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the top priority should be (as it's been for the past 50 years): rail under Geary Blvd.
The buses on Geary carry over 50,000 passengers a day (even more than the notoriously crowded
N-Judah light rail line).
That's a statistic.
What it means on the street is big 60-foot buses arriving every 6 or 7 minutes...
and if there's even a minor delay, the next bus that arrives will have standing room only
(perhaps not even that).
The local and regional powers-that-be have ignored the needs of all those urban bus riders over the decades,
instead building BART extensions deeper and deeper into low-density suburbs.
When Muni finally obtained a big chunk of capital dollars, it was earmarked for the pointless
(yet exorbitantly expensive) Central Subway project.
Bus Rapid Transit will arrive on Geary someday, but a corridor as busy as Geary needs both bus and rail
(for comparison, look at Mission Street -- it has Muni bus and BART, and both are crowded).
Rail under Geary should be simple to construct: it'll be slightly less than seven miles end-to-end,
with no turns nor sudden changes in elevation. The only complication will be at the eastern end,
with the existing BART and Muni tunnels, and the new Central Subway. I don't know if it'll be
possible to link Geary rail into the existing rail system, but regardless, it needs to be built.
I guess we'd only get a mile or so for my city for its population even though we build the damn things here.
If I could get 3-4 miles would have streetcars connecting the two previous town's (Fort William & Port Arthur - now the city of Thunder Bay) downtowns along what is currently mostly part of the Mainline bus route. The route mostly running close to the lake (Simpson St./Fort William Road/ Water St)
the top priority should be (as it's been for the past 50 years): rail under Geary Blvd.
The buses on Geary carry over 50,000 passengers a day (even more than the notoriously crowded
N-Judah light rail line).
That's a statistic.
What it means on the street is big 60-foot buses arriving every 6 or 7 minutes...
and if there's even a minor delay, the next bus that arrives will have standing room only
(perhaps not even that).
The local and regional powers-that-be have ignored the needs of all those urban bus riders over the decades,
instead building BART extensions deeper and deeper into low-density suburbs.
When Muni finally obtained a big chunk of capital dollars, it was earmarked for the pointless
(yet exorbitantly expensive) Central Subway project.
Bus Rapid Transit will arrive on Geary someday, but a corridor as busy as Geary needs both bus and rail
(for comparison, look at Mission Street -- it has Muni bus and BART, and both are crowded).
Rail under Geary should be simple to construct: it'll be slightly less than seven miles end-to-end,
with no turns nor sudden changes in elevation. The only complication will be at the eastern end,
with the existing BART and Muni tunnels, and the new Central Subway. I don't know if it'll be
possible to link Geary rail into the existing rail system, but regardless, it needs to be built.
I was thinking maybe Caltrain that meets up with an extension of the current Caltrain route somewhere downtown that then together crosses the bay would be best since a second Bay Area crossing is probably a good idea and making it the Caltrain standard gauge means that it can take advantage of all the existing rail in the larger region. This isn't the Geary Boulevard going down into the Peninsula (though there would be a transfer), but instead joining up with Caltrain coming up from the Peninsula to cross the bay. That's about 12 miles.
An extension of BART to Diridon station also seems pretty important as would be a mid-bay crossing such as across Dumbarton Bridge with a standard gauge Caltrain compatible service (maybe a Caltrain service). The question is then if ACE in East and South Bay should then be electrified so you can run some nice loops, like a larger loop line and then two smaller loops with their respective top and bottom segments being the Dumbarton Bridge. A cross-bay line around where the San Mateo Bridge or even a heavily retrofitted San Mateo Bridge would probably be better placement though.
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