Back in the 1960’s Muni was part of the SF Public Utilities Commission. In the late 1960’s the oncoming BART subway give Muni an opportunity to modernize its streetcar system. 
So the PUC sent one of its engineers to Europe to get a better look at some of Europe’s successful subway operations. He returned with a recommendation that there be a single 10-car train extending from State College to the Embarcadero, fed at the West Portal by short K-L trains and at the Duboce Portal by short J-N trains. That recommendation was rejected by the PUC brass on grounds that San Francisco’s streetcar users, used to getting one-seat rides to downtown San Francisco, “didn’t want to transfer and in fact wouldn’t transfer”.
Transit Systems
North Bay Rail Needs New Name – “SMART”, It Is Not
Voters in Sonoma and Marin counties approved a sales tax obligation in 2008 to plan, build and operate the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit 70-mile commuter rail system from Cloverdale to about 3/8 mile from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. The 70 mile plan did not pan out, with SMART beginning 42-mile rail service from Santa Rosa to San Rafael in mid-1917, and extending to Larkspur in late 2019.
As of Dec 2021, the cumulative cost to build, operate, and finance SMART totaled $1 Billion while the cumulative total ridership was approximately 2 million one-way passenger trips. That works out to about $500 for every one-way passenger trip, so far!
Every transit operator reports data monthly and annually to the National Transit Database (NTD) maintained by the Federal Transit Administration. The NTD data is the source for uniformly reported statistics on operating expenses, passenger trips and passenger miles, fare revenues and the number of vehicle miles and hours of service provided. Below is the history for SMART.
Transit Fare Integration Principles Adopted – Next Up: Implementation
On November 15th the MTC Fare Integration Task Force (Task Force) adopted a fare integration statement to help Bay Area transit agencies deliver a fairer and better-coordinated fare collection system for the Bay Area.
Sonoma County Transit Integration Pilot Project
Sonoma County has 490,000 residents and five separate transit agencies. Before the coronavirus hit, these agencies attracted a total ridership of just 15,000 riders a day, which amounted to just 0.8% of the total daily trips in the county. Sonoma County Transit, the Santa Rosa City Bus, and Petaluma Transit provide local transit service while the SMART commuter rail line and Golden Gate Transit serve inter-county and regional trips.
While BATWG has never joined the chorus chanting for a single humongous bureaucracy to take over and operate all of the Bay Area’s 27 separate transit agencies, we do recognize that there are opportunities to effectively combine some services and the small systems in Sonoma County definitely qualify.
Transparency at BART
On December 9, 2021 BATWG sent a letter to BART citing the lack of transparency in three key elements of its program; namely, the ongoing redistricting process, its Police City Review Board and its Auditing Committee.
BATWG has major concerns about public transparency and lack of easy access to these and perhaps other BART Board Committee meetings, especially during the pandemic when many meeting are held “virtually.” This problem requires immediate remedial action due to the rapidly-moving BART Board redistricting process. Following are three examples of the kinds of problems produced when relevant public information is kept from the public. Of particular concern right now are the backroom redistricting processes now ongoing, apparently all over the Region.
Union City’s December 2, 2021 Presentation to the BART Board
Here are excerpts from BATWG’s December 12, 2021’s letter to BART Director and ACTC Vice President Rebecca Saltzman as well as to other members of the BART Board warning against the diversion of Measure BB Intermodal Funds needed to improve walking and bicycle access to the Union City BART station to the City’s ill-conceived Quarry Lakes “Parkway”, previously called the East-West Connector (EWC) highway.
Subject: Union City’s December 2, 2021 Presentation to the BART Board
Dear Honorable Rebecca Saltzman,
Since you are BART’s representative on the Alameda County Transportation Commission and since it appears that on December 2, 2021 BART was not given the whole story, please keep the following thoughts in mind:
Bay Area Transportation Working Group 