LivermoreBART.org

Comment from Elvira Nagle
Time: August 28, 2006, 2:39 pm

BART should be extended from Dublin to Livermore. Anyone who travels the 580 knows what a parking lot it is! Just try to get to classes at Los Positas College. Many times going east to get to Livermore, it is necessary to go Hopyard/Valley/Stanley and even that is now getting heavy traffic. If you stay on 580 to Airway, you have been in the freeway “parking lot.” Going west on 580 from the Altamont Pass to Dublin is every drivers nightmare! In addition to the standstill traffic traveling west, there is not adequate parking at Dublin to accommodate those who wish to park and take BART. A Livermore station and parking area is urgently needed and without any further delay.

Comment from Ruth Huycke-McCall
Time: August 28, 2006, 3:10 pm

Livermore FIRST! Those who have been paying the longest should get their stations before “new comers.” Play Fair!

Comment from Katy Wright
Time: August 28, 2006, 3:17 pm

All the Sacto folks need to do is commute from Livermore or beyond & they will see the need. Pretty soon vendors will be popping up along I-580 to sell breakfast & dinners to the cars parked there.

Comment from Helen Meier
Time: August 28, 2006, 3:50 pm

It is appalling that we continue to pay for a service we do not receive. The BART board needs to look at dollars in and develop a plan for expansion that recognizes the contribution of Livermore residents.

If BART was extended to the Altamont, congestion in the Tri-Valley would be reduced by a significant amount.

Comment from Gib Souza
Time: August 28, 2006, 5:52 pm

Linda,
Thanks for taking this on.

Indeed, it is a shame that Livermore finds itself in the very unenviable position of being at the end of the line. I have been a resident of Alameda County my entire life and have paid my share for BART. We are also users of the system on a regular basis which we find convenient for trips to SF or Oakland.

While I would utlimately like to see a San Jose extension, I would also be in favor of a system that rings the bay and one that serves the employment centers. Ideally, we need BART access to Marin,as well as Brentwood, Tracy, etc.

The Metro in DC is a great example of a system that provides access around a fairly large metro area like the Bay Area. Of course, we know where the money and influences are and that’s why they have such a great system. The politicians need a few hours of commute time on 80, 580 and 680 to further appreciate why BART is vital to the Bay Area.

I will be alerting our client base to this website with the hope that we can enlist more supporters.

Thanks Again

Gib Souza
925-216-7211

Comment from Galen Hazelhofer
Time: August 28, 2006, 6:23 pm

Just thinking about how Livermore is so anti-growth, anti- sprawl which is a nice thing but maybe the fact is that the jobs, growth, and economy potential is in San Jose, not Livermore. Livermore has voted down almost all growth measures and maybe this has been a factor as to the need of a BART? I don’t know but San Jose is bigger, has more business and jobs to offer and maybe it just makes sense for BART to service them before a city that wants to remain small???? Just thinkin’.

Comment from Ann Henderson
Time: August 28, 2006, 7:27 pm

I have lived in Dublin for 46 years, and I know how I felt about the sales tax we paid into BART for years before it finally came to Dublin. I believe that the BART officials promised that the extra tax we have paid regionally would go toward bringing BART to our communities. Livermore is part of that whole plan, and Livermore should get BART before San Jose.

I would like to see San Jose as part of the general plan, but the BART officials need to get their priorities (and promises) in order. San Jose is a “johnny-come-lately” and should wait its turn and pay its fair share when it does come.

Comment from Arnold Kirkewoog
Time: August 28, 2006, 7:35 pm

I agree with Linda completely. You might remind our polititians that there are votes out here and we have enough of the foolishness they are displaying. We have paid for the service and we should get what we payed for!!!!! Let Arnold try to get to Sacramento meeting during rush hours ( without his jet ). Needless to say, we are very frustrated and we will demand some action.

Comment from Ray Gilmore
Time: August 28, 2006, 9:00 pm

Dear Legislators and whomever else is in this loop. Livermore has been paying for BART for over 40 years. It is inconceivable that even the lowest of politicians would try to slip San Jose in ahead of a community that has waited so long and paid the tax all along. The I580 commute is imposssible!!! BART cextension to Livermore could alleviate the congestion considerably. Please do the right thing. Make BART to Livermore a reality in our lifetime.

