Imagine building a bridge that doesn't quite reach the other shore and then saying "this bridge was such a bad idea! no one's using it!" That's how America builds transit.
@@AlejandroRamirez-le2vv automotive lobby, oil lobby, any moneyed interests in highway construction contractors. There's a lot of money in the automotive industrial complex and if I was them I would be pulling these things up every chance I got. Bribery is legal in the US, it's just called lobbying and "news." Not to say there isn't real news but this 'report' here is basically just an opinion piece by another name.
@@mohammedsarker5756 You missed the point. His analogy was spot on. Imagine you have a bridge. The bridge in this case is Bart extension to Santa clara via SJ. This bridge that was built has only made it half way across the river. Now people are complaining that this bridge that is half complete has no ridership. There riders are not there. Thats like complaining about Bart for lacking the ridership when its not complete. It hasnt even reached San Jose or Santa Clara yet. Ridership comes when density increases. A lot of people travel into San Jose for work. Bart would help with that.
It needs to get built. It's shortsighted to base ridership projections on the last 3 years because of Covid and the subsequent work from home scenario. However, that's changing now and more employers are requiring employees to come back in the office. Ridership will continue to increase going forward. The more comprehensive a system, the more people will use it. A very clear example of that was the Regional Connector that opened on LA Metro in 2023. After it opened, ridership increased noticeably because it made the system faster and more convenient.
like how useful? the only use I need bart for is to go to SFO but I don't want to all around the entire bay to go to SFO. They need to complete the entire loop.
I don't live in the Bay area and I look forward to riding it. Using my car which I love is the WORST in the Bay. Too many cars. Parking is expensive and finding it is a waste of time. GO BART!!!
@@mrsleep0000 it's a long term investment...building the airports and freeways was hardly cheap and rife with cost over runs. But they both use oil...BART is running largely on renewables.
I take Bart from Oakland to Berryessa/North San Jose once a week, and then bike or bus to downtown SJ. All my coworkers think I'm crazy. And maybe I am. The multimodal journey is not for the faint of heart. I'm not the only one doing it, but if it was a simple train ride all the way to downtown I can guarantee you there'd be 1000% more.
It would seem to almost be common sense that ridership figures would skyrocket if the line were extended to downtown San Jose and linked up with Caltrain in Santa Clara. Currently the line ends in sprawling suburbia. Not exactly conducive to attracting high ridership figures.
Never going to happen when a vast majority of Americans rely on cars instead of mass transit. Not going to happen no way, no how, but good luck with that idea though
@@valeman3 The reason safety issues are on the rise are because of cars. Cars don't grant freedom, they are a means of transportation, and a liability for anyone who cannot afford one. BTW no one is against cars, almost all the urbanists and traffic planners and whatnot are against car dependency.
@@starventure Suburbs also can be walkable. What allowed every major city to expand and sprawl is suburbanization. For example, Los Angeles built its first suburbs on streetcar lines (now they are buses); sure there are single family homes but there are also duplexes and triplexes.
Outside of the core system in SF/Oakland/Berkeley, the environment around the stations are oriented towards automobiles and not people, without much destinations developed around them.
Exactly. And even then, lots of the station adjacent areas are still badly underutilized. There are plans for massive redevelopments of Bart owned land on all of the lines east of the bay, and a lot of them look great, but they are equally including in most cases far more parking than they should, which I think is going to still limit its potential. Although increased land development revenue will certainly be a godsend for the agency regardless. It’s kinda too late for the blue line, though, without an extension to Livermore it just terminates in the 580 median and the user experience there sucks ass, not to mention the severely limited development potential in the catchment area. I would also really love it if we unified all of the Bay Area transit authorities. We did that with SolTrans several years ago and it’s been a big improvement, so I think if, say, Bart, VTA, Muni, Caltrain, and all the buses were all unified under one banner, call it Bay Area Transit Authority or something, then interlinking would improve and the whole system would be more resilient to budgetary problems the way SolTrans has found it to be.
@@teuastPerhaps also include GGT, SMART, and the SF Bay Ferry System (WETA) in the unification with one easy fare transfer system. One umbrella management system would be politically interesting.
@@davidjackson7281 Definitely! I forgot about those ones, but yeah, they’re all important parts of the system and should all factor into a unified Bay Area transit network.
