Waste of money. This is the same VTA fat-cat bureaucracy that is going to install BUS-ONLY LANES on El Camino Real, It does not matter what makes sense or what the public wanrs. All voters can do is to note the names of the local politicians involved and make sure they do not reach the level of State Senator LELAND YEE before they are stopped.

I hear people all the time clamoring for more and better public transit, but then they refuse to support or pay for any of the projects that would provide it. I guess they just want someone else to take care of it for them.

@Donald -- It is not that we are not willing to pay for it, it is that we see hundreds of millions of our hard earned dollars going to fraud, waste and abuse; and then to add insult to injury, they don't even bother to listen to what the public wants. HSR and BRT lanes through Mountain View are perfect examples.

We want public transportation that is safe, comfortable, efficient, and relatively inexpensive. Right now, the system is none of these. I have been taking public transportation daily for the last two years and I'm sick of it. Next year, I'll be back in my car so I can get to my various destinations inexpensively in comfort and a reasonable amount of time.

Jim Neal
Candidate, Mountain View City Council
https://electneal.org (Campaign Website)
info@electneal.org

I find it a sad state of affairs that this project is suddenly super important for ten 49ers games per year, but they could not get their act together to build the tracks out with 2 lines the whole way when the project was first being built - to the benefit of the daily commuters.

The Evelyn station will be missed - by all 3 people who use it per day.

I don't see amything wrong with tracking improvements for efficiency for Levi Studium users. We need transit improvements for 24/7 use, not just rush hour use.

Jim Neal, BRT and HSR have nothing to do with each other. Lumping them together and saying "they" don't listen is overly simplistic. This article is about a public meeting. Will you be there to give "them" your opinion?

If you've ever missed your Caltrain connection at Mountain View while your light rail train waited at Whisman Station for the train in the opposite direction to come through, then you know how important this project is.

Yes, it may help serve 49ers games, but adding a second track will benefit commuters every day.

Upgrading Public Transportation sounds like a No-Brainer.

However, before I jump on the bandwagon I want to see a cost vs. benefit analysis.

Upgrading to improve Mountain View commuters may make sense.

Spending millions to keep Jedd York & Co. happy is a waste of taxpayer funds.

I'm all in favor of practical, useable mass transit. Unfortunately, that excludes VTA from having any hand in it.
And speaking of wasted money and bureuacratic idiocy...
How's that bike share program working out? The pages of the 'Voice' dripped with praise while it was in the concept stage, but now that it's operational, not one word. Every time I'm past the train station, I see a row of shiny new (meaning UNUSED) bikes. Since there seem to be so many available, VTA must consider this a glorious success.

I assumed that the light rail was rudimentary when first opened, with upgrades happening incrementally, which would eventually create a viable system. If improvements are not done, would not the whole concept/project/infrastructure be a waste of money?

Bay Area Bike Share lists over 140,000 bike trips since they started last year. You can see all the data, even listed by city, at bayareabikeshare.com

Speaking of Bay Area Bike Share...

$8.7 million approved for an expansion of the bike share program which will provide 750 bikes in the East Bay. I think that's a unit cost of about $11,600 per bike.



Web Link

"The Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved $8.7 million in funding Wednesday morning to expand the Bay Area Bicycle Share program to the East Bay in 2015 despite delays in existing expansion plans caused by the bankruptcy of a key business.

An expansion of Bay Area Bike Share’s existing program in San Francisco, San Jose, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Redwood City planned for this year has already been delayed because the manufacturer of the bikes and docking stations filed for bankruptcy, according to a spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which has been overseeing the bike sharing program."

...snip...

"The Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved $8.7 million in funding Wednesday morning to expand the Bay Area Bicycle Share program to the East Bay in 2015 despite delays in existing expansion plans caused by the bankruptcy of a key business.

An expansion of Bay Area Bike Share’s existing program in San Francisco, San Jose, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Redwood City planned for this year has already been delayed because the manufacturer of the bikes and docking stations filed for bankruptcy, according to a spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which has been overseeing the bike sharing program."

...more...

VTA light rails needs to be extended to the planned San Antonio Center developments. Don't see anything wrong building light rail near restaurants, theatres, shopping, hotels, bars, medical offices, car sharing or car rentals, train stations and bars.

Yes building light rail to the office is good too.

I agree with Garrett. We need to completely pave over Mountain View so we can save on greenhouse gasses. It's time to get out of the 50's and just turn this whole place into cement and concrete.

Did you know that the other day I saw a tree? What is going on here? On the Jetson's, there were no trees. Let's embrace the future!

Did you know Mountain View and the.rest of this valley was really prime farmland?

Personally I think it has already been paved over.

Remove Evelyn Station? This seems like a totally dumb and shortsighted maneuver. Considering how Downtown MV's population and activities are expanding, it would seem that we should be keeping Evelyn open and encouraging its use as an alternative, to reduce downtown traffic and parking congestion.