Wouldn't that be wonderful, to have all those "intermodal" connections at our airports. Unfortunately, none of the Bay Area airports, including SFO, offer that kind of connectivity for travelers -- no light rail, no Amtrak, no interurban buses. It's rare for US airports in general.

Building transit systems is enormously expensive, as we saw from the recent BART to SFO extension -- that 8-mile extension cost BART and the feds $1.5 billion, plus SFO built a $200 million station at the airport. That's far more than what we just spent to completely modernize SJC. Given the times, finding resources for major transit projects will be difficult, regardless of merit, and bang for the buck will be critical to get public funding approvals. It will be tough for direct links to airports to compete on cost per rider.

There is potential for a true transit hub in downtown San Jose with the convergence of BART, High Speed Rail, Caltrain, VTA light rail, and Amtrak all now being planned at the Diridon Station near the Arena. That could open the eventual possibility (contingent on funding from a source other than the airport, of course) for a better SJC-downtown transit connection at some point in the future.

David Vossbrink, SJC Communications Director