Although it is struggling with a four-year $250 million deficit, BART may yet reach San Jose. The California Transportation Commission will be voting today whether to extend the service. To date, some $400 million has already been allocated to the project, which would add 16.1 miles of track to the line. Today’s vote is for another $40 million, the first installment of an expected $240 million. The total cost is expected to hover around $6.1 billion, much of which will come from federal funding. Santa Clara County voters narrowly approved a 1/8-cent sales tax to help pay for the extension in November.
With the proposed expansion, BART will cover five counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, and San Mateo, in addition to Santa Clara. The local line will be operated by the Santa Clara County Transportation Authority. Read More at the San Francisco Business Times.
In related news: The 2009 Urban Mobility Report by A&M University says that San Jose and Silicon Valley have the sixth worst traffic in the nation. According to the report, in 2007 local commuters spent 53 hours—well over two whole days!—stuck in traffic, an increase from 51 hours the year before.
Yet despite the ominous figures, there is a silver lining to the report. The study also found that local traffic has more or less stabilized over the past few years and is slightly lower than its peak of 57 hours. This is probably part of a nationwide trend resulting from the dismal economy. The report also shows that as bad as it may seem, San Jose’s traffic is not the worst in California or even in the Bay Area. That dubious honor goes to San Francisco-Oakland, which ranks fifth for traffic congestion nationwide. And the winner for the worst traffic in the U.S. is Los Angeles, where commuter spent an average of 70 hours in traffic in 2007.
While President Obama and the other G8 leaders discuss climate change in Italy, and while Congress prepares to debate Cap and Trade to cut factory fuel emissions, it is worth considering this simple figure: In 2007 alone, congestion nationwide wasted 2.8 billion gallons of fuel—enough to fill 370,000 18-wheeler fuel delivery trucks, enough to stretch bumper to bumper from Houston to Boston to Los Angeles. Read More at KLIV.
If the BART extension to San Jose were somehow up and running today, where would you go and how often would you use it? Everyone seems to think that BART will be a great project for “someone else’s” needs.
And why is it that these reports always promise that much of the funding will come from the federal gov’t, as if to acknowledge that, yes, it’s a poor investment but that doesn’t matter because it’s OPM (other people’s money).
So a system that’s already losing ~$60,000,000 a YEAR thinks that another $6,000,000,000+ will magically make it a viable enterprise? Color me skeptical, but I don’t think there’s going to be $60M in revenue per year from San Jose-bound folks. Plus, San Jose is already served by a rail system (CalTrain), so it’s not like BART is even offering a significantly new service.
I’d much rather see the money go towards improving our roads so that folks don’t waste millions of gallons of fuel sitting in stop-n-go traffic.
Brian (#1), I would go to SF or Berkeley once every two or three years.
Blake, as Brian notes, funding will be via the Tooth Fairy, so not to worry!
#1, when it comes to government, there is no OPM, unless you’re talking about the trillions of dollars of debt being piled on future generations…
Pat Waite,
Regarding the trillions of debt owed. who is it owed to? and why should we pay it. Just tell the idiots we are not paying; we are the fricking United State for christ sake. How can they force us to pay; LOL
Let’s hope it never extends to SJ.
Aside from the OBVIOU$$$$ reason, we do not need more East Bay/Oakland area criminally inclined here in SJ. BART would make it too easy for these transient criminals to make the “commute” to SJ.
5. Since if the US government went bankrupt, everyone in the US military would have been laid off, it would fairly easy for the Chinese to come in and collect what they were owed. Or it might be more cost-effective for them to contract the job out to the Russians.
There were cases years ago where the US sent in troops to occupy other countries and collect money (typically customs duties) until their debts were paid off.
Okay, SV newsroom, only 20 percent of the funding is federal, a far cry from your very inaccurate “much of the funding.” Being a web journalist doesn’t relieve one of the responsibility of fact checking!
#2, the extension is to Fremont. The whole point is to ring the bay with public transportation options. It does not duplicate Caltrain service. And just how many lanes wide should we make I-880? It seems like every time we add a lane, its still jammed with traffic.
I do, however, share your dislike of potholes.
Any word from Carl Guardino on how he’s going to pay for it?
He told us, in very clear terms, that we would get BART all the way to Santa Clara. Remember the billboard showing a BART train next to Caltrain? We were promised far more than a rump line to Berryessa.
We all know someone at SVLG reads this blog. So, please tell us how you’re going to give us what you promised:
The entire BART extension, all the way to Santa Clara.
I have no reason to go to Fremont, Hayward, San Leandro, Oakland, Walnut Creek, so BART is of no use to me in that regard. If I wanted to go to SF, would I take the long way around via BART? Nope, I’d take CalTrain or drive my car. I cannot imagine a scenario in which I would use BART.
I’m all in favor of a San Jose BART station.
As long as it’s next to San Jose Airport.
In Hollister.
A BART stop near SJSU would be of great convenience to students coming from the East Bay, who now have no convenient way to get to campus using public transport.
BART to the airport would also be a great convenience to airport users living in Milpitas, Fremont, etc.
#1 & #2 ask excellent questions and make solid points.
Note the photo at the top of this story. BART would have a lot more support and make a lot more sense if it ran down the median of Hwy 880. It would run past corporate/commercial zones from Fremont to SJ, come close to North San Jose(the next sub-metropolis), and go right to the airport.
As the average San Jose American, I will use BART.
