Burlingame merchants push for Caltrain station

Once Burlingame councilmembers learned in March that design would cost $889 million, more than double the original price, they voted to move forward with a cheaper grade separation design, at $615 million, sans train station.

“The City Council has agreed, reluctantly and regretfully, with removing the train station from when they do grade separation, because otherwise it’s going to be completely unaffordable,” Vice Mayor Michael Brownrigg said.

Some residents and merchants have been left feeling frustrated with the impact the 20-year closure of weekday service at the station has caused, John Kevranian, Broadway Business Improvement District president, said.

Now, Kevranian is calling for a reopening of weekday service, at least until the grade separation is completed — a task that might take years, as the city struggles to come up with the required funding. A change.org petition he started has garnered more than 340 signatures.

“We have worked on this for years and years, and we have been told for so many years, once the tracks are electrified, Caltrain will reopen the weekday service at Broadway,” he said. “If the great separation is not starting in the next two to three months or six months, let’s open the train station, because [the closure] has devastated the community with commuters and the business district.”

Caltrain had originally said weekday Broadway service would return after electrification but in a statement, Caltrain spokesperson Dan Lieberman said the reopening of weekday service at the Broadway station could increase traffic congestion at the troubled intersection.

In addition, the existing station design requires passengers to cross live tracks. During weekend service, trains can stop and hold before reaching Broadway as passengers cross, Lieberman said, but implementing the safety measure during the weekdays could cause a bevy of issues.

“Reopening Broadway station within the context of Caltrain’s more frequent weekday service could endanger passengers, cause more traffic bottlenecks at Broadway and jeopardize timely transfers to BART at the Millbrae Transit Center and other transit hubs throughout the corridor,” the statement read.

Brownrigg expressed skepticism both with a proposed solution to move the train station a few hundred yards away — ostensibly to address the congestion and safety issues delineated by Caltrain — and with the concept that reimplementing weekday service would adequately rejuvenate the Broadway area.

“I have no idea how much that would cost. It is not free. And the reality of government construction work is it’s certain to be expensive,” he said. “When we think about whether to invest public money in doing that, the answer is to what end? I think the merchants believe that it will bring more foot traffic to Broadway, more customers to Broadway. I think that is an uncertain proposition, to be charitable.”

Ross Bruce — a Realtor and former president of the Broadway Business Improvement District — cited innumerable benefits reopened weekday service would have on the local community.

“Some owners who own homes around the area would really like to be able to commute in that fashion, and several of the businesses say that it would really make it a lot easier for their employees to commute automobile-free,” he said.

The city is failing to properly invest in the Broadway area the way it invests in downtown Burlingame Avenue, Kevranian said, leaving business owners to fend for themselves as they seek greater foot traffic for local shops.

“They don’t have a solution, they don’t have an answer,” he said. “So you know what? I’ll take it in my own hands, and I will do whatever I can to create the foot traffic. And it’s a win-win for commuters and the businesses.”

In April, the City Council recently scrapped plans to reimagine Burlingame’s Broadway area with transit-oriented, mixed-use development — including increased housing and removal of parking.

Councilmembers cited several reasons for that decision, including Burlingame’s choice to not include a new train station in the grade separation project. Plans for the Broadway renewal had revolved around the assumption that a new train station would facilitate transit-oriented development.

Neighbors also voiced concerns that transit-oriented development regulations brought on by proximity to a functioning train station would usher in extremely tall buildings and limited parking options, though Kevranian called that “fearmongering.”

“I don’t see developers putting up buildings, demolishing. The funding is not there. The interest rates are high, cost of building is so high,” he said. “There’s so many biotech businesses right now all over Northern California where they’ve stopped their projects because of cost.”

Kevranian will continue to push for weekday service openings, he said, because he believes it’s what’s best for the entire community.

“There’s more cars on the streets now — we need to reduce the cars, we need to have convenience for commuting, and the Broadway weekday service is the answer,” he said. “I’ve been here for 45 years. I’ve seen it. It used to be fantastic.”

Go to https://www.change.org/p/open-weekday-service-at-broadway-burlingame-train-station?source_location=search to see the petition.