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Published on 12/08/1999 All articles from this issue

Tasman light rail nears completion as cost concerns raised

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By Leslie K. Martin / Town Crier Staff Writer

Commuters can ride the light rail from Mountain View to San Jose beginning Dec. 20. Tasman West, the latest light rail extension is opening "one year ahead of schedule and on budget," said Jim Lawson, chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).

But at least one member of the Peninsula Rail 2000, a transit consumer group, raised questions about the cost and need for the Tasman West extension, saying the money could have been spent to add service to existing Caltrain lines.

At a cost of $327 million, Tasman West adds 7.6 miles to the existing 21-mile Guadalupe line and will carry an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 new passengers through Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and San Jose, following roughly the same route as Highway 237. During weekdays, light rail trains will run at 10-minute intervals, with 15-minute intervals nights and weekends. The trains have wheelchair access lifts.

A one-way ride from the Mountain View Transit Center at Castro Street and Central Expressway to the Baypointe Transfer Station in San Jose, on Tasman Drive, east of North First Street, takes approximately 30 minutes. Passengers will be able to transfer to the Guadalupe line at Baypointe Station.

Mountain View resident Clem Tillier, a Peninsula Rail 2000 volunteer and rail commuter, questioned how VTA project funds are prioritized. "This new trolley line is wonderful," Tillier said. "But when the cost of adding new service on Caltrain is relatively minimal, and the cost of a new trolley is a third of a billion dollars and the cost of cosmetic station improvements that the VTA plans to spend on Caltrain is $17 million dollars, it makes you wonder. Where are the new trains, where is the additional service, why do I have to wait an hour between Caltrains mid-day?"

Fifty vehicles serve the Tasman West and Guadalupe lines. Over the next five years, the VTA will introduce 30 light rail vehicles, and has an option to purchase another 20.

Tillier said that the added service, "comes on very slowly, I think they add two trains per year for five years. It would make much more sense to people like us, transit riders and users ... to see more service implemented now. And that can be done at quite a reasonable cost compared to the amounts that are involved, for instance, in building this trolley."

For more information, see the VTA Web site at www.tasman.vta.org and Peninsula Rail 2000 at www.rail2000.org/