OAK patrons may complain about delays in providing a monorail, but I want to highlight the decline in once-fine BART service to SFO since the September 12, 2005 service change.

The number of trains during peak hours has gone down by 50%, and remaining service is via the low-demand Dublin-Pleasanton line instead of the logical Bay Point line. That causes most East Bay passengers to have to change trains somewhere in San Francisco, adding time to journeys (10 minutes on weekends). Richmond and Berkeley passengers now have to change twice. Further, some of the Dublin trains are only 4 cars long (it's either 4 or 8, sometimes inexplicably interspersed), causing severe crowding involving luggage and standee problems all along the line. The last straw is the big fare increase to SFO and nearby stations coming on January 1.

For most of this San Mateo County is responsible. I just think the other Bay counties, especially San Francisco (which owns the airport and derives significant revenue therefrom) should help finance the former level of service to the region's largest airport. How many other airports have gained a $1 billion rail link that is partly abandoned just a couple of years later?