Comments

[James]

Those numbers probably include SF Giants riders which don't necessarily reflect the daily ridership to work commute in an accurate way. The trains during Giants games are full of noisy drunken "fans" and fare to the city seems to be optional. It's a source of lost revenue.

[Poppy Guy]

Actually, that's not true. The ridership numbers come from data collected by a bunch of surveyors who get on the train periodically. They appear to have a high enough sampling rate to not be skewed by the ballgame rides.

[Poppy Guy]

I've been riding the train to and from work every day for 6 years. There has most definitely been a huge increase in ridership. Most rush hour trains now are SRO. To me, it's a great thing to see. I'd take crowded trains any day to bumper-to-bumper traffic any day.

[Joe]

Today's DJ is discussing what our neighbors to the north have planned:

The city of Millbrae will move forward with plans for the long-awaited construction of land around the BART/Caltrain station if the City Council approves an agreement with the potential to make way for two developers’ projects.

The two proposed mixed-use plans would modify the 1998 Millbrae Station Area Specific Plan and related Environmental Impact Report, building on Sites One, Five and Six of 13 sub areas in the plan. The city would charge the developers $899,686 for the amendments to the plan, according to a staff report.

“This is huge,” said Councilwoman Anne Oliva. “I think these are some viable submittals and it’s a great step in the right direction for the city of Millbrae.”

Higher density housing, retail, restaurant, office, hotel and entertainment uses in a mixed-use development have yet to materialize for the area which is the largest multi-agency transportation center west of the Mississippi River. Site One hasn’t been actively worked on since 2006.

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2014-01-14/huge-step-for-millbrae-bart-developments/1776425116483.html

Seems to me our distinctiveness as a town over the next 30+ years should come from NOT doing big projects like this since we are sandwiched between two cities that don't appear to know any better..........

[Peter Garrison]

Exactly. We're going to be able to offer something in 30+ years that no one else except Hillsborough is going to be able to offer. We're going to be able to offer to offer beautiful homes in a beautiful leafy area. We'll offer good schools that are inot overcrowded. We'll be able to offer views of the mountains from the flats and views of San Francisco in San Bruno Mountain and the Bay from the hills. Our night sky will be dark and will be able to offer the stars. What we won't be able to offer our three words when combined or individually expressed are ugly. Those three words are: High. Density. Housing.