Category: SamTrans-Caltrain

  • Roundabout Round-up

    By popular demand, here is a new post on the California Dr. roundabout that is now under construction.  We discussed it 15 months ago here, but a new post is in order since the project is "in the dirt".  Here is the link to the City website for the project description, bid documents including the winning bid from Redgwick Construction that beat out the other four bidders.  If it comes in on budget this will be a $3 million dollar investment ($3,014,305 to be exact), but alas it does not have a cannon to replace the one that sat there until it was reportedly melted down during WWII.  That would have been a nice touch around Memorial Day so if any B'gamers have an extra cannon or know where we can find one, this is the place to let us know!

    Roundabout_Stacks

    Just in time for Memorial Day, here is a photo of the cannon that has been provided by the B'game Historical Society.  It was apparently used as part of a promotion for the move Treasure Island showing at the Peninsula Theatre in 1934.

    BHistoricalSoc 1934 cannon promotion

  • ECR: SamTrans & Smart Lights

    I'm all for smarter technology being applied to our municipal infrastructure, but it has to be a matter of correct priorities.  In a Daily Journal piece today, down at the bottom after the route changes are described, we read

    SamTrans has plans to further improve travel time on El Camino Real by 2021 with the Traffic Signal Priority feature, which will allow buses on El Camino Real to more efficiently navigate traffic lights. Buses will be equipped with transponders that interact with traffic signals to extend green lights for buses or move the standard light cycle faster so they spend less time waiting at red lights.

    We're pretty lucky in that there should not be a ripple effect on B'game cross streets because there aren't many lights near ECR, but mostly I have to wonder if perhaps CalTrans could focus on the horrible condition of the road surface in B'game before we dive into an Internet of Things experiment?  The ever-present flooding should be fixed first, then a new layer of blacktop is definitely in order.  Michael Brownrigg had the flooding as a campaign intention–I hope it's in the works.  The latter seems like it is hopeless.

  • Caltrain Tax…or Accountability?

    We talked about the possibility of a Caltrain tax to try to right the sinking ship's finances last June here.  Now local scribe John Horgan has weighed in on the topic in his Merc column.  He doesn't get into the details of Positive Train Control but you can read about it here.  The new contractor and the deadline of end of 2018 is here.  It was originally supposed to be finished in 2015!  Horgan notes

    A year ago, the (Joint Powers) board members, all of them appointees, decided to terminate a huge contract for a new rail safety setup designed to coincide with a federal mandate and a plan to electrify the Caltrain route and, perhaps someday, the addition of high-speed trains on the same tracks.

    They sued the contractor, Parsons Transportation Group, to recover $98 million in San Mateo County Superior Court for a range of alleged performance complaints. Parsons, unsurprisingly, countersued, blaming Caltrain for the tangled mess……The resolution of the Parsons legal morass (one way or the other) and the board’s oversight of the Caltrain electrification program (and the massive amounts of cash involved) going forward will have a critical bearing on any tax election in the future.

    You can find Caltrain's financial statements here.  A quick read of page 43 yields Operating Revenue of $102 million against Operating Expenses of $132 million.  Throw in another $84 million of depreciation expense and you have and Operating Loss of $114.5 million which is about the same as the prior year–and probably many prior years.  Note 11 also shows that the Feds, the State and local governments put in $155 million more in capital contributions than the prior year.  Aside from John Horgan's point about Board capability and accountability, I have to wonder exactly what sort of tax could stem this bleeding?

    Down in the footnotes, we also get some litigation details that would cause more blood loss if Caltrain loses:

    The JPB and Parsons Transportation Group (“Parsons”) have each sued each other in the San Mateo Superior Court for breach of contract, among other things, regarding Parsons’ provision of the JPB’s Positive Train Control System. The JPB has also sued Parsons’ surety for failing to comply with its obligations under the contract’s performance bond. The lawsuits have been consolidated and are presently in the discovery/pretrial motion phase of the litigation. The contract underlying these actions is valued at $159 million. Parsons alleges damages of approximately $59 million. The JPB in its action against Parsons alleges damages of $98 million. The JPB is vigorously pursuing/defending its claims but an out-of-court settlement process has also commenced.

  • Caltrain Ridership Up Again

    The Daily Journal has a rewrite of a Caltrain staff report that shows some financial improvement

    Caltrain ridership is up this year, bringing a mixed bag of increased fare box revenue as well as overcrowded train cars.

    As of January, average weekly ridership increased 3.2 percent to 57,018 from January 2017, which saw 55,271. Total fare box revenue is up 13.7 percent over that period, from $6.9 million to $7.9 million, according to a staff report.  While Caltrain ridership is up, its shuttle ridership is down 9.4 percent this year from 8,848 to 8,018 average rides, despite increased demand.

    That's all well and good, but here is the kicker–we appear to be five years and more construction away from any increase in capacity!

    To provide relief for packed trains, Lieberman said the goal is to increase the frequency of service by running an extra train during peak hours once electrification occurs in 2022. He also said the transit agency hopes to convert its future electric fleet to eight-car trains, which could improve seated capacity by 21 percent. For that to happen, station platforms would have to be extended to accommodate the longer trains, and both improvements would depend on additional grant funding.

