A high speed bus route. What a great idea. BRT is what it's called although the article author didn't identify it as such. We've talked a lot about this before. (Look it up in Wikipedia.) Why are we not exploring this much further in the Bay Area? Why is this concept not being taken seriously as a Dumbarton Rail alternative? Because that's not the business Caltrain is in, he said, answering his own question. That is, they are not in the urban mass transit business, they're in the steel-on-steel rail business. For Caltrain, it's not about moving people, it's about moving trains. One of the great criticisms of the railroad industry was stated the following way: "They thought they were in the railroad business when they should have understood that they were in the transportation business."

Martin

Publish Date: 2/6/2008

Small start to $74.2M high-speed bus project

By Kathryn Dailey

The Reporter-Herald

FORT COLLINS - The dream of high-speed bus transit in Fort Collins came one step closer to reality Tuesday.

President Bush's proposed 2009 budget, released this week allocates $59.35 million to the city of Fort Collins for the Mason Corridor Project as part of the federal government's Small Starts program.

The estimated $74.2-million project will feature five buses that will run in a five-mile dedicated guideway along the BNSF railroad tracks on Mason Street from south of Harmony Road to the Colorado State University campus.

Because the buses will run along a dedicated path for buses only, they will be able to move faster than traffic and not disrupt traffic flow.

The guideway starts at Colorado State University and runs south, so the buses traveling north of the university to the Downtown Transit Center will drive with traffic.

"It's low-cost; it's high-quality," said Transportation Director Mark Jackson during a demonstration last year. "This is going to be fast, frequent and user-friendly."

The funding comes from $200 million that the federal government divided between nine projects. It is part of Bush's public transportation budget proposal of $10.1 billion, a 6.8 percent increase from the 2008 fiscal year.

The system includes construction of the South Transit Center, traffic signal priority in general purpose lanes, a bus guideway facility, eight transit stations, eight enhanced bus stops and 250 park-n-ride spaces.

When finished in 2010, it will carry an estimated 3,900 passengers daily.

All contents Copyright © 2008 Daily Reporter-Herald. All rights reserved.

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Martin Engel
1621 Stone Pine Lane
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