At least, I will until the first time I get cornered with a sales pitch and can’t escape, a stoned teenager puts his head in my lap, and some chico tries to start a fight because he took a triple dose of andro that morning and doesn’t like the fact that I have a job that requires me to dress up for work. So . . . about three times.
Good Point Greg:
Thought the most recent vote included accountability measures and a timeline. If I were a voter in SCC, I’d want my money back.
Jeffrey Dennison
http://300daysofrain.blogspot.com/
So who voted YES on a stump train to Berryessa? At least all those people can enjoy the flea mar…oh damn…
#1 Blake: Maybe 3-4 times a year to SF or the lower East Bay. Like most people in Santa Clara County, there will be no BART station within miles of where I live. Would I use VTA to link to BART? Sorry, my days are long enough as it is.
#5 Tea Party: Honorable people repay their debts. You are an honorable person, aren’t you?
#15 & 16: You touch on something that’s bugged me about the BART project for a long time: Why build part of it (downtown SJ, assuming it ever gets that far) underground? That adds to the cost and is not necessary. Elevated tracks would be cheaper and would allow for more stops.
#16 Greg: I’d like to start a movement to put you in charge of the VTA. It shouldn’t be hard. Just walk into the VTA lobby and start yelling “Accountability” at the top of your lungs and watch how quickly they all put those golden parachutes to work!
#13: JMOC: You’re forgetting your many secret trips to Richmond and East Oakland for soul food and hip hop lessons…
What bugs me about the BART project is the deceptive way SLVG, et al, BS’d the voters into supporting measure B last fall. There was a Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report called “Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority – Taking the Public for a Ride.”
The link to the report is here:
http://www.sccsuperiorcourt.org/jury/GJreports/2009/SantaClaraVTA.pdf
Unfortunately, when I try to link to the report, it just hangs there so perhaps there’s something wrong with the grand jury site.
The VTA Watch blog has a summary of the report here: http://vtawatch.blogspot.com/2009/06/grand-jury-finds-vta-deceived.html see the section under “VTA staff deceived voters.”
We need to take this project back to the drawing board in light of the financial crisis. Why are we cutting back on transit operations [see http://vtawatch.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-long-will-that-last.html and http://vtawatch.blogspot.com/2009/06/caltrain-and-vta-budget-update.html ]
I agree with Greg Perry in post #10. Someone needs to explain how to pay for BART and justify why all of the other Measure A projects that we voted for in 2000 keep getting deferred. In case you forgot, in November 2000, the voters in Santa Clara County approved Measure A, a 30-year half cent sales tax devoted to specified public transit capital improvement projects and operations. Measure A passed by a 70.3 percent majority vote.
The Measure A ballot listed 14 specific projects or project areas:
* Extending BART from Alameda County to the cities of Milpitas, San Jose and Santa Clara.
* Providing connections from the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport to BART, Caltrain and VTA light rail.
* Extending light rail from downtown San Jose to the East Valley.
* Purchasing low-floor light rail vehicles.
* Improving Caltrain by double-tracking to Gilroy and electrifying from Palo Alto to Gilroy.
* Increasing the level of Caltrain service.
* Constructing a new Palo Alto Intermodal Transit Center.
* Improving service in major bus corridors.
* Upgrading the Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) Service.
* Improving Highway 17 Express Bus Service.
* Connecting Caltrain with the Dumbarton Rail Corridor.
* Purchasing zero-emission buses and constructing support facilities.
* Developing new light rail corridors.
* Funding operating and maintenance costs for increased bus, rail and paratransit services.
See: http://www.vta.org/2000_measure_a/index.html
The BART extension should be viewed in a bigger transit picture. It would be something like this.
1. Move the airport so it can become a truly international airport. the existing airport land can be sold to raise $.
2. bring the High Speed Rail (HSR) up from So Cal terminating at the current air terminal just being completed.
3. BART will stop there as well.
4. BART will continue up the peninsual instead of the HSR which is being NIMBY’d in those towns anyway.
5. Even if the airport is not moved the HSR and BART could centralize there to integrate transit modes.
#14 – VTA does not have enough money to build the tunnel at all, let alone a SJSU station.
#12- As I understand it, VTA is currently arguing that there is no obligation to actually build the extension to downtown.
Hence SVLG’s silence on how they’ll pay for it. They aren’t going to talk about building the rest of the extension until it’s time to ask us all for more money.
I use BART often for trips to Berkeley, San Francisco, and Oakland A’s games (although that may become unncessary if the A’s move). BART is more convenient for San Francisco because it goes right to Market Street. It is a good walk, or another transfer, to get there from Caltrain. Those of us who live on the East Side of the County would use BART. The argument against BART is always made by people who live in the western or southern parts of the county. “Screw the Milpitas, Berryessa, Alum Rock, Santa Clara folks. They don’t need mass transit. We already have Caltrain in our half of the county!”
David-
My argument is not to abandon the East side.
There was a fully funded plan to bring Caltrain style rail to East San Jose. It was to have been completed in 2004. You could have been riding that line for the last five years.
Instead, you have a promise, and only a promise, of BART.
Which would you rather have? A train you can ride, or just a promise?
#23,
Uh-oh, that incendiary remark might well knock Blue Fox out of his coma.
#21 and 22
East San Jose does not need BART or Caltrain. They already have the Reid-Hillview airport, while other neighborhoods do not have their own airport. Let East San Jose residents fly their airplanes to wherever they want to go.