First McEnery. Then Liccardo. Now, the Merc: BART SJ extension support in free-fall
Image by Wikimedia Commons
As the price tag for BART's misbegotten extension through downtown San Jose soars past $12bn, key civic leaders such as former Mayors McEnery and Liccardo have grown dubious, and now the Merc's editorial page (on 4.5.24) is calling for a re-evaluation of the whole project.
Merc editorial 4.5.24:
As the price for the South Bay BART extension continues to soar, elected officials must decide whether they want to honestly evaluate the project or rubber stamp it.
In just the last three years, the estimate for the four-station, mostly underground extension has more than doubled, from $5.6 billion to $12.8 billion, and the completion date has been kicked back more than a decade, from 2026 to 2037.
That’s before a single shovel of dirt has been moved.
At this point, VTA board members, a collection of elected officials from jurisdictions throughout Santa Clara County, should be demanding a comprehensive, independent review of the six-mile extension from the existing Berryessa/North San Jose station through San Jose and up to Santa Clara.
That review should evaluate financial and ridership assumptions in light of radically changed commute patterns since the COVID pandemic onset, the tunneling strategy that will require passengers descend eight stories underground to reach a boarding platform, and the planned final leg to Santa Clara that duplicates an existing Caltrain line.
If VTA board members want to regain public confidence, they will hire independent experts to examine the project’s critical questions:
Financial assumptions — As we editorialized last year, it’s time for a fresh look at the financial and ridership projections and a comparison with alternatives that might provide mass transit or other environmentally friendly commuter options more cost-effectively.
Santa Clara leg — Respected public transit advocates complain that the extension’s last leg — from Diridon Station in San Jose to Santa Clara — is duplicative of parallel Caltrain service. And congressional candidate and former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a big booster of the BART extension, in January called for at least temporarily dropping it.
As we editorialized in 2021, 2022 and 2023, as costs kept rising and VTA transparency remained abysmal, the San Jose BART extension should be subjected to complete and rigorous independent review.
Residents and taxpayers deserve an honest, impartial evaluation of its merits.
Read the whole thing here.
Liccardo says BART to SJ needs to be downsized
Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo says the project to bring BART to the city’s downtown needs to be scaled down, citing ballooning costs that have now amounted to $12.2 billion, a stunning admission coming from arguably the transit extension’s greatest supporter over the years.
In an interview on Thursday evening, Liccardo said he would like to see a section of the project — the connection between San Jose’s Diridon Station and Santa Clara — nixed from the proposal and possibly finished at another time, citing the fact that Caltrain already covers the route.
He also said he’s thought about reining in the project since the beginning of 2022, while he was mayor and fending off reports of cost estimates exploding, but was optimistic at the time that federal funding would adequately cover the price of the extension, now considered one of the most expensive transit proposals in America.
“We’ve got a situation in this country where transit construction costs are wildly out of control,” said Liccardo, who is currently running for District 16’s congressional seat. “We need to find better ways to build. And in the meantime, we have to build within our budget.”
Read the whole thing here.
McEnery questions BART extension logic, timing, leadership
The multi-billion dollar project to extend BART six miles into the heart of San Jose is about to begin. One question must be answered: Should it?
The billion-dollar VTA boring mole will soon be traveling beneath our streets, operated by the scandal-plagued BART management team. This is a group dominated by its unions and an assortment of contractors and consultants. To add to that, the politicized BART board and management of BART recently pressured its state-mandated inspector general to resign, a case of the team firing the referee. Add to that the immediate past of VTA’s treatment of the small businesses downtown, and it bodes ill for the future.
Finally, just who is really in charge of this risky race into the unknown, this bullet-train-magnitude decision? If the BART downtown tunnel effort fails, it will not be abandoned in the
fields outside Merced but in the heart of a major American city, San Jose.
I have seen past VTA projects such as the Transit Mall on First and Second Street in the 1990s, and I know how the past can be prelude. There will be few to hold accountable for errors or a disaster if that time comes. Then we watched this poorly run VTA city project arrive after the construction era of the 1980s, and “shoot the survivors.”
This is wrong. Our city leaders have the responsibility to assess the timing and real costs of this extension from Berryessa and carefully look at the options — perhaps buses, just as our major employers utilize, taking riders to the airport and Valley Fair or to their jobs and homes. The threat to our city is frightening. The need to recognize the gigantic changes in urban America that have left our office towers empty and transit system prostrate must be seen and acknowledged. There should be a fair and independent analysis before we begin and proceed only with full knowledge. Will there be riders? If so, is there a better, less expensive option? It is the responsibility of the mayor and City Council to get that answer before a shovel is lifted or a new billion spent.
Read the whole thing here.
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