     Expect the seats to get more scarce when the Giants return from Phoenix to start the season.

  • Blood Moon Over B’game

    I set my alarm for 5:20 am this morning and went outside to a beautiful clear sky cradling the Super Blue Blood Moon high in the western sky.  It was really something to see and just as interesting an hour and a half later as the eclipse waned and the outline of the full moon was visible, but the brightly lit portion looked just like a normal half moon.  Neither my phone nor my camera did it justice, so I have plucked the Phoenix New Times photo that I think shows the best view to share here.  The middle blood moon was at 5:20 am and the second from the left at 6:45am.

    More to the local angle was the noise level at 5:20 am.  The first southbound Caltrain rolls through B'game at 5:22 and the first northbound one rolls through B'game at 5:32.  Gates drop, signals clang, horns sound for longer than really seems necessary.  Several commenters have mentioned the San Mateo pols who travelled to DC to try to get some rail horn relief and expressed their hope that B'game would add its voice to the chorus.  The airport noise is quite loud even on a clear day and you can read up on that problem here.  I remain opposed to 5 am aircraft departures, but that is apparently another thing that needs a major rule change.  I'm not sure when Recology starts picking up trash and recycling, but it sounded like it was before 5:20 am which also seems too early.  Russ has covered the onset of construction noise starting promptly at 8 am here.  The point is B'game could be quieter if we keep demanding that it be.

    Blood moon_Phx New Times

  • No on “I”

    The voting rubber is about to hit the election road as the heft of the flyers in my mailbox can attest.  Two weeks from tomorrow is Election Day, but the absentee voting causes the candidates and issues advocates to be ahead of the fixed date.  I've given the Measure I tax proposal some thought and have come to a different conclusion than many of my friends (and my wife).   I do believe before one comes out against something one should be able to state the supporters' point of view, so as I understand it these are the main points:

    • It's a tiny tax of a quarter of a percent
    • Our sales tax rate is lower than some neighboring cities
    • It will be mostly paid by non-Burlingamers shopping here
    • We need the money for streets, policing and other General Fund expenses hence the tree, the streetlight and officer's cap on the lawn signs
    • We can borrow against expected proceeds to accelerate stuff we want

    First I'll stipulate that taxes that stay local to where they are raised are better than the other kind.  The leaky sieves that are the County and Sacramento are a crying shame.  It is a tiny tax increase, but nonetheless it's going in the wrong direction after numerous other taxes (direct and indirect) passed like:  the gas tax, the Prop 55 income tax on incomes above $250K, bond measures, Cap and Trade, the impending Caltrain tax, bridge toll increases and the distinct possibility that state and local tax deductions on Federal returns could be killed.

    If our sales taxes are lower than our neighbors, I say "Good" especially since we have a nice slug of high-value sales happening on Auto Row.  Why aren't we advertising THAT instead of trying to erase the advantage?  And the fact that out-of-towners also shop here doesn't obviate the desire to "Shop Local" for B'gamers.  Why push more people to on-line?

    Then there is the "We need the money" argument.  In the big picture, we are a pretty fiscally solvent city.  We also have a building boom happening.  While residential costs us money (even at B'game prices), commercial contributes and big commercial like we are seeing now should contribute big.  Have we looked at increasing the business license fee/tax?  It was traditionally $100 regardless of whether you were a donut shop or Virgin America!  And a new Top Golf money machine is due out on the Bayfront.  To top it all off, the street that is most in need of repair is El Camino and this tax won't help that since it is the State's responsibility.

    I'm not too worried about accountability for the funds should "I" pass.  And if the revenue stream exists, borrowing against it will seldom be better timed than now.  I do worry that a big chunk of new money might cause the new Rec Center to be over-designed, but again it's the principle not the implementation.  Getting nickel'ed and dime'd to death appears to be a California specialty and we should not just play along.  No on "I".

  • Poor El Camino

    It's funny how certain concerns simmer in the citizenry.  At least six times in the last couple of weeks I have had the conversation about how bad the road surface is on our section of El Camino Real.  It's certainly no road for a king–more like a peasant's mule-drawn cart.  The latest flurry of comments came as I spent the weekend up near Murphys and Arnold in the Sierra.

    As you drive east through Stockton and Copperopolis and up into the mountains, Highway 4 is pristine.  It's a gorgeous band of perfect asphalt.  I make the trip most years at this time and the whole road appears to be freshly resurfaced about every two years.  It's really beautiful all the way up to Bear Valley ski area.

    Contrast that with El Camino.  It's crappy.  That is the nicest word I can muster to describe the potholes, ruts, plugged drains, Euc droppings, and weeds.  It's really terrible and it's Caltrans fault since it is a state highway.  We get the occasional tiny patches by a mobile team, but nothing like the Highway 4 black carpet.  What's up with that?  Where are our Assemblyman and State Senator?  They must drive the same bumps.  A new low-profile tire for the sleek cars favored by mid-Peninsulans is about $300 and sometimes you have to change two even when one is damaged.  Please Caltrans, stop by now and then to inspect!

