North Shore Connector

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Geeo

Don't forget that the Port Authority has an express bus that travels beween Oakland, downtown, Robinson Town Center and the Airport with just a few stops and utilizes the West Busway to bypass the parkway traffic. I've taken it many times and it's cheap (about $3) and pretty fast.

It would be much faster, though, if Oakland had a rapid bus route to Downtown, and the West Busway actually reached Downtown.

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

It would be much faster, though, if Oakland had a rapid bus route to Downtown, and the West Busway actually reached Downtown.

or a T connection

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pman

or a T connection

A T connection to Oakland might speed up the airport trip a bit, although that would require a transfer from the T to the airport shuttle bus Downtown, and that still wouldn't address the problem of the West Busway not going all the way to Downtown. Unless you mean connecting the T both to Oakland and the airport, but that would be a considerably more expensive plan. That is mostly because the West Busway is already partially built, and moreover wouldn't need to be extended all the way to the airport, since there is rarely congestion that far out (whereas an entirely new T connection to the airport would have to be built the whole way).

[Geeo]

The West Busway was originally planned to enter downtown on a new bridge across the Mon that would have landed at Market Street. Business interests in Station Square and the Firstside area were successful in lobbying against the bridge, and the deadline for funding was approaching, and the feds would not fund if the decision was not made. So Port Authority had to abandon the bridge and connection to the rest of the busway. That's why it ends so far away now.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Geeo

The West Busway was originally planned to enter downtown on a new bridge across the Mon that would have landed at Market Street. Business interests in Station Square and the Firstside area were successful in lobbying against the bridge, and the deadline for funding was approaching, and the feds would not fund if the decision was not made. So Port Authority had to abandon the bridge and connection to the rest of the busway. That's why it ends so far away now.

I knew about the original plan being dropped, but not why that happened--thanks!

Hopefully this issue gets revisited at some point.