The conflict between CETS and Caltrain has been hitting the newspapers
with greater frequency. I suspect that this is due to CETS PR efforts,
not Caltrain's. While the articles don't get into the substance of the
disagreement very much, the not-public back and forth correspondence
between the two "parties" is rancorous and contentious. Well, that
attitude will certainly solve all their problems! Each side has an
agenda and neither side is willing to understand what that is. It's all
about looking at trees and not seeing the forest.

Why, you are asking, is CETS so determined to get more train service to
their respective towns? Why would Atherton, of all places, make such a
fuss about their train station? Why does Menlo Park care if the baby
bullets stop there or not? I don't have an answer for Atherton's
obsession, but for Menlo Park there is a possible explanation. There is
a constituency in Menlo Park seeking more TOD, transit-oriented
development. This consists of very high density housing built close to
the train station. I won't get into the question here about the
efficacy of such developments. That's another discussion. However,
without more train service, Menlo Park and all the other towns aspiring
to such developments can only make their pro-development case if the
trains run more frequently. Perhaps they should call it "train-oriented
development."

All together now, one more time: It's not about the railroads; it's
about a comprehensive network of urban mass transit. Metaphor: There's
no point in going to a potato farmer and expecting a complete, cooked
meal. Potato farmers are only about potatoes. Restaurants sell
complete meals. Caltrain is about railroads, not urban mass transit.
They are not one and the same. Both CETS and Caltrain just don't get
it.

Martin
=============

Leaders resolute on Caltrain
AGENCY CEO, CITIES AT ODDS OVER EXPRESS VS. LOCAL SERVICE
By Will Oremus
MediaNews
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:03/14/2007 01:34:50 AM PDT

Officials from across San Mateo County who are circulating a resolution
calling for more local Caltrain service are standing by their demands in
the face of criticism from the transit agency's top executive.
A week after Caltrain CEO Mike Scanlon e-mailed city managers to
highlight what he said were "significant misstatements of fact" in the
resolution, council members including Terry Nagel of Burlingame and
Kelly Fergusson, mayor of Menlo Park, replied with a letter of their
own.

The letter reads, in part, "We feel strongly that San Mateo County
residents could be better served with a schedule that provides more
balanced service than the current schedule, which added more stops to
`Baby Bullet' stations at the expense of service to other stations."
The letter is the latest salvo in an exchange that has been at times
heated since Caltrain embarked on a "reinvention" in 2004 that cut back
on local service in favor of commuter-oriented express service. Overall
ridership has jumped since the changes, but residents of several smaller
towns are feeling left out.

The ad hoc group of council members, calling itself the Coalition to
Expand Transit Service, disputes Caltrain's assertion that the new
schedule is optimal.

The resolution calls for Caltrain to bring in an outside consultant "to
develop and evaluate alternative train schedules."
=========================

Local
Transit group pushes to regain train service
The Examiner

(Examiner file photo)
Council members from Burlingame to Atherton have been asking Caltrain to
restore stops to stations that have experienced cuts.
The Examiner
Mar 14, 2007 3:00 AM (6 hrs ago)

Burlingame, Calif. - A group of Peninsula city council members on
Tuesday stepped up pressure on Caltrain to return stops to stations that
have experienced cuts in recent years.

Claiming that the number of stops in San Mateo County has dropped 20
percent since 2000 - compared with a gain of two percent in San
Francisco and a loss of 13 percent in Santa Clara County - the group
sent out resolutions to all the city councils on the Peninsula on
Tuesday asking to support the group, Coalition to Expand Transit
Service.

Council members from Burlingame and Atherton - the city of Atherton lost
service when the Baby Bullet launched in 2004 - lead the group of more
than a dozen council members from varying cities.
Both councils recently adopted resolutions calling on Caltrain to rework
its schedule in hopes that stops would be added at Broadway in
Burlingame and the Atherton station. Belmont is scheduled to consider a
similar resolution in a week's time.

"We aren't suggesting adding more stops, but just rearranging stops,
varying some from Baby Bullet stations," said Burlingame Mayor Terry
Nagel, a member of Coalition to Expand Transit Service.
Adding more stops would result in lost riders and increased operating
costs at a time when Caltrain is already struggling to meet its
financial obligations, said Richard Silver, executive director of Rail
Passenger Association of California. "[The council members] don't know
what the hell they're doing," Silver said. Michael Kiesling, a regular
train rider and chairman of the Caltrain Citizens Advisory Committee,
said Baby Bullet service has helped increase ridership, improve service
and bring in more money. Indeed, in December the commuter train
agency's average weekday ridership topped 35,000, the highest figure in
the 143-year history of Peninsula railroad, according to Caltrain.
ecarpenter@examiner.com
Examiner

-- 
**********************
Martin Engel
1621 Stone Pine Lane
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650:323-1670
martinengel@earthlink.net
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