This will be important because timed transfers makes public transport much more convenient. The few times that two NYC subway trains actually meet their schedule and I transfer saves a lot of time. You want a good public transport system it needs to be fast, convenient, and actually connect where people want to go. Parking lots are terrible for transit, but a park and ride garage in a mixed use development can do a lot.
This is a no brainer... Berryessa is a sprawly suburb not optimized for any sort of transit, so it's obvious why no one is riding to/from there. Once it connects with the dense housing, jobs, and schools in Downtown San Jose--and what's set to become the Grand Central station of the west (Diridon)--the ridership will come. On top of that, when (hopefully not if) CAHSR is finally connected to the Bay Area, this extension will serve as the entry point to the BART system into the East Bay from every point south of Diridon.
Fremont is under utilized because it isn't far enough south. - Extend Dublin to Tracy - Extend Antioch to Brentwood - Finish the damn train from SF to LA It will all improve the economy, traffic, & livelihoods of everyone. What needs to happen is the Counties and BART need to figure out the true costs themselves and find competing contractors. Too much bloat come from corrupt contractors. The Bay Area has the best public transport in the US. We can still do better!
We should be expanding BART 10x more than this, at a much faster pace too. The Bay Area has the economy and political climate to be a leader in the transition away from fossil fuels and car-dependency, but corruption and complacency get in the way of it. BART was born from ambition, a first-in-the-nation system funded almost entirely by local tax dollars. We need to bring that spirit back and invest similarly large amounts of money into turning BART into a true regional transportation system, serving *all* of the Bay Area with fast and affordable transportation which beats driving in nearly all situations. Couple that with urban metro systems in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and Oakland - plus Amsterdam-style protected bike lanes and sidewalks on all our roads - and needing to drive to get around the Bay Area will be a thing of the past.
VTA should consider replacing it's low ridership light rail system with grade separated BART trains. That's the true system hemorrhaging money in San Jose.
The riders aren’t going to come as long as the system is unsafe. But also, imagine if they decided to stop building the interstate system way back when because not enough people were using it because there just wasn’t great enough car ownership. America just doesn’t know how to build anything anymore unless there isn’t an immediate return that aligns with expectations. That’s why we can’t get that high speed train built in a reasonable amount of time compared to what other countries can accomplish because they plan and then fund and then plow forward and get it done instead of argue about it.
I lived in San Francisco from 1991-1993. I would’ve loved to have been able to BART from The Embarcadero Sta. to Milpitas and take the bus to work in San Jose. I was so tired of driving to work, I moved to SJ. BTW - my SJ 1 brm apartment downtown was $564. utilities and parking included. 🙀
Yet, rarely have planners ummed and ahhed over need & demand when deciding about building a four lane highway🙄. Besides, maybe the extension could have been constructed faster & cheaper if the NIMBYs hadn't demanded on twin-bored tunnels as opposed to an elevated viaduct or possibly a cut-and-cover tunnels just below street level
Keep building. Get safety issues and dirt in downtown stations fixed. Redevelop station surroundings, build condos in walking distance. Wait till gas prices skyrocket and/or the last dumb*ss understands that it is not a wise idea to burn fossil fuels, while battery powered cars might not be a full replacement. Then riders will come. This extension is a long-term investment. Do it. And be proud of BART!
Santa Clara County made a mistake for refusing to join BART in 1972. A bunch of wealthy car loving a-holes. So now we have to pay for their poor foresight. The pandemic was an opportunity to acquire land and properties needed at lower prices, and save money. But they fumbled that, and instead every contractor is gouging the state and cities to make as much money as possible.
Who is the "we" you speak of? SC county and so by extension it's residents are the ones covering the tab - not the riders or residents of Alameda, CC, and SF Counties...
@@triaxe-mmb No, you're mistaken or just misinformed. SC residents funding are expected to cover only a fraction (4.3 billion) for this project (12.2 billion). That's less than half of the projected cost. "We" all pay for the rest with higher fares and taxes for cities, state, and federal funding.
@@pimaxuma actually - no one in AC, CCC, or SF are paying for the extension. It is funded with 3 taxes passed by the residents of SC county and yes the rest of the funds are coming from the Federal govt (expected to be about half or potentially a little less) and the rest is from the State I believe. At least that is what's projected in the last update on project funding. Now, the original post stated that "we" by which I assume you meant the riders of BART or the current tax supporters of BART in the 3 Counties that have sales, property and other taxes specifically to fund BART, it's past expansions, the purchase of new train sets, and such are going to foot the bill...this is not the case. 🤷🏾♂️ Sure my federal and state taxes probably go indirectly to fund the extension but it does that for projects all over the Country and the State respectively - As a resident in Alameda County, I am not paying any direct tax to specifically fund the expansion into SJ - that direct tax has so far been born by the residents of Santa Clara County... Now how am I wrong again?
