Published Saturday, July 10, 2004, in the San Jose Mercury News

Letters to the Editor

Why passengers shun SFO-BART connection

I have read a number of reports, including one on the Mercury News
(Page 1, July 4 <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/19157>),
expressing concern about the low ridership on the BART extension to
San Francisco International Airport. Based on a few personal
attempts to use it, I find this unsurprising. It reflects on BART
and Caltrain management, but not on the need or demand for public
transportation in the Bay Area.

From what I saw, the actual BART trains work well. But the details
beyond that seem to be designed to discourage ridership.

Arriving airline passengers need to buy a ticket from a machine
which gave me $3.50 in nickels in change, after finally figuring out
how to get change at all. Passengers are then made to wait for a
BART train which, in my experience, is timed to just miss the
Caltrain connection. During some popular arrival times this can be
followed by a lengthy wait for Caltrain, after buying another
ticket. And I couldn't even find the schedule posted at the airport.

I'm happy to see a BART connection to the airport. But the
unpredictable schedule and ticketing system are making the system
unusable.

Hans-J. Boehm
Palo Alto


[BATN: See also:

Cheap, old Caltrain-SFO van beat new BART shuttle
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/18291

BART gives away $15 tickets to lure SMCo. riders
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/17924

Letter: SMCo. BART doesn't meet rider expectations
(BART Millbrae-SFO shuttle inconvenient, uncoordinated)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/15750

BART to eliminate Millbrae-SFO shuttle train
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/15655

Three-car Quentin-Kopp-line shuttle is BART ghost train
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/15259

Letter: Millbrae-SFO BART shuttle nonsense
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/13055

Letter: SFO BART shuttle overpriced, inconvenient
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/12972

BART Millbrae transfer: poor signage, poor coordination
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/12685

Letter: Loss of free Millbrae SFO shuttle a shame
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/7884

Caltrain SFO shuttle is best-kept transit secret
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/976 ]