☆ Even a transit advocate hates BART to Silicon Valley

Image by Alan Fisher

In a recent YouTube video, transit bro Alan Fisher joins the critiques of the VTA extension’s single-bore tunneling approach, which is more expensive (and less accessible) than traditional twin-bore. Contra Costa Taxpayers Association’s Marc Joffe breaks down the data—and the troubled future of BART SV Phase II—in this Opp Now exclusive.

VTA is losing support for its $12.7 billion BART Silicon Valley Phase II project from one of its core constituencies: YouTube transit bros. Several urbanist content creators produce popular videos attacking cars and praising transit. But now, one of these creators, Alan Fisher, has taken a whack at the costly VTA BART project.

His latest video, entitled “The Worst New Transit Project in the US,” criticizes VTA for choosing to use a tunnel boring machine to create a single-bore tunnel deep under East Santa Clara Street. As critics at the Bay Area Transportation Working Group have also noted, this design costs more and increases travel times due to the long escalator rides needed to reach station platforms.

Fisher instead believes that VTA should use the cut and cover approach, which would temporarily shut down portions of East Santa Clara Street while the tunnel is excavated. But, if the project is properly managed, these closures can be relatively short, with the street reopening once the newly created tunnel section is covered over and repaving is completed.

Go Deeper:

• VTA blinks on troubled SJ Bart extension tunnel design
• Transportation professionals on BART extension: Let's actually examine costs of single vs. twin-bore tunnels
• "Gravely concerned:" BART Directors join chorus of leaders questioning the course of San Jose BART extension

I doubt whether VTA will take Fisher’s advice: they hastily contracted to buy a tunnel boring machine even before lining up most of the funding for the project, thereby creating “facts on the ground” to support their preferred strategy—even today federal funding is not in place (as shown in the accompanying chart from a recent oversight meeting) and may be more difficult to finalize under the new Trump Administration which should be less friendly to large transit projects, and California projects in particular.

A better option would be to cancel the project entirely or terminate it at 28th Street/Little Portugal, eliminating the need for any kind of tunneling. Billions in local sales tax funding could then be spent on better alternatives, or returned to taxpayers.

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