Protest the Oakland Airport Connector Fares

agenda: http://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/agendas/05-08-14%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf

Item 5. ADMINISTRATION ITEMS Dir Saltzman, Chairperson
A. Approval of BART to Oakland International Airport Project New Fare and New Service Title VI Equity Analysis.*
Board requested to authorize.

from http://www.bart.gov/about/projects/oac one can find some facts from BART itself ...

May 2009 – BART issued an RFP/RFQ for Design-Build Operate Maintain (DBOM) contract.

December 10, 2009 – The BART Board of Directors authorized the Notice of Intent to award the Oakland Airport Connector DBOM contract to Flatiron/Parsons, Joint Venture.

While they say this type of tram was planned and approved back in the early '00's, it was the post-engineered crash's "take advantage of every crisis" plan to help to privatize and suck more money out of the populace. Notice how almost all of the stimulus from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and signed into law on February 17, 2009, by President Barack Obama went towards the opposite of what one would think it would go to - projects that in summation would employ large numbers of people for long periods of time. Instead we got large projects controlled by large corporations that use large machinery to eliminate construction workers and will automate processes once finished to further eliminate jobs. [Another stimulus project that affects you everyday is the so-called "Smart" meters that allowed wealthy utility companies around the country to harm your health, spy on your activities and eliminate meter readers at a time when there is roughly 30% un- & under-employment.]

This project, even though completely unnecessary when one considers the various other forms of transporation available for connection with the ternimal, was considered "shovel ready" and pushed forward to grab a piece of the funding pie made available by the ARRA. Many people demanded this not go forward saying the money could be used more wisely elsewhere. Notice also the amount of "local" funds used. Notice the Measure B funds spent on this boondoogle. Do you suppose there is any connection between this and the 2012 Measure B-deux? That was defeated and now they are coming back for more in November of this year. Notice also the two different bridge toll pots of money that were used. Do you supposed there is any connection with the ever increasing bridge tolls and this boondoogle? Of course!

Don't forget, this was paid for by us! Unfortunately, it was to be designed, built, operated and maintained by a private corporation. The BART board of directors merely rubber-stamps the revenue requests that the BART staff has organized from the operator/maintainer of this boondoogle.

It was designed to be built in a factory off-site using as few people as possible. It was then shipped to the site to be erected by as few people as possible. Of course, all of this put as much money as possible in as few hands as possible - mainly the investors and executives of the joint venture corporations. There are no humans driving the cars. It will be interesting how often passengers will be stranded two stories above Hegenberg Road waiting for help and possibly missing their TSA groping sessions and their flights.

I for one will never ride this travesty solely out of principal. Take the adjacent AC Transit line for 1/3 the cost.

Show up and let the BART directors know this is horrible. Maintain the fares that all the other travel options have. Maintain the previous BART sponsored bus route cost. The joint venture corporations knew what the competition would be. They knew what the demographics of Oakland was/is. The attached report is nothing but a convoluted statistical approach to verify that the joint venture corporations want to make as much money as possible. I can imagine them demanding, "BART directors, rubber stamp our request. The sheople are too dumb and distracted to ever notice ... until it's too late."

If you can't be there is person, find the director's email contacts on the BART website and email them to express your disgust.