I recently ran across this SF Examiner article "More madness at Millbrae - BART's gigantic error", written by Guy Span, and thought it was well written, though it did have a few factual errors that I felt needed to be corrected. Here is my response that I posted in the author's comment section:MY RESPONSE:
Guy: I read your column with great interest. I have spent many years investigating the BART-SFO/Millbrae extension. Time has proven that the Millbrae station was a waste of taxpayer dollars having never met the optimistic projections that BART used to justify the station’s construction. The efficient transit solution would have been to construct a downtown San Bruno intermodal station to link CalTrain and BART to a SkyTrain transporting riders over HWY 101 to SFO.
The Coalition for a One Stop Terminal (COST), an alliance between the Loma Prieta Sierra Club, Peninsula Rail 2000, and the Train Riders Association of California came into existence to give Bay Area riders direct access from San Bruno to SFO. It was COST, not the Bay Rail Alliance, filed the lawsuit to stop BART from spending $250 million of taxpayer money to build the Millbrae station.
The loss of the suit has resulted in Bay Area riders suffering the madness of Millbrae.
Bruce Balshone
Former Executive Director of COST
GUY SPAN'S RESPONSE:
Bruce: You are absolutely correct about the involvement of COST in attempting to stop the madness at Millbrae and I did a disservice to all those involved in COST by not mentioning this. I will correct. And if you can point me at the additional $250 million it cost for the nonsense at Millbrae I would be very appreciative. Part and parcel of this exercise is to uncover and expose the egregious waste spent on BART when there were other perhaps less-explored alternatives. We simply do not have money to waste and those like COST, who tried to prevent errors deserve recognition. -- Guy SpanMY ANSWER:
Under the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's regional transit resolution, which allowed the extension, San Mateo County was obligated to pay BART $250 million per station built in the County since they were not a member of the BART District. The BART to SFO/Millbrae extension qualified for federal funding that was combined with state & regional funds to finance construction, so BART was able to collect money from San Mateo taxpayers to build the East Bay extensions that could not qualify for federal funds.
I still follow San Mateo County politics closely, now as an Examiner: San Mateo Public Policy Examiner.
Bruce Balshone
www.examiner.com/x-1891-San-Mateo-Public-Policy-Examiner
http://twitter.com/reporterwest
Guy Span has written a 3-part "Madness at Millbrae" series. The article I responded to was Part 2 in the series. Here are:
Part 1: Madness at Millbrae: BART's plan to increase riders
Part 3: Madness at Millbrae BART - Part III
Contact Bruce Balshone at: bruce.examiner@gmail.com
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