San Francisco Subway Plans Blasted
Plans to build a short subway in San Francisco are meeting criticism.
Just the initial math makes your head hurt. Basically it works out to somewhere between $1.22 billion and $1.4 billion for an underground railway that runs for less than two miles and has only three stops. That's not a transit system, it's a model railroad.
When completed, the short spur would run from Fourth and Brannan, under Market Street and up Stockton Street to a station in the middle of Chinatown, a distance of 1.7 miles. Throw in a few of the inevitable cost overruns and this could work out to a billion dollars a mile.
City officials know this sounds hefty, of course, but provide stats and figures to suggest that it isn't out of line with other projects. It is less than BART to the San Francisco Airport, for example. (Although it could be argued that there was a greater need for a rapid transit alternative to the airport than to the center of Chinatown.)
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I used to ride the 30
I used to ride the 30 everyday to work ... I can tell you that subway is very much needed. The subway would go right through the heart of Chinatown along a corridor currently underserved by three bus routes (15,30 & 45). Those routes are comprimised by an extremely congested street life where cars, delivery trucks, bikes and pedestrians are competing for the same access. I say build the subway!!!
Blasted then thought over
There are a lot of people out there that think this is a bad project in lots of ways including me. Nevis (who wrote the blasting article) finally however rode the 30 bus during rush hour and discovered why people are thinking about building the subway. Something needs to be done, but lots of people can't decide on what.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/24/BAHVV7DED.DT...
J Wood