    Caltrans pothole fillers

  • Let’s make some noise

    Here at the Voice (and on other community blogs) there has been lots of discussion regarding the obnoxious horn blasts provided courtesy of Caltrain through our humble hamlet. However, according to the article in the recent issue of The Post only some Peninsula towns will see a reduction in horn noise. Notice Burlingame isn't one of them. Did our council do everything in its power to see to it that Burlingame would see a reduction in noise levels? I can't hear you.

    Post article

  • High Cost Rail – Part 138 Transbay White Elephant

    You might think the Transbay Transit Center in downtown SF is a long way from B'game and its problems are not our problems, but think again.  The Chronicle's front page piece peels this smelly onion nicely

    But the suave architecture masks formidable problems. The budget for the huge complex has climbed from $1.6 billion to $2.259 billion. The situation became so dire that San Francisco stepped in last year to bail out the project, which is being built by the regional Transbay Joint Powers Authority.  The subterranean shell is designed to hold the concourse and platform for commuter trains from the Peninsula and high-speed rail service from Los Angeles. The problem is, it won’t be completed until train tracks that now stop in Mission Bay are extended more than a mile north. And there’s no certainty that all-important second phase will ever come to pass.

    By the end of 2015, the budget estimate for the first phase had ballooned to $2.1 billion. Nearly all contingency funds were depleted, and all money earmarked for the second phase was used up as well.  The most optimistic scenario has trains arriving underground in 2027, and $4 billion is the rough estimate solely for the rail extension from Mission Bay, for a total of more than $6 billion.

    And here is the real clueless part

    As for the $500 million or so in overruns between 2012 and 2015, most of that will be covered by the money that had been earmarked for the rail extension. Taxpayers won’t be asked to cover the extra costs.

    So while the MTC pushes a $3 bridge toll increase that continues with automatic COLA increases and revisits the approved underground train route (thereby adding more time and cost), we learn that

    Yet even in the worst-case scenario, where the rail extension remains stalled, the transit center’s impact on central San Francisco already has been profound.  You see it in the office and residential towers that have sprouted on nearby blocks. In the workers that crowd the sidewalks at lunch and fill the atmospheric bars after 5 p.m.  Four of those towers, two built and two planned, include bridges to the rooftop space.

    So we end up with a really nice $4 billion stretch of rooftop restaurants and bars for downtown office workers.  At least there will be 60 species of trees on the rooftop to sit under and ponder your tax returns.  In the meantime, meaning most of the rest of our lives, plan on getting off Caltrain at Fourth and Townsend.  If one building and a mile of track balloons past the cost estimates, guess how much High Cost Rail will eventually suck up.

  • B’way: Cleanliness is Part of the Picture

    Broadway in B'game is viewed by some as the poor sibling to the Avenue.  My Bemoaning B'way post goes into some of the issues and commenters added on their perspectives mostly reinforcing the image.  As I said then, I kind of like B'way in the same sort of way that I like 25th Ave in San Mateo–it's more local and real.  The person with the closest view of the status of B'way is Gerald Weisl of Weimax who has provided me with this summary of recent clean-up efforts:

    Having been spending much of its time tending to Burlingame Avenue, Burlingame's Public Works Department has responded to a hue & cry from both residents and merchants on Broadway.

    The City sent a staffer in early August to spray the sidewalks with a high-pressure washing device and as one merchant described the results "It was more like the fellow was irrigating the concrete, not actually washing the sidewalks."  Three Broadway merchants, Weimax, Sutterfields and Preston's then hired a private company to clean the sidewalks in front of their stores.  They invited the Public Works leaders to come have a look.  A bit embarrassed that they didn't do the same quality of work, more Public Works staffers were dispatched to Broadway.

    One crew splattered all the sidewalk dirt onto the freshly-painted Japanese restaurant facade at Broadway and Laguna, so a second crew was sent to actually clean up that mess.  A Public Works Supervisor reportedly told the merchants they might be interested in asking private contractors to bid on this sort of work (despite having full-time employees and high-pressure washing machinery).  Another Public Works manager reportedly said "We're not making excuses…" and " We unfortunately are required to focus more on  “quantity”,  as opposed to the quality of the cleaning."

    As of this writing, the sidewalks are in considerably cleaner condition, but it only takes a few people to spill ice cream and soda onto the sidewalk, along with people depositing chewing gum.

    We have the "ribbon-cutting" of the new B'way interchange on Thursday morning which brought out more Caltrans trucks than I have ever seen in one place on Saturday night around 10pm as they get ready.  I'm hoping for lane clarity and better flow as they "finish".  I would also suggest it might be time to ban 18-wheelers from B'way.  As one council member noted when I suggested it, there are now good alternatives to get around B'way.  So the time is ripe.  Let's hope the combination of traffic improvements, better cleaning and the Planning Commission's emphasis on good retail uses helps B'way stay vibrant–and local.   Here's the crew cleaning up

    Bway cleaning crew

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