BART maps 2 stations, awaits opening dates
BART has added a new prong to its Xshaped map, marking two new stations in the South Bay that still have no set opening date.
It’s a symbolic step toward fulfilling the manifest destiny of BART. For years, politicians drew San Jose BART extensions in fat magic marker as officials dreamed of stretching track into Silicon Valley.
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority finished building the first segment last year, with stations in Milpitas and Berryessa. They were scheduled to open by the end of December, but those plans got waylaid by financial questions, interagency conflict and problems discovered as BART engineers did inspections and ran test trains down the track.
And that was before the coronavirus swept in, draining funds and slowing down government operations. During BART’s last board meeting in April, staff said the extension is nearly ready to open, though they wouldn’t
commit to a specific date. They also warned that COVID19 could delay and complicate the plans in any number of ways.
Ultimately, Valley Transportation Authority plans to add 16 miles of BART track that would loop west through downtown San Jose and then north to wind up in Santa Clara. In all, the map would include six new stations, including one at Diridon, where BART would intersect with Caltrain and deliver thousands of tech workers to
Google’s future headquarters.
Officials at Valley Transportation Authority will ask the federal government for money to fund that second phase, which they hope to start building in 2022. Last year the Federal Transit Administration dangled the first portion of that money — a $125 million grant, to be distributed when Santa Clara meets all the requirements to proceed with a construction agreement.
But the coronavirus has made every aspect of the project more uncertain. All Bay Area transportation agencies have been battered by severe losses of passengers and fares during the shutdown. BART is plodding along with 6% of the riders it had before March. Caltrain has lost so much money officials may consider temporarily shutting down the Peninsula rail line if they can’t secure more emergency funding.
BART’s last leg to Santa
Clara could be postponed indefinitely. The one thing that is evolving quickly is its map, which engineers rescaled, expanded and cleaned up. In a series of tweets, BART staff announced some tweaks: a smoother yellow line into Contra Costa County and new transfer information bubbles, among other things.
This fourth iteration of the BART system map “reflects not only BART’s expansion but also its place within the greater Bay Area and the priorities we make as the region evolves,” agency staff tweeted.
They will present it to BART directors Thursday.