Seems there are a few things stopping BART from being completed:
1. County politics. Santa Clara county and Alameda county don't want to play nice. And because of the delays in extending BART, Santa Clara county now has it's own light rail system that is not compatible with BART. All we really need here is a station where the two meet, thus coupling the two systems. But try to get pig-headed politicians to agree to that...
2. Union politics. Seems special interests are preventing the people from possessing decent public transportation. Seems each rail system has it's own union, and the unions are more interested in keeping themselves in existance than in protecting union jobs. See, the jobs will exist regardless of which system is extended. It's the unions that might have access to fewer workers as members, thus reducing their monetary input through membership fees and their political clout. No matter which system gets extended, someone's got to do the work.
3. Alternative transportation. This one is best summed up by describing the problems that had to be overcome to put in the BART extension to the San Francisco airport. Seems the taxi companies that make so much money from driving people to and from the airport were not real happy about having a cheap alternative built. They lobbied day and night to protect their ability to overcharge their patrons. I really can't see BART putting taxi drivers out of business, simply because BART is a very limited scope system, but it would mean reduced business for taxis as people turned to a much cheaper, much more convenient method of transportation. And wouldn't that be a shame?
BAY AREA POLITICIANS, TAKE NOTE:
I will gladly vote for anyone that says they'll push to see public
transportation expanded so that the various rail systems are all joined.
BART to SCLR to CalTrans: the way I want my local taxes spent, a platform
I would vote for.
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