Local transit dollars lead to additional state, federal funds
Q Measure B’s $6.3 billion for countywide pavement repairs, extending BART from Berryessa to Santa Clara, Caltrain overpasses, interchange fixes, expressway upgrades and more bus service is not nearly enough money to do all these things. BART to Santa Clara by itself will eat up most of that. Michael Van Nuland San Jose A You are partially right, but there’s more to the funding story. When local dollars are raised, it leads to federal and state contributions. The $2.3 billion to bring BART from Warm Springs to Berryessa includes $768 million in state funds and $900 million in federal dollars.
For the $148 million for high-speed buses on Alum Rock Avenue in San Jose, the state has chipped in $90 million.
And when Interstate 880 was widened to eight lanes north of Highway 101, $50 million of the $70 million came from Sacramento. Q So the Valley Transportation Authority claims service responsibility performance was 99.6 percent last year. In their dreams! As a frequent rider, I can vouch that just ain’t so . ... My experience is that VTA’s on-time rate is about 50 percent. Roseanna Lavia, Alex Li, Daniel Rich and others A Anyone else care to comment? Q I never had any issues with light rail when I rode it for three years. The trains practically always came on time. I don’t know what the bus system is like, but LRT is pretty damn good when it comes to arriving on time. Bob via email A It turns out that what the VTA calls a “service reliability” figure is actually what percentage of scheduled light-rail trains and buses made their daily runs. The on-time percentage is lower: around 88 percent. The VTA’s goal is to hit 92.5 percent, so there is some room for improvement.
Bus routes are considered to be on time when they arrive no more than three minutes before or five minutes after the scheduled arrival time. Light-rail trips are on time if the train arrives less than one minute before or five minutes after the scheduled time. Q A countdown timer that shows when the next light-rail train is coming needs to be added. They have the fancy display boards at stations that do nothing other than display the obvious and the current time. What would be more useful is, “How long before the next train arrives?” Luke Perkins San Jose A More timers are coming. The VTA has installed real-time message displays at 23 of its 61 rail stations and at 109 of its 3,847 bus stops — the busiest ones. For the other stops, passengers should use their mobile devices to look up at VTA.org when the next train or bus is due to arrive. Q Light rail should have been buried underground or raised to improve running times through the congestion of downtown. Luke Perkins A Ah, if only decisions made four decades ago could be easily reversed. Speeds fall to 10 mph on First Street. The VTA is working with the cities of San Jose and Santa Clara to resolve the traffic signal priority issue along North First Street and Tasman Drive, where the heaviest delays occur for light rail.