@@pimaxuma also, how was the pandemic which had a drop in Real Estate prices for like 3-6 months and then a rapid uptick in prices supposed to be the ideal time to save money? The cost of literally everything went up shortly after the pandemic hit due to supply chain issues, the Suez Canal closure, the Ukraine war, and and and...we had a very brief window in things the prices were either down or flat - highly unlikely that large transactions for land, materials, contracts for engineering and construction could all be times to fit a small window of opportunity that was unexpected in the timeline... Have you every worked on a large infrastructure or real estate development project? Trying to steer it is like trying to direct a super tanker...takes a long time to change direction, stop, or get going...short term fluctuations can rarely if ever be taken advantage of since the time it would take to change strategies and planning is longer than the window of opportunity that opens up... Now if we hit a massive 2008 style economic collapse and everything craters and stays low for 3-4yrs, then we could have an "advantageous" opportunity assuming all the levels of govt needed to fund it can keep their shit together and not cancel such a large project to save short term costs...
If there was a single station in San Francisco (no cheating either by having it one of the often used Market Street stations) BART wouldn't get many riders in SF either. A single station in San Jose will only take people out of the city who live near by otherwise it's a coinflip to whether they take Caltrain to SF (if that's where they're going) or BART, most likely in Santa Clara they'll stick with VTA, but a number of stations in the city and properly placed areas and BART becomes useful as an in-city transit as well. Now I have no idea if the San Jose stations are going to be in useful areas, i.e. near LOTS of places with jobs and so forth, but that lady was right with here statement "Today is the cheapest it will ever be". So VTA/San Jose needs to make those hard decisions
I disagree I just think it’s becoming to expensive if your go to pay a premium than u mite aswell just drive …public transportation is suppose to be cheaper than driving that’s the only selling point.
I think it's vital to connecting San Jose to the East Bay. Oakland is building a good amount of housing and offices along their BART stations. Many from Oakland will likely commute to job rich San Jose.
@@kalb.3002 How are you going to measure "cheaper" though if you only measure cost of gas vs public transit then it has never been "cheaper" than driving, if you have to cross bridges and pay tolls then it starts getting comparable in price these days, if you compare public transit to a completely car-less lifestyle then it absolutely is cheaper, but if you have a car anyways... then yeah it gets complicated. That said other selling points are faster or less stressful (more convenient), some might spend a little more for not sitting in traffic for hours every day. Everyone is different though, so each has to make a choice for themselves.
@@PASH3227 I agree, but the key is where are those San Jose stations going to be, I don't know much about San Jose or where the stations are planning but they need to be somewhat near those jobs to get riders. I know if BART didn't have any stops on Market street it wouldn't be anywhere near as useful in San Francisco
How do other countries do it? For Japan, doesn't the transit companies own land around the stations and collect rent (sometimes at a premium?) I do recall Brightline is also employing this strategy too. To completely rely on fares for funding is completely absurd
Look at the price of automobiles today. They are getting more and more expensive, not only to purchase, but to own and operate. Wont be long until they are unattainable to most people like owning a home is today. The problem is a lot of people look at the world today, instead of the world of 2036 when this is suppose to be completed and beyond. The interstate highway system was not cheap, but we are all using the crap out of it now. Look at the difference between the 1920s and the 1990s, why is it so hard to understand that the 2090s will not be what we have today?
Bay area is built on stupid freeways which are clogged day in day out coz of office hour traffic. Literally all of them would prefer a timely rail based public transit system. But coz of idiots like this reporter who wont present the full picture, transit system is in such a mess in most parts of the country. People will take transit when it is end to end and can compete with cars, right now you cant take bart to silicon valley coz after bart you have to take seriouslly slow and infrequent buses which make your commute completely impractical. Bart needs to be built right across santa clara valley and not just uptil one station in santa clara. It should connect most of the corporate offices, THEN you will see ridership.
I grew up in Sunnyvale in the 70s and early 80s. I never understood why BART wasn’t a complete loop around the bay. I’ve lived in LA now for 40 years. Our subway has beautiful stations and is terrifyingly dangerous and under used and doesn’t serve the 4 million + people in the valley. CA needs to get their act together.
