San Jose International just can’t keep up with air travel demand

Q I know you do traffic, but this is transportationrelated and I don’t know whom else to vent to.

I read an article about the new $58 million “Interim Terminal” that is being built at the

San Jose airport. So we built a new terminal but it wasn’t big enough, so we built another new terminal but now it’s not big enough so now they’re spending $58 million to build an interim terminal to be used for the next five-10 years. I think someone needs to tell management that they are never going to be a major international destination and deal with what they have built.

— Terry Harnish,

San Jose

A Check that, Terry. I bet thousands of passengers arriving or departing Mineta San Jose International Airport today would cheer another terminal. San Jose has been one of the fastest-growing major U.S. airports over the past two years.

Next month, it expects to exceed its record 14.2 million passengers served in August 2001, just before 9/11 and the recession. The airport offers service on 15 domestic and international airlines to 55 nonstop destinations, including Beijing; London-Heathrow; Tokyo; Vancouver, British Columbia; and six cities in Mexico.

The first phase of Terminal B opened in June 2010, and the estimated capacity of the current Terminals A and B is 14 million passengers. Next year, it will top 15 million passengers. Even with 30 boarding gates in Terminals A and B, airlines want more gates.

Therefore, the city approved adding an interim facility with five gates this summer.

Once that is built, the focus will be on expanding Terminal B. No local taxes are paying for this. Money comes from bonds, airport operating revenues, landing fees, rents, concessions fees and federal grants.

Q Thank you for the update on the highspeed train from Southern California to San Francisco. Since the amount spent to date is at $77.3 billion, let me propose a contest like those you have run from time to time. Have readers send in their guess as to which will happen first:

• Some train traffic (ANY train traffic) will run on “Bullet Train” tracks

• Or the $100 billion mark in money spent is reached.

Along with a date when either benchmark is reached. As for a prize, my preference would be a ticket on the next-to-last high-speed train, but I am looking for a key to immortality.

— Shellie Garrett,

Daly City

A Another contest? I’m still waiting to declare a winner in the BART to San Jose contest.

Q I’m heartened to hear that a number of major streets in San Jose are going to be repaved. But what about smaller neighborhood streets? — Lupe Perez

A It’s coming. San Jose has identified 388 miles of local and neighborhood streets with the worst pavement and is developing a multiyear plan for a $300 million allocation for street work, with construction to begin in the summer of 2020.