LivermoreBART.org

Comment from Eric
Time: February 5, 2007, 10:57 pm

Recently I noticed they have begun widening 580 from Pleasanton to livermore using the center divide. I thought this is where Bart was going. Has BART completely dropped the ball on this one? Who is to blame for this stupidity MTC, BART Caltrans or all 3?

Comment from Cathy Tonne
Time: February 11, 2007, 6:28 pm

I think the proposal (Scott’s) is a good one. I live that freeway mess every day. I also used to ride BART every day from Pleasanton and KNOW that there is plenty of ridership in the east to justify the extension. Also as a Livermore resident – we have paid for it! Silicon Valley has not. Thanks for keeping this active and working for creative solutions.

Comment from Joel
Time: February 13, 2007, 10:20 pm

I linked to this website from another great transit advocasy site SF Cityscape. There is an idea by another transit advocate, if funds for BART to Greenville are an issue, perhaps there would be more support for an extension if it met halfway. Perhaps down 580, following El Charro Rd., meeting with the UP raillines next to Stanley Blvd. and establishing the multi-model station there, with ACE, and possible CA High Speed Rail. Thoughts?

Comment from Matt
Time: February 16, 2007, 11:48 pm

Scott’s proposal is a good one, and needs to be backed. We must apply pressure to BART and let them know we should get what we paid for. One suggestion I might point out (this might have been brought up already) Have their been any suggestions to a downtown Livermore Station, near the ACE train and Wheels station (across from the new parking garage and LPAC Theater. We all talk about going to Greenville Road, and I completely agree whole-heartedly, but do we have to keep going down 580 the whole way? Why not have a stop in Downtown Livermore?

Comment from Jeff
Time: May 14, 2007, 1:11 am

I think in order to get the most out of this investment there should be talk of routing BART over to the Ace train alignment and run it into the middle of Livermore. That will get the most ridership rather than going down the median. Freeways generally scare riders away with the noise and pedestrian inaccessability (aka need for a lonely bridge crossing for peds). Also, the best places for TOD are in areas away from Freeways. Rail doesn’t work like a freeway, so it shouldn’t run down the median of a Freeway. BART would get a lot more riders if it went under broadway plaza or through the center of pleasanton instead of in the median of the freeway where people can’t walk to their jobs after getting off the train.

Comment from JimDesu
Time: October 31, 2007, 7:39 pm

It’s a great plan. Honestly, after 40 years of taxes paid, either they should build it, or else all taxes should be halted and the BART Authority sued for breach of contract.

Comment from Michael F. Sarabia
Time: December 26, 2007, 7:55 pm

It is very hard to understand how otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people can ignore Global Warming!
Of course, the extension from Dublin to Livermore with a Diesel fuel train will take many years to come about. The same can be said for the extension from Bay Point to Antioch.
But, are you sure than in a few years Global Warming will be a joke? What if it is for real?
What if Carbon emissions have to be cut, the hard way?
(Worse, what if the new Federal EPA are smart and get a wind of this plan? Will they ask the right questions before the contracts are signed off with a 100% Penalty Clause?
This clause is often used to keep the contract alive, no matter what! They even use it in county building contracts!

And then, only then, our, new, elected federal officials will notice BART went the wrong way, five years earlier, before they were in charge -sounds familiar? When it seems nobody is in charge, it may be that this is the actual truth.

Ignore, if you can, for a minute, that these two extension may be using different eBARTs, maybe this is not true.
Consider, for more than a minute, that the new type of Diesel train will have its own crews for maintenance and operation, and will require their own parts, different than those of standard BART.
Consider that BART has on order over 600 new cars with 6-doors and BART has been growing by 500,000 riders per year. These cars are incompatible because they come with their own electric motors.

Oil barrel prices have reached $100. When will it be “too high” for these peoples and electric power cheaper? Where did they get their engineers? Nacadoches School of Forestry?

Can you really believe that a short extension with a new train could be compatible and cheaper than the extension of the regular BART? I cannot, and I fear those that cannot will be able, but we rather not, say “I told you so!” Last I heard they still had undefined and seldom mentioned computer problems.

It seems more urgent to begin building Transbay Tunnel II before we start planning for more riders to clog the tunnel. The last time this happened, the trains were speeded up and the gap between them reduced. Will this be possible again? Will we find the answer the hards way? You know, after there is a serious major accident? Followed by “What were THERY thinking?”

It is a given that when the San Jose extension is brought in line, the rider surge may, alone, require a new tunnel. Shouldn’t they build the tunnel first?
A thoughtful plan would postpone Bay Point and Dublin extension until the new tunnel is finished.

Did you know that since 2001, BART riders have been increasing by 500,000 per year? You can read it in BART Times July 2007.

You, the reader, may characterize the people that are making these decisions. They are the same ones that also changed the rules and Board Director incumbents can NOW accept political contributions from contractors working for BART. I will not offend your intelligence by suggesting which ones.
Do you smell something?

Comment from Michael F. Sarabia
Time: December 26, 2007, 8:17 pm

The I-580 congestion problem would best be dealt together with the horrible congestion of containers in Oakland Port.
The ideal solution is a tunnel to shift containers by train in a tunnel to the rail lines near Tracy.
The tunnel designed optimized for least cost for freight traffic. Trains can climb only small gradients therefore, the start should be a shallow climb to the hill side and a long tunnel followed by a shallow exit. The calculations are well known but the realistic cost of drilling the tunnel and excavating the entrance and exit can use optimizations.
Without the thousands of trucks with their single container, I-580 will not be clogged.
The use of a hybrid bus, like they use on the hills in San Francisco, would be best to link Dublin, Livermore and nearby developments.
We must teach everyone that BART is like a “wholesaler” and busses are “retailers”, it is unwise to use them where they should not be used.
(Tri-Delta Transit and BART do an excellent job in the urban areas from Antioch to Bay Point. the areas that I know.)

Comment from Matt
Time: May 19, 2008, 4:42 pm

I agree with Jim. We should get what we paid for and build the stations, or sue BART and get back all the money we’ve paid and build it ourselves.

Comment from Mandy Mathis
Time: November 12, 2009, 5:54 pm

BART does excellent ridership with the Lafayette, Pittsburg Bay Point, Orinda and other stations in the median of the future. All of the people that posted that BART is “wrong” continuing from Dublin Pleasanton down the median are wrong. Yes, BART needs to extend to Livermore (and Hercules,CA where I live) but the next stations need to be at Isabel/ I580 in the median and Greenville Road/ I580 in the median or Isabel/ I580 and at the Ace Station on VASCO, those make the most economic benefit for riders and the current BART system. There are many different cities that have paid into the bart system that do not have stations. The bart board has made the right decisions in the past when extending from daly city to colma and millbrae, they need to make the right decision again and have both bart stations in the median at the points I stated.