Editor,
We seem to have hit a nerve with Mark Simon. His gratuitously and needlessly insulting May 6 column (A nonsense transit merger poll) took issue with two simple questions in our recent Bay Area Council poll on what voters think about the idea of merging Caltrain and BART.
It’s important to note that they were two questions out of 88 in a regional poll designed to explore attitudes on a wide range of issues. There’s little question that if the idea of merging Caltrain and BART ever becomes a serious proposal, in-depth polling will be required. Currently, there is no formal proposal.
We can understand why Mr. Simon might be a little defensive on the merger issue given his former role as a top executive of the agency that manages Caltrain. The Bay Area Council has been an ardent supporter of both BART and Caltrain, helping secure more than $1 billion for Caltrain’s electrification and modernization project. And we were instrumental in the creation of BART.
We also are proponents of addressing the region’s highly balkanized and inefficient network of transportation agencies. It’s too bad Mr. Simon couldn’t put aside his parochial interests and use the poll findings and his platform to engage readers on the substantive question of how we create a more efficient and seamless regional transportation system.
Rufus Jeffris
San Francisco
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(1) comment
We need HSR for commuter transit to affordable housing and not to Bakersfield that can never be tunneled though the fault ridden Tehachapi Mountains to LA..
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