Light-rail stop to close
Preparing for BART, Montague station to shut for fivemonths
The light-rail station on Montague Expressway will close Monday for five months, the latest transit changes as BART’s 60-year-old dream of reaching the South Bay gets closer.
The Milpitas station is be- ing closed to build a pedestrian bridge over Capitol Avenue linking the trolley stop with the BART station under construction. That will offer a way onto Tasman Drive and to all those high-tech companies from San Jose through Santa Clara and onto Mountain View, plus Levi’s Stadium.
In addition, the Evelyn station in Mountain View has been permanently closed, and it’s be-
ing demolished, to build a second track that will allow for faster light-rail service between BART on the east side of the South Bay and Caltrain on the Peninsula.
These are two major milestones in finishing the extension from Fremont to the Berryessa area of San Jose. The 5-mile Fremont section to Warm Springs will open late this year, with the 10-mile line from Warm Springs to Berryessa opening in late 2017.
The Montague station figures to be a busy connection.
Light-rail boardings are now about 200 a day at Montague, but “they will definitely go up” perhaps to 3,100 a day with the BART tie-in, said Bernice Alaniz, a spokeswoman for the Valley Transportation Authority, which is overseeing construction in Santa Clara County.
Once BART trains begin running to Milpitas, BART ridership at the Montague station is projected to reach 12,000, and 22,000 by 2035.
The east side of the valley has seen a flurry of BART-related work. Already 7,100 feet of rail are in the ground north of Kato Road in Fremont. In Milpitas, 3,500 feet were placed south of Dixon Landing Road, which is partially closed through September. Construction is also underway at the Sierra/Lundy intersection in San Jose. The elevated Berryessa station is taking shape.
“Stations are beginning to emerge from the trench up at Milpitas,” Alaniz said, “and rising above the ground at Berryessa.”
BART tracks will cross over Walnut Avenue and under Stevenson Boulevard, Fremont’s Central Park and the Union Pacific Railroad track.
Then they’ll run along the old Union Pacific line, going underground north of Montague. North of Berryessa Road, BART will rise 35 feet above ground level and remain elevated past Mabury Road before the line ends near Highway 101.
The next challenge is getting money to tunnel through downtown San Jose under Santa Clara Street. That 6-mile route could cost more than $4 billion. The VTA has up to $1.4 billion in sales tax approved by voters 15 years ago and is banking on at least $1.1 billion in federal aid. A new sales tax will be on the bal- lot in 2016 and if approved could make up much of the shortfall.
Getting federal aid may not be as easy as with the 10-mile Berryessa extension from Fremont when the VTA secured $900 million from Washington for the $2.1 billion line. Requests for funds from the Federal Transit Administration have soared, and transit agencies nationwide are in the running for the money.
There will be 1,200 parking spaces at Milpitas, nearly double what will be needed for opening day and enough to handle parking through 2035. There will also be 1,200 combined surface and garage parking spaces at Berryessa initially, also nearly twice what is needed opening day, and there are plans to add more parking.
During the Montague station closure, a bus shuttle will operate every 15 minutes between Capitol Avenue near the Montague station and the Great Mall transit center weekdays from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Shuttles will run on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.