Stupid BART

You're definitely not a dummy, I wasn't accusing you of being one. Unlinked trip means any one portion of trip you take in your journey to your destination. So, if I'm at Del Norte and I take a Fremont train, xfer at MacArthur, and take an SFO train to the City... then I have taken 2 unlinked trips on that journey.

Passengers per revenue mile just means the total number of passengers divided by how many miles the vehicle has traveled in revenue service, so when it is carrying passengers. Passengers per vehicle revenue hour just means the total number of passengers divided by how many hours the vehicle has been in revenue service, just helps to give a different perspective for sprawled out systems like BART, or commuter rail systems like Metrolink, CalTrain where the distance of stops may be much further though there are still a good number of passengers on board. These two numbers help to measure the service effectiveness by seeing how full these trains are operating at all times of the day. There are different ways of looking at service effectiveness, but I just happened to have chosen these two. Because of the higher ridership throughout the entire day on WMATA, they achieve a 58% FRR (farebox recovery ratio), meaning the amount of fares goes to pay for 58% of the total operating costs. BART gets 61% FRR, even better. But that mainly has to do with the higher fares to make up for the absence of higher ridership. WMATA has off peak fares capped at $2.35, whereas rush hour fares are capped at $4.50 if I recall correctly.

It's an interesting suggestion you make on making public transit Free. Every time there is a Spare the Air Day, I read on here that kids will be ruining people's commutes in the afternoon, and some will just drive in to avoid the trouble. LA Metro and SD MTS have had honor systems (like Muni) for awhile now, with low amounts of fare evasion. They actually spend less money by having the honor system and using fare inspectors than it would cost to install and maintain turnstiles at every station, along with a station agent. It is a very good point that you bring up station agents (who really don't do too much in my opinion)... because everyone's hunch that salary and wages take up a big chunk of the operating expenses are right. For BART, out of the $467,105,916 in total operating expenses, $361,641,157 was used for salary, wages, and benefits, or 77.4% of the total operating expenses. I think that's really a result of a strong union with crazy pension plans (though I'm not an expert on that).

BART is rarely crush loaded and the only time I've seen people not get on a crowded train is after a major delay.

If there is a full train, you are not supposed to get on with your bike anyway. Ten bikes on one car? Then walk your lazy butt to another car and get on. If you shove your way on the train anyway, then don't gripe about how awful it is. BART was not designed for bikes and it has only become an issue in the last couple of years with high gas prices. I'm sick of hearing about about how environmentally pure arrogant bike riders are. After taxpayers are soaked for an outrageous $100M for a bike lane on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, you can ride your freaking bike over the bridge and stay out of BART.

Thanks Treo. Good to be back. (You know you're impressed)
Seemed like the site was down for a while. What was up with that? I thought The Man took it down.

Ugh, puke is gross. I bet it stunk up the whole car as well. I like the lead car too, I find it to be less crowded than the other ones (and less troublemakers too!).

Amen, I want those cars steam cleaned by an army of Mexican day laborers after every run. Or if we have to keep the payroll so fat with outrageously benefitted union clockwatchers put their lazy asses to work manning those steam machines.
I don't know who Linton Johnson is.

OK...

In response to icrew, yes, the one way Caltrain fare from Capitol Station in South San Jose to San Francisco is $9.25. However, for a monthly pass holder with an average of 40 rides per month, that $9.25 one way fare drops to $6.13 one way, which is a very good discount. Also, that ride on Amtrak from Richmond to San Jose for $16.00 each way, drops to $6.40 each way for a monthly pass holder. I only wish Bart had a monthly pass, with a significant discount.

There's still something fishy about those numbers. BART gets to count the distance across the Bay. But in my opinion that skews the figures because there are no usable stops along that route. It's like adding 25% to the mileage falsely. Now if they added a TI stop that would be awesome and I'd happily grant them the mileage. Otherwise I think that distance should be factored out of that equation or at least averaged down to the average distance between the other stops.

BART is heavy rail.

I'm still in shock you have a wife.

I compared BART with LIRR because I've heard many people in the past (on this board as well as people talking in transit circles) note the similarities of close stops downtown but more distant stops outside the city. For the most part, both are also heavy rail and third rail powered, right? The last time I took the LIRR from Penn out to Jamaica, there was a good 10 minute ride before our first stop. I guess I would equate that running under the East River to the equivalent of the transbay tube.

