Silicon Valley BART extension
Encyclopedia
Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on of track with 44 stations in four counties...
(BART) from its current terminus in Fremont
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
to Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...
. The extensions will be to the Warm Springs District, Berryessa District
Berryessa, San Jose, California
The Berryessa District or North Valley in San Jose, California is located in the northeast portion of the city, between Coyote Creek and the Diablo Range foothills. The neighborhood borders Milpitas along Landess Avenue to the north and the Alum Rock neighborhood of East San Jose along Mabury Road...
, and lastly to Downtown San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
and/or Santa Clara
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
.
History
Santa Clara County was originally going to be part of the BART system but local leaders voted it down. There would have been minor service at Palo AltoPalo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
right over the border from San Mateo County
San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
but they also opted out leaving Fremont the closest end of line.
In the late 1990s planners and community leaders began to plan out a BART extension to San Jose to ameliorate traffic and connect the city to the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
and close the gap in rail service around the bay.
In 2000 Santa Clara County voters approved a 30-year-long half cent sales tax increase to fund BART. The tax did not come into effect until 2006. It became clear that federal funding would not be approved until the county's transit body, the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), could prove that it could operate the BART extension with its own funds in a way that would not be detrimental to its existing transit and transportation infrastructure. This after the project was repeatedly not given positive recommendation in congress for this very reason. In 2008, to mitigate that fact, the voters were again asked to raise sales tax this time by 1/8th of one percent to come into effect when and if federal funding of the project was given the green light. In 2009 it was made evident that due to worsening economic factors that over its 30-year lifespan the 2000 sales tax would only bring in 7 billion dollars and not the anticipated 11 billion and plans for the full extension and amount of stations needed to be scaled back. The project was cut into phases with service to northern San Jose at Berryessa by 2018 and to downtown San Jose by 2025 which may or may not include Santa Clara.
Warm Springs Extension
In 2009 the Metropolitan Transportation CommissionMetropolitan Transportation Commission (San Francisco Bay Area)
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is a regional planning, financing, and funding government agency in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was created in 1970 to coordinate the transit systems in the area's nine counties...
(MTC) gave $315 million for the extension to Warm Springs. This first phase of the extension will extend BART south of the Fremont
Fremont (BART station)
Fremont is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station that serves Fremont, California. The elevated island platform serves as the southernmost terminal station of BART's Fremont line, which is served by trains on the Fremont - Daly City Line, which runs daytimes Monday-Saturday, and the Richmond - Fremont...
station to a new Warm Springs station
Warm Springs (BART station)
Warm Springs will be an at-grade BART station in Fremont. Construction on the station began in fall 2010; it is scheduled to open in late 2015....
in the south of Fremont. This extension also provides the groundwork but not the funds for an Irvington station
Irvington (BART station)
Irvington BART station is a planned Bay Area Rapid Transit station in southern Fremont, California part of the Warm Springs BART extension.-History:...
in the Irvington District in central Fremont to be paid for by the city. This extension is currently under construction and is planned to open by 2014, with a planned opened of 2015 for the intermediate station according to the city.
Silicon Valley Extension
The extension will bring BART to Santa Clara and cost 5.9 billion dollars to be largely financed by the VTA.Phase I: Berryessa Extension
In 2009 VTA proposed that the extension need be extended as far as they could afford and only as far as Berryessa until further funding was made available. This leg of the extension has been fully funded and is currently under pre-construction with the old Union Pacific railroad tracks being moved out of the way to make room for the construction of this leg. It will bring BART south from Warm Springs to Berryessa stationBerryessa (BART station)
Berryessa BART station is a future Bay Area Rapid Transit station scheduled to begin construction in the summer of 2012 and open in 2018 in San José, California as part of the Silicon Valley BART extension...
with a Milpitas station
Milpitas (BART station)
Milpitas BART station also known as Montague station is a future Bay Area Rapid Transit station scheduled to begin construction in the summer of 2012 and open in 2018 in the city of Milpitas, California as part of the Silicon Valley BART extension. It will be both the first BART station in Santa...
which will be located adjacent too and connected by bridge to the Montague light rail station
Montague (VTA)
Montague is a light rail station operated by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority . This station is served by VTA's Alum Rock–Santa Teresa line.The station was opened in 2004 as part of the second phase of VTA's Tasman East light rail extension....
near the Great Mall of the Bay Area
Great Mall of the Bay Area
The Great Mall of the Bay Area is a large outlet shopping mall in Milpitas, California built by Ford Motor Land Development and Petrie Dierman Kughn in 1994, then acquired by Mills Corporation in 2003, and is now owned by the Simon Property Group since April 2007.-History:Formerly a Ford...
and the Great Mall/Main Transit Center. The setup for a station in downtown Milpitas to be called Calaveras station
Calaveras (BART station)
Calaveras BART station is a planned at-grade Bay Area Rapid Transit station in downtown Milpitas, California, part of the Silicon Valley BART extension. It is the first station site in Santa Clara County but will not be the first station built due to funding...
will be set up for a future infill station to be funded by the city. In 2009 the MTC changed its rules allowing for toll monies from bridges and HOT lanes to be used for transit projects, opening up more funding for BART expansion and other projects such as VTA light rail extensions and bus or ferry operations as well. In 2010 the project was approved for 750 million dollars in federal funds and construction began in 2011, moving rail lines out of the way.
A local industrial park is suing on environmental grounds because the extension may reduce its vehicular access and lower their earnings. This lawsuit brings many parallels to the owner of Artichoke Joe's unsuccessful plan to stonewall the SFO BART extension in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Phase II: San Jose/Santa Clara Extension
Lastly a final leg will be built to the urban core of San Jose with Alum Rock stationAlum Rock (BART station)
Alum Rock BART station is a planned underground Bay Area Rapid Transit station in eastern San Jose, California. It will be the first station of the Phase II portion of the Silicon Valley BART extension. It will be located near Highway 101 and Santa Clara Street...
on the city's "east side" then tunneling under Santa Clara street to a Downtown San Jose station
Downtown San José (BART station)
Downtown San Jose BART station is a planned underground Bay Area Rapid Transit station in southern San Jose, California, part of the Silicon Valley BART extension...
. This station was originally going to be separate Civic Plaza
San Jose City Hall
The current City Hall of San José California was opened to the public on October 15, 2005, and is located at 200 East Santa Clara Street, San José, California. It was designed by Richard Meier.- History :...
/SJSU
San José State University
San Jose State University is a public university located in San Jose, California, United States...
and Plaza de Cesar Chavez
Plaza de Cesar Chavez
Plaza de César Chávez is a 2.2-acre park in Downtown San Jose, California, USA, named after César Chávez in 1993. It is surrounded by South Market Street, across which is The Tech Museum of Innovation, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Circle of Palms Plaza and the Fairmont San Jose Hotel...
stations but were consolidated to save money. After that the rail lines will terminate at either the Diridon/Arena station co-located at the current Caltrain/ACE/Amtrak station and allow for a future extension to the Santa Clara station or go all the way to that station to be co-located with the existing Caltrain station in that city.
Originally the entire extension was going to be built in one megaproject but federal funding a lower than expected sales tax revenue led to the scaling back and phasing in of the plan.