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"Better BART" and The Huss and Fuss About a Second Tube

March 13, 2015

Dear Reader:
It has been some time since I provided a BART news update, apart from my “in case you missed it” press releases relating to my recent newspaper opinion pieces.  Here are the latest things happening in District 7:

  • Building a "Better BART"
  • The Huss and Fuss About a Second Tube (In Brief)

Subscribers of select geographic segments will also receive separate updates on the following topics:

  • West Oakland Development
  • wBART Update

If you would like to update your subscription to include my geographic segments, click on the “Update preferences” link at the top-left of this email.

Building a "Better BART"

You may have seen me at recent public meetings making presentations about BART’s State of Good Repair (SOGR) needs.  I either have or will be presenting at a few Richmond Neighborhood Councils, local Leagues of Women Voters, the San Francisco Small Business Association, the San Francisco Community Benefit District Consortium of Executive Directors, and various senior centers throughout District 7 (partial list).  In the coming several months, my colleagues and I will likely also be presenting our Building a "Better BART" presentations to local city councils.

You know that phrase “I’m not getting any younger,” right?  Basically, BART isn’t either.  The majority of BART’s car fleet is as old as the system itself is and the volume of cars we have has not been able to keep up with ridership demands.  Just four years ago, BART was carrying an average weekday ridership of 335,000 trips; we’re now carrying an unprecedented 430,000 passengers each weekday – and there’s no sign of the growth going away.  With an industry-high car availability rate of 85% for every weekday, our cars are extremely worn and torn every day.  It results in each of our 660 some-odd cars having little rest and putting on nearly 115,000 miles annually.

Including our cars, we project that about half of our total assets will be at the end of their useful life within ten years.  Those other assets include, but are not limited to, our train control system, our trackways, our elevators, and our escalators.

Both a limited car count and our train control system’s constraints disable us from providing any more frequent service than we already do during the peak commute period.  With the combination of these upgrades, we expect in the long-term to be able to improve our service frequencies from every fifteen (15) minutes to every twelve (12) minutes.

We have managed to identify and secure funding for some of these needed system improvements – most notably, our Fleet of the Future.  But we still need an estimated $5B for all identified asset needs to be appropriately upgraded.  Our on-going outreach is an effort to inform the public, gain public support, and seek public feedback as we look at ways to address this funding gap.

The Huss and Fuss About a Second Tube

There has been a lot of discussion out there relating to BART becoming a 24-hour operation and a somewhat related interest in BART having a second Transbay Tube.  Many interests, including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, have come out to express an interest in a second tube "landing" in San Francisco's South of Market or Mission Bay areas.  Through opinion pieces that I have written in the San Francisco Chronicle - one on September 7, 2014 and a follow-up piece on February 7 - I have countered this idea of landing in San Francisco's SoMa or Mission Bay districts (which I, by the way, am the representative for) because this interest of serving new locations is not compatible with BART being able to someday provide 24/7 service and have ways around major incidences - issues that I hear raised by riders and constituents way too often.

Let me summarize in short by saying that, if you are interested in seeing BART eventually become a 24/7 service and not be so gravely impacted (i.e., stopped) when there is an incident in San Francisco or West Oakland, it will require the flexibility that comes with double-tracking (i.e., side-by-side tracks).  Only with double-tracking can one train go around another train that is impacted by a mechanical problem or medical emergency and only with double-tracking can overnight maintenance be done on one track while operations continue on the other track.  By definition, double-tracking will require a second Transbay Tube with an alignment that is side-by-side with the existing Transbay Tube at least between Downtown Oakland and the core of Downtown San Francisco.  All that serving a new location does from a maintenance and operating standpoint is spread the need for maintenance, which further-necessitates that BART be shut down overnight for such maintenance needs; and perpetuates passengers being stranded due to there being no way around service incidents.

More news will come out in the next few weeks, but to make my point clear, I'll give you a sneak peek: Due to the combination of our SOGR needs, expanded state and internal worker safety protocols, and the very limited time BART has to perform overnight track maintenance, BART will need to begin performing more and more planned daytime maintenance activities that will greatly impact our delivery of services.  It's a price for not having double-tracking.

Either way, the prospect of a second tube, while an interest of mine, is decades away and a long-term goal.  For the immediate future, we need to keep what we have in service!

Sincerely,


Zakhary Mallett, MCP
Director, District 7
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)
300 Lakeside Drive, 23rd Floor
Oakland, California 94612
510-815-9320

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