By Robert Haugh
For years, transit advocates have been calling out what they see as a wasteful and unnecessary design for the six-mile BART extension to San Jose. Critics say that the $13 billion project is too costly and over-engineered.
The project’s design prioritizes minimal disruption to businesses, but critics say this design makes it one of the most expensive and wasteful US transportation projects.
And now the San Jose BART extension to downtown San Jose has caught the attention of a prominent figure in urbanism circles: Alan Fisher. He’s known online as the Armchair Urbanist.
Fisher, who reviews transit projects from his East Coast base, has labeled the San Jose BART extension “the worst new transit project in the U.S.” in a viral video.
He also calls out the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority (VTA) as being one of the worst transit agencies in the nation.
Fisher’s says San Jose’s BART extension will cost more per mile than subway extensions in New York City. Wow.
In New York City, construction must take place beneath active subway lines. That’s not a challenge or cost that San Jose has to deal with. Fisher contends that the current design is unnecessarily expensive and doesn’t reflect the city’s transit needs, making it a misguided use of public funds.
“San Jose is planning to spend more than New York City on a project that doesn’t require the same level of complexity or disruption,” Fisher explains in the video. “This project needs to be stopped, rebooted, and restarted with a more reasonable approach that considers actual needs over political convenience.”
Fischer’s video is only about 10 minutes long and worth watching.
Santa Clara City Councilmember Suds Jain is a current VTA board member. According to the VTA website, he sits on the Safety, Security, and Transit Planning and Operations Committee. But his attendance record is only 22 percent.
Communist of Santa Clara (“CSC”) and Suds embrace the worst for us Santa Clarans. They scream against Lisa Gilmore (no Saint) without offering any substantial improvements.
A few items for Santa Clarans to consider.
More than 20 years ago VTA came to the SC Planning Commission with a BART presentation when both (now Councilmember) Karen Hardy and I served together.
1) It always made sense for Santa Clarans to support the BART extension to Milpitas and Berryessa because commuters who work in SC could transfer to Light Rail and get to their tech jobs.
2) The Stadium was just a dream and vision then, but again it made sense to support BART to Milpitas and Berryessa because event goers from Alameda County could transfer to Light Rail and get to events and to the Convention Center.
3) After many questions from me and others, and much dodging of answers, VTA staff acknowledged that zero human beings would take BART all the way to SCU to get to their tech jobs. Why? The commute will add more than a half hour one way, in contrast to a transfer to Light Rail. There is no easy way to go from SCU to the tech jobs area unless you transfer to CalTrain or a surface bus. You already would be at work by debarking at Milpitas.
4) ZERO human beings will drive to SCU to take BART to downtown San Jose or to the Little Portugal stop.
5) ZERO human beings will take Line 22 to SCU, debark to BART and continue the journey to downtown SJ. Why? If you already are on the bus, stay on the bus and the same bus will get you to downtown SJ or Little Portugal more quickly and less expensively than transferring.
6) It will be a vanity bonus for my alma mater SCU to have a station, but get real… How many people commute to SCU? I support getting more fans to Bronco sports events though. Hey, free BART construction for the University. Why would any Bronco object?
None of these issues have changed over two decades. Santa Clara got a big win with the Milpitas and Berryessa stations. Very little practical benefit for us though with the second portion of the extension, except for having the name “Santa Clara” as the final destination.
Regards,
Chris Stampolis
Santa Clara
There’s two big reasons why VTA and BART pushed through to Santa Clara from San Jose and neither of them have to do with SCU.
First, the BART yard. It costs plenty of time, man-hours and energy to get those trains back up to the nearest yard at the end of the night between Hayward and Union City. I’ve seen from other publications and press releases that it’s becoming worse and worse the further along this project gets and that the Warm Spring Station is pushing it with regards to maintenance turnarounds as it is. The San Jose stations would stress that even further and using the old Southern Pacific yard space for it works out for everyone involved (it’s even got high-voltage run through it courtesy of the CalTrain upgrade). This also lines up with how they’ve ignored many requests of Santa Clarans for the station as to BART it’s just a convenient topper and extra revenue generator for the yard they need.