Amtrak would be closest to commuter or intercity rail, depending on which services you take. I'm not quite sure which service you took on Amtrak, but it is typically standing room on many runs for the Pacific Surfliner (SLO-LA-SD) and the entire Northeast Corridor (DC-NY-BOS). On the Surfliner two weeks ago, I had to stand from Anaheim all the way to San Diego, over an hour. That's because all the seats were taken.

There are only something like 11 or 12 heavy rail systems in the nation... the ones I can name off the top of my head are: BART, LA Metro, CTA, MARTA, Miami-Dade, MTA Maryland, WMATA, SEPTA, NYCT, PATH, and MBTA. Heavy rail has a capability for much higher capacity because they can run longer trains in a completely grade separated fashion.

Light rail would be much shorter trains, typically 1,2,or 3 cars (articulated), that are cheaper to construct because it's typically at grade. Examples of light rail systems would be any Muni running under Market Street, SD MTS red trolleys, SLC's UTA, Denver, Minneapolis, St Louis Metrolink, MBTA's Green Line, etc.

Notice how you really only see heavy rail in heavy populated, established metropolitan regions. That's because the cost of heavy rail is so much more than light rail. To get federal funding under the current New Starts program, you really have to justify the cost-effectiveness. The only two heavy rail projects I see gaining traction are the Second Ave subway in NYC and the Westside extension in LA. And the Wilshire corridor in LA is second in density to Manhattan.

But heavy or light rail, are both expensive to build or expand. That's why there's a lot of criticism with the San Jose extension. And I'm presuming that's the reason the eBART extension will be using DMU (diesel multiple units, like the Sprinter in Oceanside) light rail type service instead of outright extending the line. And that's why you are hearing more about BRT (bus rapid transit) that AC Transit is proposing along Telegraph/International Blvd and what VTA has tried in SJ.

The bottom line is these systems aren't cheap to maintain. Even the "successful" systems such as New York don't come close to breaking even with their operating expenses. Transit needs to be viewed more as a public good that should be supported much more by the local, state, and Feds. If transit could be privatized, you would see companies lining up at the door of these agencies. The closest to privatization we have seen in this country is subcontracting of service to private companies, where the agencies put out RFPs to run their service, and possibly maintain their fleet as well. The City of Los Angeles does this, as well as San Diego, So Cal's Metrolink (which will further complicate the pending lawsuits because there will be so much finger pointing). However, you don't see subcontracting with many of the older agencies because the union won't let them. No Muni driver wants to have lower wages and less benefits (regardless of how high they were getting paid before). They can't just hire new staff to replace the existing ones either, because they take months to train operators. That's why a transit strike is crippling for a city.

Clearly I rambled on and on, but as you can see, there are a lot of issues that come into play.

Hmm, I think I can guess what the FY is in MFFY, but what's the full definition?
As for everyone's requests, I am all for free markets, privatization and supply and demand. I wish we could return to the golden age of railroads where people could own their own cars, with first class, smoking, dining cars, bar cars, etc. I've suggested this in other posts here in response to people complaining about Spare the Air days and the riff raff they attract. I'm all for first class cars. Again, put those worthless BART clock watching beancounters and bureaucrats to work waiting on rich folks who want to pay a premium for the privelege of not having to rub elbows with the "riff raff." There should be cocktails, food service, cigars, TVs, WiFi, etc.

So along those lines I think there should be 1 door, 2 door, 3 door and 4 door cars. 1 door cars to optimize seating to make sure everybody can sit. 4 door cars for rush hours and people who want easy ingress/egress or don't mind standing. Bike only cars with bike racks and limited seating.
Cars with luggage racks for airport travelers, cars with cushy carpeting and seats to deaden sound and for those who want to nap on a long ride. Cars with stainless steel floors, walls and seats for the growing hordes of germiphobes.
Why not? Why do we continue to let ourselves be forced into boxes that nobody fits into? That is really what it's all about. Forcing us into a mold so that we can all be exactly the same, then we can all be treated exactly the same (and that's not treated well), punished exactly the same and marketed to exactly the same.
Wake up and demand better! Better choices, better air, better candidates, better treatment, better food, better transporation, better fuels, better medicine, better education. Don't stop, or they'll just keep taking it all away, dollar by dollar, minute by minute.