Courtesy of BART. A rendering of what the Oakland Airport Connector could look like.
Despite the fact that federal regulators pulled the plug on $70 million in stimulus funds from BART’s Oakland Airport Connector project in February citing noncompliance with civil rights rules, the District’s Board of Directors voted today to move full-steam ahead with construction of the 3.1-mile elevated guideway linking a nearby BART station to the airport.
Currently, BART moves passengers from Coliseum Station to the airport via bus for a $3 fare. The service, branded AirBART, delivers passengers to a curbside stop just outside the passenger terminals. When completed, the OAC is expected to charge a fare of $6 and will still require transferring from BART trains. Higher fares will unfairly burden airport employees and could discourage other riders.
The AirBART shuttle bus travels along Hegenberger Road taking passengers from Coliseum Station to OAK Airport.
It will provide a reliable, on-time connection for passengers going to and coming from OAK airport, but the project’s big price tag (estimated at $484 million) leaves a lot to be desired. BART already provides direct service to SFO, and Bus Rapid Transit with exclusive right-of-way could deliver similar on-time performance to OAK for much less.
If the OAC must go on, then there should at least be intermediate stations (the current plan calls for trains that express from the Coliseum Station to the airport parking lot). Two or three intermediate stations on the line combined with more reasonable fares could provide an opportunity for transit-oriented development while giving East Oakland residents a connection to the regional transportation network.
The OAC plan as it exists today is a luxury project – it is by no means a regional priority. The Bay Area and California cannot afford to squander our limited transportation funding resources on a project that will likely have no effect on regional SB 375 emission reduction targets or on traffic congestion.
multiple stops are already–and will continue to be–done by AC Transit. BART has confirmed that they are not "booting" AC out, as if it is a competitor. Line #73 stops nearly 10 times between BART and OAK. If people don't want to take OAC and pay a dollar or 2 less, they can take AC Transit. On a similar note, the one way fare would only be as high as $6 if the economy continues to be poor. More about that can be found here.http://www.bart.gov/about/projects/oac/faq.aspxIf the economy improves, the fare could resemble AirBART's current $3, and be much more effective than that current disaster.Rapid bus–forget it: lights, traffic, gridlock. Bus cannot be replaced with bus…enough said.
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I'm very sympathetic to the "bus can't replace a bus" argument, but BRT with exclusive lanes and signal priority would enhance the existing service and allow passengers to board right next to the terminals. Most importantly, it would be more cost-effective – BART already has several expensive capital projects coming down the pipeline, most notably buying new rail cars and the Silicon Valley Extension.I'm not convinced that now is the right time to be dropping nearly half-a-billion on a 3.1-mile airport people-mover.
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Matt, exclusive lanes don't help when Hegenberger is gridlocked with traffic (1) coming out of the coliseum by the thousands; (2) there is a major accident or say, possible maintenance incident; (3) general rush hour traffic exiting 880. The whole lighting system would really back up traffic if a hypothetical BRT was given right of way, leading to further congestion.What people seem to be forgetting (or in the case of some people, ignoring) is that OAC is designed to be consistently seamless, reliable and more convenient, 365 days a year, all hours of the day that the Airport is at least slightly active with flights. After 20 years of planning, BART cannot fail to screw this up. The opposition needs to hold their tongue for at least 1 freaking year's worth of months, to give this a chance…for the sake of OAK passengers who can benefit from it.
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pardon the typo– should have been as follows: BART cannot _afford_ to screw this up (or fail, for that matter).
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