Dear Council Members,

Thank you for taking time to investigate this project more closely after continuing it from December. As a resident of Menlo Park, I can appreciate the need for better and more useful public transit. I wish this project helped to address the regional needs in this regard. It's clear that the Dumbarton Rail system will not serve our community needs or the needs of most East Bay to Peninsula commuters. Very few would ride this rail and we already know many other negatives about the project. For example, it's lack of connectivity, it's doubled cost estimates and its diesel fueled heavy rail with freight use potential.

I realize the city council doesn't have the option to vote on the project as a whole. However, the station study before you is one of the pieces that you can affect as council members. A decision not to use such a large chunk of city funds for this study as well as unknown additional expenditures would be the right thing to do. I believe that once the city begins spending large amounts of money on this project, it would be difficult to stop further spending since we'd already be "invested" in it.

Please stand up and demand better transportation projects that would serve the Bay Area more effectively and cleanly. Please don't waste our money or city resources on this study.

Best Regards,
Katie Ferrick
Bay Road Received on Mon Feb 4 20:56:11 2008