Letter: Train system needed

Silicon Valley and Salinas Valley combine to be the largest urban area in North America without an intermodal facility (piggyback ramps as we used to call them when I supervised SPRR’s San Jose Ramp graveyard shift back in 1966-1970). So, with VTA-COG-AMBAG in charge of transport planning, we suffer the consequences of bad planning decisions. Not only are traffic and tonnage flows hampered, air pollution and road maintenance expenses are higher thanks to the geniuses at our local “authorities.”
Shippers and receivers who do opt for intermodal, e.g., UPS, have their tonnage drayed over the Gavilan Range to and from Ramps in Lathrop (UPRR) and Stockton (BNSF). Since it takes 75% more fuel to move a ton of freight with rubber tires on concrete or asphalt than when steel wheels roll on steel tracks, we have more air pollution as a result of our planners’ mistaken priorities.
The late Bill Lindsteadt, president, Gilroy EDC, recognized this glaring error and joined with me in urging for restoration of intermodal service for the Central California Coast Region. He was not alone. When standing in line at their podium at the California Transportation Commission meeting at old San Jose City Hall nearly 10 years ago, the guy in front of me stepped forward and told the CTC’s Commissioners that California “needs more intermodal facilities.” They all laughed because they saw my sign I was holding which basically said the same thing, and the guy didn’t even know I was standing behind him waiving the sign. Turns out he was then Caltrans Chief of Highway Programs, formerly Division Chief from San Luis Obispo. So, what happened? Any new intermodal facilities in  California? Not in this region.
After 50 years in transportation, I’ve come to the conclusion that these damaging infrastructure mistakes result from the Iron Curtain we’ve erected in transport policy, where public sector solutions are esteemed, and private sector ones shunned even though history shows that private sector solutions are the only long-term, sustainable ones. Any doubters just look at UPRR when it goes through town, and compare its success with Amtrak’s failure since it was created in 1970 (when congressmen stood on the floor of the House and promised that Amtrak would be “self-sufficient” in three years. And with the arrival of the Bullet Train, we’re going from the frying pan into the fire.
Joe Thompson, Gilroy