To All,
Kim Moore brings up a wonderful idea, of which other letters have been
written:
"We have the Billy Jones Railway; why can't it be expanded as transit for
town?"
Such an idea holds out the promise of congestion reduction and provids an
attraction for commerce. Close off Downtown, build feeder lots, and "it
would be ... preserving history and advancing municipal transit at the same
time". Kim asked if it were affordable. Well, given the high price of
congestion it seems reasonable that funding could be found. Though
affordability is really not the issue. Instead we must consider if it is
practical, and if not, then how can we rework the goodness in this idea
into something that is practical, efficient, and affordable.
The problem with all railroads is....... the rails! The right of way takes
up lots of land. Rails need to go on a roadway or parking strips. Neither
is desirable because a stopped train takes up space in traffic and there
are no parking spaces to spare. Even a small narrow gauge train like our
Billy Jones would snarl traffic between feeder parking lots and town.
Land for rails makes even big trains too expensive. A few years ago the
Highway 17 Rail Corridor Study detailed the problem.
A heavy gauge train (like CalTrain), needs new tunnels and a large turning
radius. (The old tunnels are either under Lexington or were blown up in
WWII). Building new tunnels and access requires large portions of land and
lots of digging and grading. The price for heavy rail was estimated at
$90,000,000.00 per MILE and there were big water pollution worries.
Light rail also suffers from the difficulty of putting down tracks. Though
ONLY $70,000,000.00 per mile, construction would build down the center of
Highway 17. Good Lord, this would create a nightmare of congestion for
years!
Locally, rail would be difficult for the Los Gatos community. We want
people to park cars at feeder lots and take transit to downtown. But the
nearest space for such lots is way down by Highway 85 . Planting surface
rails from there will just make local congestion worse and ruin
neighborhoods in between.
So, the only answer I can think of is to get rid of the rails.
Somehow, we need to move lots of people without spending money putting down
tracks. We need a solution to "fly" people above the congestion, perhaps
down the freeway corridor, without blocking views, or looking in peoples
back yards.
Just think of what could be done if we had such a train with no rails.
- People could commute from Downtown Los Gatos to the Vasona Light Rail
station without clogging streets.
- Commuters could leave cars at underground parking at North Los Gatos and
"fly" to dinner and shopping in town.
- Teens would have an alternative to cruising North Santa Cruz in cars.
- And there would be a stop for the Billy Jones Wildcat Railway at Vasona
Park, further reducing weekend traffic.
- Residents of the expected housing developments at the A-Z nursery would
be able to avoid choking Oka Road or Lark.
- The proposed Childrens Hospital would have an attraction to cheer up
sick kids.
- A West Valley regional bus hub at the North 40 could bring in riders
without sending big busses into town.
- And perhaps best of all, Los Gatos gets a community transit system which
is practical to expand down Highway 17.
Without fixed rails, such a transit system would be one fourth the cost.
And the expense could be blended into the North Los Gatos development with
the Federal Government Department of Transportation fronting much of the
money.
All that is needed is a comprehensive plan for the North 60 ( yes, it must
include the 20 acres of neighborhood across Los Gatos Boulevard). With
such a plan in hand the community could obtain available properties using
long term redevelopment funds. Then ground could be broken for Childrens
hospital and transit hub. After that, shuttles from hotels, Amtrack buses,
county transit, and Airport jitneys would have a single Los Gatos
marshaling hub. And all this this would be linked to Downtown, Vasona
Park, and the light rail by a transit system that can "fly" over congestion.
Is is possible: Just click here to find out:
http://www.northlosgatos.com/Aerobus%20info.html
Quite a dream to see commuters fly through the air. Feasible too! This
link to www.northlosgatos.com shows we do not have to wait for George
Jettson to have practical, efficient, and affordable transit in Los Gatos
and this corner of Silicon Valley.
Mark
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