Two major projects completing the ring of rail around San Francisco Bay advanced in recent weeks. The $12.75B project to bring BART from Berryessa to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara broke ground. The project is now estimated to start rail service in 2036. The groundbreaking took place before VTA received a commitment from the […]
On Friday, VTA announced that the federal government would fund $5.1Billion toward the BART Silicon Valley project, about 41% of the cost of the project, currently estimated at $12.7 billion. This leaves a gap of $1.2Billion from the amount that VTA had been requesting, and a gap of $700million to complete the project, following the
In board meetings on Wednesday and Thursday this past week, the SamTrans and Caltrain boards acknowledged progress in amendments and negotiations on SB1031, the authorizing legislation for a regional transportation funding measure. The boards retained their positions to oppose the legislation unless amended, with the rationale that this would provide the greatest amount of negotiating
On June 16, the VTA board approved a visionary plan for much more frequent service, based on community feedback earlier in the year. At full implementation, the Visionary Network would offer 83% more service compared to current 2023 service, with 77% more service on weekdays and 87% more service on weekends. The service improvements
This week, SamTrans and VTA are considering next steps to speed buses in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Wednesday: SamTrans ECR Bus Speed and Reliability Study Buses on El Camino Real could travel 25-30% faster compared to 2019 travel times along the 25 mile El Camino Real corridor if improvements in a new SamTrans
In May, following requests from the BART board and San Jose City Council the VTA board agreed to move forward with two parallel review processes to investigate opportunities to improve the project, looking the potential for: Entrances on both sides of the street – important for passenger access and safetyBetter, easier passenger access to station
At this evening’s VTA board meeting, in the agenda item to approve the first stage of the major construction contracts for the BART Silicon Valley Extension (item 7.7), Mayor Liccardo has submitted a memo calling for reviews of the project to explore important improvements to rider experience and the urban fabric of San Jose, including:
On December 7, multiple public commenters spoke in support of the memo from San Jose Mayor and colleagues seeking welcome improvements to rider experience and urban design including additional station entrances and better transit connections, and urging review compared to the previously studied twin bore design, which would make it easier to solve the problems.
On Monday December 13th at 10am, the Stevens Creek Corridor Transit Steering Committee is meeting to discuss opportunities to bring rapid transit to Stevens Creek boulevard. The committee, composed of representatives from San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino and Santa Clara County, along with VTA will discuss a study to create a vision for the corridor,
On December 2, the BART board supported a review of the BART Silicon Valley project to assess the current design against the twin-bore alternative studied in the EIR that may be able to deliver better rider experience and safety at lower cost. Directors Saltzman and Li expressed concerns about the ballooning cost estimates for the
This afternoon, San Jose City Council will discuss the project bringing BART to San Jose. Mayor Sam Liccardo authored a memo joined by colleagues Jones, Peralez and Davis urging VTA to take steps to improve the projects from the perspective of urban design and transit connections. The memo elevates a number of needs that have
As the vanguard of VTA’s Fast Transit program, the City of San Jose is moving forward with “public service lanes” through the En Movimiento East San Jose Multimodal Transportation Improvement Plan. The plan centers around the urban villages on Santa Clara Street near the planned Little Portugal BART station. Santa Clara Street is considered the
The above photo was an actual slide presented at a February 5th update to advocates regarding VTA’s Fast Transit Program. The program, according to VTA staff, is designed to improve bus speeds on VTA’s existing frequent, high-ridership routes. This includes routes such as the 23 Alum Rock – one of the slowest routes in the
Transit ridership has been steeply down with many people traveling less in the pandemic. There are opportunities to make transit better to bring riders back and ensure that transit can thrive in the future. VTA has a FAST Transit program looking at options to speed transit. For this week’s SFMTA board meeting, the agency posted
Wrestling with budget challenges and ridership declines, VTA has zeroed in the core strategy of speeding up buses and trains, which have slowed dramatically over the last two decades. Speeding transit can increase ridership by providing more competitive service and reduce costs by allowing more transit to be run with the same amount of funding.
Transit is in serious trouble because of the pandemic. We need to take steps now to ensure that transit can thrive in the future. One of these steps is to have countywide signal preemption throughout the county. Signal preemption would dramatically increase transit speed and make transit more competitive with driving. According to VTA, the