Comment from John Sailors
Time: August 29, 2006, 10:15 am

Fully support Bart to Livermore, certainly before San Jose. In fact I think San Jose should pay for BART to Livermore as their buy-in cost for access to our BART system.

Comment from Joan Rushford
Time: August 30, 2006, 11:32 am

I have paid for BART since 1969 when I moved to Livermore. I have ALWAYS thought it unfair for Livermore to pay without having a station. Joan Rushford

Comment from Donald Lott
Time: August 31, 2006, 11:56 am

I am in full support of BART to Livermore and San Jose although I believe that Livermore should definately come first. I am a newer resident of Livermore but have studied the history of the BART relationship with Livermore. We deserve it! We pay property taxes for a BART system that is so overcrowded (Dublin/Pleasanton), that it is often easier to drive than use the system. While I certainly don’t mind paying taxes for useful ideas and projects, the BART tax we pay is discouraging (earthquake retrofit measure). Personally, I hope that when the BART system is extended to Livermore, that they plan accordingly for the parking. I would happily pay my property tax obligations for a system that includes multi-level parking. The Dublin/Pleasanton station is useless to me as I commute later in the day. I often find that parking is full, surrounding streets are permit only and the walk is up to 3/4 of a mile to get to the station. My commute is 150% longer using BART in this fashion.

I appreciate the web-site and agree fully support this campaign. Please feel free to contact me at (925) 960-0795 although I would appreciate if my phone number remain confidential to this organization only.

Thank you,

Donald Lott
Barbara Arroyo

Comment from Robert Law
Time: August 31, 2006, 3:45 pm

I’d like a refund for all the taxes I’ve paid over the last 33 years living in Livermore. Busses to Pleasanton is not a replacement. Trying to get a parking spot (of which I ermember these were NOT supposed to be metered) is getting almost impossible. Don’t build more slots in Pleasanton, save the money for our station.
Not only should we get BART, I’d like to see the line extended over the Altamount to I-5, then they can keep my taxes.

Comment from Cathy Tonne
Time: September 1, 2006, 10:57 am

It long overdue. We have been paying and waiting for BART for decades. We have been told that there is not enough ridership – take a look at I-580! I do! Everyday as I commute! Also I rode BART to SF for several years in the early 2000′s and if I did not get to the station by 7am I did not get a parking spot. Not enough riders, huh. And this was BEFORE Dublin built all the apartment/condos near the station.

Politicians do not accurately reflect our wishes. They play games – like ti diotic study on a rail system that squandered millions of dollars that could have been put to our get started funding.

If you support BART to Livermore PLEASE SPEAK UP and let the elected officials know! And then hold them accountable!!!

Comment from Daniel Krause
Time: September 4, 2006, 12:10 pm

Hi All,

Though I think it is great you all support mass transit for your area, Livermore residents have shown they don’t really want to put the train in urban areas (i.e. downtown livermore). Instead the preferred alignment is down the middle of a freeway which will only be used by park and ride users. Systems like BART all around the world are typically designed to serve high volumes of transit riders all throughout the day and evening. Due to the incredibly high expense to construct “metro” rail systems such as BART, ridership needs to be very high to justify its cost. By encouraging an alignment that will limit ridership to commute hours only be routing it AWAY from where people are engaged in activities throughout the day, residents and politicians in the Livermore region are basically killing any hope for a cost-effective project.

I suggested instead that instead of being afraid of what BART will do to your “small-town atmosphere” look at BART as a wonderful opportunity to bring access to downtown (as well as other areas). Here is my suggestion to increasing the ridership which will then help get the regional support you need to get the extension.

1) Have more than one or two stops. Consider having the extension stop at the mall just east of the current terminus station at dublin/pleasanton.

2) Add a couple of stops slightly north of the freeway and build “smart growth” developments centered around the two BART stations. These could even restrict car ownership for some residents so they would have to rely on BART and not overload the current freeway system. These station areas would be like small self-contained towns that would serve to actually preserve most of north livermore current open space by redirecting sprawl growth to these contained and compact train station areas.

3) Add a fourth station at the I-580 corridor that would be the park and rider station for the altamont commuters.

4) Then finally turn towards dowtown Livermore where a fifth BART station would connect with ACE and also provide access for tri valley residents to get downtown to shop in the area.

Under such a scenario, the ridership numbers would greatly improve, which would also improve the chances of getting the BART project built. It would also help preserve open space and provide BART access to the regional mall.

