California Trains?

[Chas]

Here's an article on Governor Newsom's new perspective on high-speed rail: "Gavin Newsom calls SF-to-LA high-speed rail unrealistic, pushes for route from Bakersfield to Merced."

 

[sttom]

We should keep pushing for improvements on the local level and for Amtrak California. A Second Transbay Tube is still in planning phases (and likely to get paid through a local bond measure anyways). There are so many other worthwhile projects that should get funding. I am presently writing a thing for it. 

 

[seat38a]

California. Where you've got great service to Bakersfield and Fresno but not Los Angeles and San Fran!

Yup thats what you get when ones government can't just take your land and send you off to be "re-educated",  if you don't agree or don't do any environmental reviews.

 

[jis]

We should push for an overnight CS/Spirit of California train then. Just one LAX-San Jose train is ridiculous.

Actually, just two is ridiculous too.

 

[fairviewroad]

3. There is only one train to/from Chicago, Denver, and Salt Lake City but it doesn't serve San Francisco or Oakland without a bus connection, it drops you off at some town called Emeryville, wherever that is.

For reference, the Emeryville Amtrak station is about six miles *closer* to SF's Financial District than the SFO airport is. I'll grant you that there is a rail connection from the airport into downtown San Francisco, but a rail connection also exists for California Zephyr passengers if they get on or off the train in Richmond, CA.

 

[seat38a]

For reference, the Emeryville Amtrak station is about six miles *closer* to SF's Financial District than the SFO airport is. I'll grant you that there is a rail connection from the airport into downtown San Francisco, but a rail connection also exists for California Zephyr passengers if they get on or off the train in Richmond, CA.

Also, the thruway buses from Emeryville is non stop to SF using dedicated bus lanes to enter the Bay Bridge. Takes about the same time or even less than taking BART from SFO. Thruway has luggage compartment below the bus which makes things so much easier than BART when its crowded.

 

[MARC Rider]

Well it was announced that the side projects will continue. The original plan was not to electrify until the connection to San Jose was built so who knows on the electrification at this point. Clarification was released that it's not a cancellation and that the connection to SF and LA will eventually be built if there is money(IE Federal Funding.) This looks like its going to become like the Red/Purple line in LA. Half ass finished because of cost overruns and a decade or two later it gets finished.

This is kind of like a lot of "road to nowhere" highway projects I remember from the 1970s.  There was a half-assed US 322 partial bypass of State College Pa back when I was in grad school.  Totally useless segment of freeway. I returned to the area a couple of years ago, and now there's not only a full bypass, but it's connected to I 99, and there's direct freeway connections to Altoona, the Pa Turnpike, Lock Haven, Wlliamsppot and Corning NY.

 

[BCL]

Also, the thruway buses from Emeryville is non stop to SF using dedicated bus lanes to enter the Bay Bridge. Takes about the same time or even less than taking BART from SFO. Thruway has luggage compartment below the bus which makes things so much easier than BART when its crowded.

Not always dedicated.  I suppose they're dedicated bus lanes most of the time (including commercial buses with a permit) but during commute hours they double as 3+ HOV lanes.

They've got that electronic sign that says "BUSES ONLY" most of the time.  For a while it got confusing because they didn't add "CARPOOL OK" to the electronic sign, although they eventually found a way to fit it all on the same display.

 

[BCL]

This is kind of like a lot of "road to nowhere" highway projects I remember from the 1970s.  There was a half-assed US 322 partial bypass of State College Pa back when I was in grad school.  Totally useless segment of freeway. I returned to the area a couple of years ago, and now there's not only a full bypass, but it's connected to I 99, and there's direct freeway connections to Altoona, the Pa Turnpike, Lock Haven, Wlliamsppot and Corning NY.

My only visit to Boston was when the Big Dig was still going on.  How long did that take?

I've definitely seen lots of incomplete freeways.  It seemed to take forever for CA 237 to be finished.

 

[BCL]

I didn't pick King of Prussia as my comparison randomly!   (It's the home of a huge mall.) But maybe I should have used Conshohocken, where there is an IKEA.

No outlet mall though.  I used to spend a lot of time there during my college years.  I grew up near Berkeley and Emeryville had a movie theater and the EmeryBay Public Market, plus I had a car to drive.  I'd go there and as a starving college student there was a place with a massive $2.50 beans and rice burrito.  I also remember the Emeryville station being built and the neon sign once the station opened.

The other shopping starting coming along gradually.  The big strip malls came in the mid 90s, then Ikea, then Bay Street.  That was about the time Pixar moved from Point Richmond to Emeryville.

As a kid growing up in the area, Emeryville was a pass-through town other than the strip of reclaimed land where there were several tall office buildings, a harbor, and some restaurants.  I think where Ikea is now was where Judson Steel used to be.  I remember they had this hangar-like building where one could see molten steel being poured from the freeway.  And the most fascinating thing was the Emeryville Mudflats with various driftwood creations.  Right now it looks totally natural, but eventually those "sculptures" were removed where they weren't allowed any more.

 

[chakk]

The mudflat scuptures also had a famous scene IIRC in the cult movie “Harold and Maude”.

 

[TiBike]

Caltrans is the state department of transportation -- a lot (but not all) state transportation money flows through them. They do a lot of top level planning and coordination. The rest are either JPAs (joint power authorities) or transit districts governed by, usually, representatives appointed by cities and counties from the areas served.

The three California Amtrak services – Capitol Corridor, Surfliner, San Joaquins – are governed by JPAs, but a lot of the operations are contracted out. Amtrak does the heavy lifting for that, but, for example, BART handles customer service and some admin for the Capitol Corridor. The three JPAs don't have a lot of staff. Mostly, they set policy and manage the contracts with Amtrak. The money comes from the state. Caltrans coordinates some top level things, like rolling stock and bus connections.

Caltrain and Metrolink are JPAs, BART and the Coaster are transit districts. A big difference between the two is that special districts in California (there are many, many kinds) can impose taxes, provided voters approve. A JPA can't impose a tax, but its members – cities and counties, usually – can. There are other differences. BART's board is directly elected, I don't know about the Coaster. JPAs are governed by boards that appointed by the members, usually via elected representatives, e.g. city councils and county boards of supervisors.

The relationship between local governments – cities, counties, special districts and a few other types of agencies – and the state is complicated in California. Some agencies, particularly cities, have great deal of independence from the state, per the California constitution. But a lot of funding comes from the state, because of the way property taxes are restricted, because of constitutional mandates for certain services (e.g. education) and other measures that voters have approved via initiatives and other ballot measures. In general, there's a tendency in California to push decisions and control onto local agencies, partly for structural reasons, partly for reasons of convenience, partly because the state is so diverse and stroppy that one solution, or solutions determined by one state level agency, won't fly.

Also, in the unlikely event that there are no avalanches, forest fires, collapsed bridges, floods, mudslides, earthquakes or homeless people sleeping on the track, Amtrak also runs long distance trains to California.

 

[pennyk]

MODERATOR NOTE: Thanks to members who noted that 2 almost identical threads were started a few weeks apart.  The 2 threads were merged and duplicate posts were removed, as were posts mentioning the duplicate thread.