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transit blog
Warm Springs project a go; San Jose delayed to 2026. [Fremont Argus]
The Valley Transportation Authority will release a report tonight saying that at best, BART may not be completed until 2026 -- 12 years later than expected. News of the report stunned many officials who, for perhaps the first time, are questioning whether BART to San Jose will ever be built. It did not, however, surprise transportation advocates, who have been warning for years that the money wasn't there to operate trolleys and buses and bring BART south. But wasting 20-plus years is not acceptable, said Carl Guardino [San Jose Mercury News ]
If the VTA doesn't have the funds to expand and maintain a lower cost, local light rail system to serve 80 percent of the county's workforce that lives within Santa Clara County, does it make sense to spend almost all of Measure A funds to provide a measly 16 miles of cost-prohibitive heavy rail [BART] for the benefit of a small portion of the workforce coming from Alameda County? [Letter, San Jose Mercury News]
Overpriced parking blamed for 20% lost riders on SFO line. [San Mateo County Times]
Fremont Paseo Padre Parkway and Washington Boulevard grade separation projects ready to go.
The projects will include grade separations on Paseo Padre Parkway
between Shadowbrooke Common and Hancock Drive, and on Washington
Boulevard between Bruce Drive and Roberts Avenue. The project will
pave the way for the long-awaited BART extension to Warm Springs,
the City of Fremont's senior civil engineer Peggy Claassen said.
[Fremont Argus]
Fremont supports using bridge tolls to support BART. [Fremont Argus]
BART popular with downtown San Jose business, students. [SJ Mercury]
Ron Gonzales is determined to complete BART.
[SJ Mercury]
Plan to cut three stops from BART to San Joe offers faster, cheaper project.
Under pressure from federal transportation officials to lower the
cost of extending BART to Silicon Valley, the Valley Transportation
Authority today will recommend initially building the line with only
four stations along its 16-mile loop through Santa Clara County,
rather than the seven as planned.
A VTA staff report that will be voted upon at a committee meeting this
morning proposes postponing construction of the Berryessa and Alum
Rock stations and at a downtown stop next to the Civic Plaza and San
Jose State University.
The move is expected to reduce construction costs by $470 million, and
to save the agency $7.5 million a year in operating and maintenance
bills.
VTA officials say the extension could be completed by 2014. Building
the three stations on the deferred list could take many more years.
[SJ Mercury,
KCBS Radio]
VTA hearings on streamlined BART plan: current staff recommend first four stations:
Milpitas, downtown San Jose, the Diridon Station and a Santa Clara station.
[SJ Mercury]
The estimated completion date for the project is 2012.
[SJ Mercury]
Downtown SJ, Airport remain most important destinations.
[SJ Mercury,
2]
San Jose is the only community in the nation where voters
stepped up to the plate to pay 80% of the cost, says the mayor, and
more: "This region deserves it because we're the economic engine for
the nation, we deserve it and we want it now," says San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales.
[KRON TV 4]
After $1B, SJ redevelopment bedraggled
"There are more boarded-up storefronts today than there were when I
came down here in 1986." -- architect Ken Rodrigues of downtown San
Jose, at last week's hearings on the city's business climate.
[SJ Mercury]
Gray Davis' transportation scheme fails to deliver. [CA Planning & Development Report]
VTA Riders' Union founder opposes using Measure A funds for BART.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors passed a unanimous resolution Tuesday supporting the Valley Transportation Authority's efforts to divert Measure A funds into ongoing operations.
Editorial: Measure A could still cover half the cost of BART to SJ. [SJ Mercury]
[SJ Mercury]Santa Clara County Supervisors consider delaying BART Measure A funding. [Morgan Hill Times]
Valley Transportation Authority will not be paid back $82 million for purchasing
right of way for BART to San Jose extension until at least 2009.
VTA will not receive state funds to begin preliminary engineering, a $169
million effort, for BART extension.
Meanwhile fees go up for vehicle registration, driver's licenses and identification
cards and a $856 million transfer lost to the general fund from the Transportation
Investment Fund, and $500 million load repayment from general fund to
Traffic Congestion Relief Funds is delayed.
[San Jose Mercury News]
BART Board approves Warm Springs extension.