As currently planned it is simply a one-dimensional park and ride system which will never produce the kind of ridership numbers that will get the system built.

Comment from Barbara Mallon
Time: October 2, 2006, 4:52 pm

I am very concerned that the proposed HOV lanes for I580 between Greenville and Hacienda will destroy our chances of getting BART. (You can send an Email to Jean Hart, Deputy Director of Planning at Jhart@accma,ca,gov.) The Dublin/Pleasanton station is a Park and Ride station. One at Greenville with lots of parking would not only get Livermore residents to their Bay Area destinations but also get Altamont travelors off the freeway. There should also be an ACE train stop at the same location.

We were supposed to be part of the original system. Livermore should have BART before San Jose and East Contra Costa County. They should buy into the system paying for our station and tracks.

Comment from tom g
Time: July 12, 2007, 8:32 pm

I have never found BART to be a very efficient means of my transportation because it is expensive, and everything connecting to it is even more expensive and slower. I’ve done my math, and spending money on gas and insurance is cheaper AND faster.

BUT I have now started to work in Livermore, and in fact quite close to where BART owns land. If BART were to start building there soon, I would postpone my plans to move to Livermore from the Bayfair area of San Leandro. It would be the first convenient commute on BART I will ever have seen. Tracy and Stockton should be on the rout also.

BART IS TOO LOUD. It hurts my ears to ride the train, and it hurts my ears when I have worked next to the tracks. This is the biggest/only design flaw in BART. Oh, and its expensive.

Comment from Mike Fogel
Time: August 4, 2007, 11:53 pm

I’m a strong supporter of BART to downtown Livermore.

I’d like to point out though, that if you don’t live/work in Livermore, you don’t really directly benefit from the extension of BART to Livermore. There are definite secondary benefits (less cars on the roads etc), but these are secondary.

However, the extension to San Jose is different. People go to San Jose. People from all over the bay work in San Jose. An extension to San Jose has substantial direct benefit to everyone from the suburban family out in Pleasant Hill to the yuppie in the condo in SOMA. That’s something an extension to Livermore doesn’t provide.

So while residents of Livermore have indeed been paying for BART for 44 years without getting any service, this is a regional transit system. If we don’t reflect this in our priorities – we’re left with an expensive system that doesn’t go anywhere. That’s no benefit to anyone, resident of Livermore or not.

Comment from Lin
Time: July 31, 2008, 1:28 pm

No.
Becauset San Jose has Caltrain.

Comment from skweaker
Time: October 9, 2008, 9:11 pm

So they started this construction between the eastbound and westbound traffic.. instead of building the bart we’ve paid for for so long they are putting in a commute lane. More lanes is great and all, but that space could be better used for mass transit for those that need it.

Comment from Les
Time: October 26, 2008, 6:26 am

One reason there probably won’t be a BART Livermore station is because government officials realize that it’s the non-paying folks from the Central Valley that will be taking BART.
As for the cost of $100 million per mile to bring BART to Livermore, does anyone remember county Supervisor Ed Campbell and his eventual victory to buy the median right of way for $1 mile? Later, in Congress, Rep. Richard Pombo derided Campbell as a communist because BART’s right–away cost the county only $1 per mile.

Comment from Lin
Time: December 15, 2008, 4:24 pm

If Livemore BART is there, there’s no traffic in I-580 in both directions any more. Everybody will be happy about it and benefits from it.

Comment from Lin
Time: December 15, 2008, 4:26 pm

The only way to attract more companies to move to Livemore is to build BART. Otherwise, most people have no way to get there to work.

Comment from Nick
Time: January 23, 2009, 6:53 pm

San Jose had its chance a long time ago to be part of Bart, and
they voted it down. The cost then for them to come in would have
be peanuts to what is cost now.

Shame on them. Now they want to be the big bully who thinks he can
cut in front of the line. Fine, get in line like you should have years ago,
only get in the back and wait your turn just like everybody else has had to do.

PS. Go Sharks !

Comment from Edward
Time: June 26, 2009, 6:13 pm

i’ll be soon a livermore resident. But, I’ve been a Dublin resident for over a decade. I know how the traffics looks like on I-580 from Dublin to Livermore. It’s just like a nighmare daily including weekends. If you don’t believe, come over and take rider on I-580, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Go Livermore BART!
Edward