The VTA proposed operating a commuter rail line from San Jose to
Union City BART. This line would intersect with ACE in Fremont.

The VTA Policy Advisory Board voted to shelve this VTA commuter rail,
and instead make unspecified improvements in ACE, the Capitol Corridors,
and busses.

Below is from PR2000, a transit advocacy group based in Palo Alto.



squid.

From: Margaret Okuzumi <okuzumi@...>
Subject: A few words about the Union City commuter rail
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 13:01:29 -0700

some of you have been following the newspapers and wondering about the
status of the Union City - San Jose commuter rail.

The VTA Policy Advisory Board is meeting tonight at 7 pm at 70 West Hedding
in San Jose. Yes, we will be there with handouts, although I did not sent
out a general alert earlier.

They will vote to kill the project, which was supposed to be up and running
in the year 2003. However, this fight will be escalated to the Valley
Transportation Authority at its board meeting on Thursday, Oct. 5, and
subsequently at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 10.
Please note that in your calendars now. The Oct. 5 VTA board meeting
should be in the evening. The Board of Supervisors meeting on Oct. 10 will
be during the day.

While we have had problems with how this project has been planned all
along, we don't want to see this project killed. One of our long-time
members, Bill Wullenjohn, Sr., prepared a terrific analysis. Please see
the info at http://www.geocities.com/railfremont/vtacr.html. For a map of
the routes, see http://www.rail2000.org/maps/ebay-lines/

The first priority of most of the PAB members is getting the BART extension
to San Jose. Until Measure A is defeated, and unless Measure A is defeated
badly, this will not change. It was obvious BART was the real
reason for selecting the ex-WP route which is facing such neighborhood
opposition. Their whole intent was to make BART look as appealing and
competitive as possible while making the commuter rail look as inefficient
as possible. The PAB members include Ron Gonzales, Cindy Chavez, and
Charlotte Powers, of the City of San Jose; Supervisor Pete McHugh, Jim
Lawson (of Milpitas), Supervisor Jim Beall, and non-voting members Gus
Morrison of Fremont, Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, and
alternates Mark Green of Alameda County and Tom Blalock of the BART board.

Mayor Gonzales promised earlier this year in his state of the city speech
that San Jose would be connected to BART with a commuter rail link while he
is in office. This project was promised to county voters in 1996. We need
to hold them to those promises.

It looks like the VTA and PAB are now looking to cannibalize the funding
for the commuter rail for BART.

With the VTA and PAB stacked against us, looks like we're going to again
have to look to the Board of Supervisors for leadership on this issue. In
my next email we'll have a sample letter you can use.

Our message is:

- they must not kill the project in overreaction to neighborhood concerns.
They neglected to obtain or listen to public input early in the process
concerning the route.

- they need to study the other two alignments (routes) just like they
studied WP. We need real
information, not speculation. This study should coincide with the results
of the Alviso capacity analysis which is due to be completed in January.

- If the other two alignments after further study, don't pan out, then the
money should go toward expanded ACE and Amtrak service and an
ACE/Amtrak/BART connection in Fremont (shuttle, Shinn station, etc.) They
also need to specify exactly what the "enhanced express bus" would be, how
it compares to the existing 140/180/520 service, and what it would cost.

We encourage your attendance at the meeting tonight to voice your support
for rail. It's going to be ugly, and I don't want people to get
discouraged.

The NIMBYs, in their panic, are misguidedly pushing to completely derail
the project. We need the near-term traffic relief and that the rail
service can provide. So come and speak out tonight if you can, and start
those letters flowing again.

Thanks,

Margaret Okuzumi
Peninsula Rail 2000
www.rail2000.org
(650) 417-2571