The 5.4-mile extension from the end-of-the-line Fremont station has
been on the drawing board since 1979 and was adopted by BART as part
of its expansion plans in 1992 but was never built because of a lack
of money. But now, with $193 million from Alameda County's Measure B
transportation sales tax, state money and a share of fares from the
airport extension, BART has the $634 million needed to build the
extension.
[
SF Chronicle
SJ Mercury
]
"Our next regional vision should be an integrated Northern California rail system. If we're smart, we'll take the pieces we have and build a coordinated rail system." BART Director Dan Richard said. [SF Chronicle]
Today, BART is strained by slumping ridership;
Two year ago this month, BART was straining under growth.
Anybody who says extensions are losers is short-sighted. Look at
where BART has come thus far. BART has spread accessibility throughout
the region. -- Texas Transportation Institute researcher Gordon Shunk.
San Mateo County Times.
BART to San Jose from Milbrae ? Could be on San Mateo Measure A ballot in 2004. San Mateo Independent.
BART Warm Springs Extension Environmental Impact Report released. Chapter 5: Alternatives Analysis [.PDF, 9.4 MB]
FTA rating of BART to San Jose: No justification available. FTA links: PDF text; svbart's cache: PDF(381k) txt (30k)
Annual Report on New Starts 2003: FTA ranks proposed new transit. fta link, svbart's cache [.PDF, 142 Kb]
Deliver projects promised to voters, don't subvert Measure A (2000) We urge the VTA Financial Stability Committee, and ultimately the Board, to move forward swiftly to adopt all reasonable means for reducing the agency's expenses and increasing its fare box recovery rate. Given the magnitude of the shortfall, we understand that the agency will need additional revenues to recover the ground we have lost and eventually expand the system. We stand ready to work with VTA's Board and staff to identify a tax that a broad cross-section of our community can support. But we will not cannibalize funding for BART, or the integrity of promises made to the public, to achieve that goal. Carl Guardino, Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group.
Don't Bait and Switch on Measure A The question of transportation self-sufficiency and quality service has to be addressed not by moving a pot of money around from one place to another, but by adding to the pot. That means new revenues, whether they come with more sales taxes, property taxes, a payroll tax or some other tax. It probably also means higher fares, too. letter by Larry N. Gerston
San Jose, SVMG seek $494 million federal funds for BART to San Jose San Jose Business Journal
Santa Clara County Supervisor Jim Beall puts the blame for the Valley Transportation Authority's financial crisis firmly on the VTA's own management. Speaking to a breakfast gathering of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce Tuesday, Mr. Beall said the agency overestimated its income from sales taxes and foolishly used its reserve funds to pay operating costs. San Jose Business Journal
Federal Transit Administration regional administrator Leslie Rogers scrutinizes VTA ridership projections, rasing serious concerns regarding "the travel demand model and resulting technical analysis" used by the VTA and "the operating financial plan and the ability of the VTA to operate and maintain the existing bus and rail transit system." East Bay Business Times
Tax on jobs to bail out VTA, 'dead on arrival'. Mercury News
VTA slashes service in half on new transit lines, from six trains per hour to only three. Four rains per hour is generally considered a breaking point, and even that is not ideal," Tom Rubin, former controller-treasurer of the Southern California Rapid Transit District said. SJ Mercury
Transit tax opposed by San Jose mayor [SJ Business Journal ]
Build BART to Milpitas, save money for busses [TALC]
Opening S.J. BART extension likely delayed to 2020
[
Oakland Tribune]
BART to SFO months away from opening.
[SF Chronicle,
Contra Costa Times]
BART to SJ wins $250,000 federal funding for more study.
[SJ Mercury,
San Mateo County Times]
BART Director Nakadegawa wants stations without parking,
and no service to suburbs. [East Bay Monthly]
Santa Clara County sales tax receipts from the third quarter of last year
were 33 percent lower than two years ago. VTA also estimates it will need an
extra $6 billion over the next 20 years to keep trains and buses running.
That puts in jeopardy the BART-to-San Jose extension.
[SJ Mercury]
Consider cutting BART to San Jose: Palo Alto Mayor Dena Mossar,
who represents northern Santa Clara County on the transportation authority
board, said that everything the agency does should be considered for
budget cuts, including the 21-mile BART project.
[Palo Alto Daily News]
The nine-stop $430 million Air Train people-mover system linking BART to
the San Francisco International Airport has been delayed for the third
time in six months, airport director John Martin said.
[SF Examiner]
