Light rail service may restart soon in San Jose
The VTA received an infusion of cash as it recovers from the worst mass shooting in Bay Area history.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority could resume service along its idled light rail lines in the next several weeks, with an infusion of cash from the state potentially helping fund the agency’s recovery from the worst mass shooting in Bay Area history.
VTA’s board on Friday also approved an emergency declaration granting its general manager expanded authority to lease temporary space and start repair work at the Guadalupe Yard, the headquarters of the light rail system where a gunman opened fire early on the morning of May 26, killing nine of his colleagues before taking his own life.
The three-line rail network that runs for more than 40 miles through the South Bay was shut down hours after the shooting.
VTA initially replicated its train service with buses, but soon shut those down as well to preserve coaches for regular bus routes. As a result, thousands of riders who once relied on the light rail system have had to find another way to get around. Restarting the service is a logistically and emotionally challenging task — 379 VTA employees worked at the yard, the only facility where light rail trains are stored and maintained.
The sprawling complex also houses the Operations Control Center that manages both VTA’s bus and light rail systems, which one official compared to an air traffic control tower for the South Bay transit network.
While the authority has not yet set a date for restarting the light rail system, interim VTA General Manager Evelynn Tran said it has launched a task force to oversee the effort and hopes to have service back “in the coming weeks.”
“We are appreciative of our riders’ continued patience, and we are anxious to start serving the public once again,” Tran told the VTA board meeting Friday morning.
More than three weeks after the shooting, though, there are still many unanswered questions about what it will take to do so.
Up in the air are questions like whether VTA’s light rail trains would run again, or if the lines would be served by “bus bridges” instead. VTA spokeswoman Stacey Hendler Ross said the authority’s task force has not made any decisions on that front and “everything is on the table.”
It’s also unclear what the authority plans to do with the Guadalupe Yard — if it will undertake significant renovations at the complex, as has been done at other mass shooting sites, and what temporary facilities VTA might build or rent to run the system in the meantime.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office has turned the facility back over to VTA, Hendler Ross said.
In a memo to the agency’s board, VTA staff said the shooting caused “significant damage to property including equipment necessary for the operation and control of light rail.” They added that some of the victims in the shooting were gunned down just outside the Operations Control Center; management of the VTA bus system has been moved since the shooting to a temporary facility.
Meanwhile, with budget negotiations unfolding in the Legislature and California flush with a record surplus, state Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, said he is seeking funding from the state that could help VTA in its recovery effort. A spokeswoman for Cortese declined to say how much he is seeking, though, or how it would be used.
“We are working with local community leaders and labor leaders to assess and fund immediate needs to assist workers and get trains back on the streets,” Cortese said in a statement.
At a special meeting Friday morning, the VTA board unanimously voted to declare an emergency as a result of the shooting.
The move temporarily exempts VTA from the typical bidding process for contracts, which authority staff said would take to long as they look to restart service as soon as possible, and gives the authority’s general manager the power to enter into agreements worth as much as $2 million, up from $1 million, without board approval.
The action allows authority leaders to spend up to $10 million in total on the effort, though Tran indicated the still-undetermined cost would likely be lower. The powers expire after 90 days.
A key reason for the change, Hendler Ross said, is that the VTA board is not scheduled to meet again until August.
“They’re trying to move more quickly than would otherwise happen,” Hendler Ross said.