Second, unless San Jose actually gets its act together and puts in that weird people mover connector, we have the only proper connection to SJC Mineta Airport. The turnaround for the Airport Connector from Diridon to SJC is supposed to be ~15min but that requires one to take a light rail up from Diridon to Metro/Airport and then grab the southbound connector… or to grab CalTrain up to Santa Clara anyways. Now any riders who need to fly out would just need to take BART to Santa Clara and take that in, rather than a three-mode transfer. If San Jose figures out their people mover then sure, that reason will go away, but that didn’t exist when they were planning out this particular extension.
So yeah, we only get a station because it’s convenient to BART who needs to place a yard here anyways and it’ll actually connect the three airports together (almost).
It makes sense Suds would be involved in VTA. If there is any chance for job enlargement he’s your man. And VTA has been on the bottom rung for years and Suds can help keep it there. Years ago a student in my Quality Management classes worked for VTA and after class he would tell me some horror stories about waste and misuse.
Alan Fisher’s video doesn’t say that this project shouldn’t be done. He’s all for it. It’s the type of tunneling that was selected that makes it this expensive. His questions are the following;
1. Why one big tunnel? In a seemingly less dense environment than New York. Fisher illustrated the enormous depth of these tunnels, the large amount of material removal necessary and the extra engineering of twin decks. There are a LOT of steps to get up and down.
2. Why not cut and cover instead?
3. Why not twin tunnels?
Insanely expensive! Warm place for unhoused shelter in cold rainy winter. India standard too.
Ha, ha! Suds and CSC’s famous lines, “ but what about Lisa?” Ha! Ha! Clearly the Mayor continues to occupy a lot of space in these whiners heads. Ha! Ha! Go tell Jed! Ha! Ha!!
Adam, Suds didn’t say he had Sam Liccardo’s permission to share the text message. If the didn’t ask, how does Sam feel about this? If he did ask he should have said so, it would carry more weight. But Suds and people like Suds operate with different values than most of us.
Just think the $$ wasted on homeless people and illegal aliens in CA could have paid for 2 of these……..and nobody can say where the money went…….
Also, no one believes you anymore Suds………
Robert Haugh is in fine form today distorting and spinning facts. To what end?
First off there are 12 board members on VTA and a professional staff. How much influence on the VTA BART extension project can one member have? Can I get the project canceled? No. I am subject to Brown Act so can only talk with a minority of the board on any given topic. If Robert were to actually watch any of the BART Oversight committee meetings he would notice that I’ve been a very active member, asking many questions critical of the cost of the project.
Second, Santa Clara does not have a permanent seat on the VTA board. We are in a group with Milpitas and Sunnyvale. Only two of the 3 cities get a board seat at any given time. The other sits out for a year out of every 3. Last year, I represented Santa Clara as an alternate an actually filled in many times for the Sunnyvale member.
What is missing from Robert’s “report” is that I was a very active member of the Congestion Management Program and Planning Committee (CMPP) for the last couple of years. I am also no longer on the Capital Program Committee. I’m the sole VTA board member on the Joint VTA/BART Working Committee which Robert didn’t even mention. So much for accurate “reporting”
On February 20, 2025, I was voted by the members of the SSTPO committee to serve as the vice chair.
Finally here’s a verbatim text exchange between me and Sam Liccardo concerning Robert’s benefactor Lisa Gillmor on Jan 27, 2022:
Suds: I look forward to working with you on vta
Sam: Are you taking the seat that Lisa had?
Suds: Yes, appointed this past Tuesday
Sam: Wonderful–will be great to work with you. Lisa didn’t seem to have much interest in the agency.
“The [BART] project will provide better access to all of our local amenities, including shopping, dining, recreational facilities and community life. Because of our close proximity, it will offer reliable and affordable access to the university, helping them save money on transportation costs, allow them to explore regional job opportunities and engage in cultural activities, really enhancing their educational experience.” ~ Lisa Gillmor
https://www.svvoice.com/bart-and-vta-break-ground-on-santa-clara-rail-yard/
Click the above link and you’ll see Lisa Gillmor was the only City of Santa Clara representative with shovel in handbreaking ground at the new BART site.