If only Prometheus has asked for this. It would have been funded for certain.

Promotheus must not have any plans to change zoning in the area so they told council to pass on this.

Prometheus probably needs the public money for other large, high density projects that they have in the pipeline.

The big dog in fights like this isn't Prometheus. It's the Building and Trades Council, who want it for the prevailing wage construction jobs.

Take a look at the map if you want to understand light rail. The train starts out going northwest, makes a 165 degree turn, and leaves going southeast. No matter how much you spend on extra sidewalk, that train is going to be super slow.

Ronit Bryant said, "If you work at NASA Ames, how would you even get there?" A very good point, since NASA Ames' Ellis Street gate is closed some of the time the Bayshore NASA station is open.

One of the proposals for alleviating traffic in North Bayshore was to extend a branch of light rail from this station to North Bayshore. That would be worth checking out, at least. It MIGHT be worth doing. A related proposal was to extend the light rail from Downtown Mountain View to North Bayshore. To repeat myself, that would be worth checking out, at least. It MIGHT be worth doing. IF it turns out that both extensions are actually worth doing, then certainly they should be connected, making a loop from the Bayshore NASA station to Downtown Mountain View to North Bayshore to the Bayshore NASA station.

Don't think Prometheus would go along with any changes.

@Doug Pearson --
Good thoughts. A similar, and far less expensive, option for alleviating traffic in North Bayshore would be to run shuttles from the Googleplex area, over to Google's proposed campus at NASA (via the new bridge Google has proposed), over to the the NASA light rail station. This would allow shuttles to connect to light rail coming from the east (including BART connections in a few years) and allow the shuttles to avoid getting stuck in 101 traffic and the Shoreline interchange. Something to consider when looking at the future of the NASA light rail station.

@OMV Resident
How would (public) traffic go through NASA/AMES? Isn't it currently gated?

@Curious -
Good question. Yes, the route that I described goes through an area that is currently gated. The city and anyone running shuttles would need to work out an arrangement with NASA/the Feds to allow access through the gates or create a non-gated route. I mainly mentioned it here because this option was discussed over the past year when the city was studying transportation in the Shoreline area. We shouldn't forget this possibility when we talk about what to do with the NASA light rail station.

Upgrades, improvements to both safety and station service. Extend the line to San Antonio will increase ridership. Shuttles between Downtown to North Bayshore then to Ellis, turn around headback to Downtown.