Opening day set for long-awaited BART stations in Milpitas, San Jose
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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. on 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.
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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 five 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.
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How in the hell can you be off on your cost estimates by $4 billion? I understand there's a reason why they're called estimates, but I still can't fathom being off by $4 billion?
