Opening day set for BART stations in Milpitas, S.J.

Trains will roll June 13, ending a 20-year odyssey for vital connection

SAN JOSE >> For the first time in BART history, trains will cross into Santa Clara County starting this June.

Will many riders make the trip?

Amid a global pandemic and the sweeping shelter-at-home orders from which the Bay Area is beginning to emerge, officials were excited to announce an opening date Tuesday for the very-long-awaited BART extension into Milpitas and San Jose.

At 7:56 a.m. June 13, a Richmond-bound train will pick up passengers at the San Jose/ Berryessa station, making BART’s first public train trip from San Jose, through Milpitas and continuing on what used to be known as the Warm Springs/South Fremont line. The trip also marks the end of a 20-year odyssey to get the vital connection built to the Bay Area’s economic engine.

“It’s a very interesting time to open two new stations,” said Alicia Trost, chief communications officer for BART. “We have a lot of chal

lenges just winning riders back, making sure people know transit is safe and that you can travel the BART system while practicing social distancing.”

Voters first approved to fund the extension into Santa Clara County in 2000 with an increased sales tax. Funding issues continued for years, with financial roadblocks and setbacks with federal assistance finally being resolved in 2016 for the project’s $2.3 billion price tag.

The Valley Transportation Authority broke ground on the project in April 2012 with plans to relinquish service and maintenance of the system to BART upon opening. From there, officials projected a two-year time frame to

build the 10-mile extension from the Fremont/Warm Springs station to Milpitas and Berryessa — a timeline that stretched repeatedly as the project unfolded.

Even with that milestone now in sight, the stations face yet another challenge: BART reported after Bay Area shelter-at-home orders went into place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that ridership had dropped 90%, forcing service reductions that drastically increased the wait time for trains. The agency is slated to receive some $250 million in emergency funding from a hastily approved federal relief package.

Over the coming fiscal year, Trost said, models predict that ridership could return to about 50% of its prepandemic levels in the best case and about 15% in the worst case. To get people inside train cars, the agency is finalizing a “welcome back”

campaign to educate people about the system’s ongoing disinfecting and social distancing efforts.

“It’ll be a huge challenge not to just introduce BART to Santa Clara County, but during a time of the pandemic,” Trost said.

Local business owners aren’t sure what to expect, either. James Wong, owner of Fabrics R Us just down the street from the Berryessa station, said that the train extension may not do much for the neighborhood’s struggling businesses. Sales at his store are down about 10% compared to this time last year.

“With my product, I don’t think it’ll help us,” he said, noting that most people don’t have to drive far to buy fabrics — rendering the extension useless. For the neighborhood generally, he added, “I’m not sure if the train will up business; to tell you the truth, I have

no idea.”

Construction is expected to get under way on phase 2 of the transit agency’s extension into San Jose by 2022.

When completed, trains will eventually pass through an audacious station in downtown San Jose and end their South Bay routes in Santa Clara. But that extension already has been pushed back to a possible 2029 or 2030 opening, with a projected cost that increased by $900 million last year.

Last month, VTA slashed a proposal to bore the world’s largest subway tunnel for nearly 5 miles beneath the city when officials determined it would cost $4 billion more than initially believed — and involve substantially more risk. Engineers now are pursuing two new ideas involving smaller tunnels and stacked station platforms.

For now, the VTA’s new Line 500 will replace the 181 and connect the Berryessa Transit Center to San Jose State University, Downtown San Jose and the Diridon Caltrain station.

“It’s wonderful to be able to celebrate,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. “We know these have been some dark months that we’ve endured, but (this region) has shown character collectively, and we should celebrate great news like this.”

As Supervisor Cindy Chavez stood with the soon-to-be-open Berryessa station behind her Tuesday morning, a train rumbled by and cut through her announcement.

Chavez, the president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and chair of the VTA’s board, wasn’t mad about the interruption. Anything but.

“Yay,” she said. “I love to hear that.”