Basing relevance on ridership "expectations" is unforgivably stipid. I hope they judt build it. People will come and this IS the only way to decarbonzie and de-car. I would expect better from California.
Public transportation is very important for moving people around within cities, however the Bart fare is still quite expensive for average people so BART should run more efficiently. Lower fair will booth more ridership in long run.
Bart is so expensive since BaRT is required to cover the majority of their operations with fare revenue...this is codified in the laws that founded BART and funds them... This is also why even small changes in ridership has outside impacts on BART...and this is no small reduction...they were too commuter focused and now there are just a whole lot less commuters...
The TV channel got lost in their production values and forgot to compare having a comfy ride on a new BART car versus driving as a single occupant in a car from Santa Clara to the Embarcadero BART station in SF ...during RUSH HOUR. (Where did they find those tiny people? They're so cute. I can imagine my cat chasing them. That would be fun to watch.)
Whereas, the antioch station lot is always at capacity. Brentwood extension would be cheaper, and better serve "disadvantaged communities" in the exurbs. San jose already has light rail... they need a long range east-west link anyway, it could pass by berryessa and provide transfer similar to that at millbrae with fare gates in the middle of the platform. Berryessa is close enough to downtown to where this could make sense
Both BART needs to be built to Santa Clara **and** VTA's light rail needs to be tweaked for both better service and actual Transit-Oriented Development. That's all. Basing the ridership now to decide the future usefulness is really shooting itself in the foot. BART really is a regional train and not a Metro anymore, and should be in SJ/SC.
Just get the station within walking distance to Levis Stadium. Problem solved. I would pay $25 round trip for events. Your going to pay that anyways to park and enjoy a traffic jam
Yep this. Light rail to Levi’s is usually packed on event days, and the traffic disruption in surrounding areas is pretty severe. Another form of mass transit to the stadium can only help.
Transit Oriented Developments should be replacing every single surface parking lot around every BART station in the region. What should each TOD include? AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR ALL! As well as shops, offices, entertainment venues all connected to transit. Vancouver is the prime example of how to densify your city and improve transit ridership.. More people on transit also makes sure the trouble-makers generally either behave or be brought to justice...
I live in NJ and have worked in various governmental entities and authorities over the years. It seems that these plans are always overly optimistic. I think it really comes down to "everybody is making money" on the project at super inflated prices.
That's very true. That's the constant problem with building public transit in America today, and California especially. There's a lot of money here, and a lot of NIMBYs in general as well as insufficient methods of getting projects funded and started. CA has billions in its state budget deficit every year that don't get used, yet projects like this or with LA Metro's construction it heavily relies on grants and countywide half-cent tax initiatives voted on by residents. Whenever anything related to public transit is involved in a ballot, it's _always_ voted in favor and yet all of these guardrails are firmly set in place, seemingly impossible to change.
We don’t need to worry about ridership. With the prices of cars, gas, and insurance going up. People will have no other choice but to ride Bart. Only then will you see Bart turning around with more funds coming in and the increase of people is the only way to reduce crime. Keep building!
Build housing, commercial and offices around the stations and you'll see the ridership exceeding the expectations. Promote green mobility options and make car-free pedestrian zones. You'll see new districts flourish, happy people and customers and new job opportunities around the BART Network. Problem solved
Public transport doesn't need to fund itself through fares, we don't expect a public library to turn a profit or do we? We build public transport for a common good, it allows people from all walks of life that either can't drive or don't want to to get around town easily and it allows people that can't afford a car more economic opportunities to get themselves out of poverty because they can reach a far greater area for good jobs. Just a simple argument: When was the last time you asked if that road in front of your house is turning a profit?
Because lord forbid they go with the time tested cut and cover. It's much cheaper then using deep boring machines, and you also get to replace all the pipes under the streets you build the new Subway
Fun fact: Bart uses the Indian broad gauge, not the standard gauge. Good for capacity, but not so good for inter connectivity with other systems. It also needs customized equipment.
The biggest problem with BART is that the Bay Area has so many public transportation providers that overlap each other, and they compete hard for the funding. Why do we have Caltrain when BART would serve the same area? Why did BART decide on diesel trains for the eBART, which contradicted with the "clean air initiative" and was subjected to the volatile fuel price? And so forth. If San Francisco could follow the Nuremberg model, which has one of the largest coverage in Germany by combining all of the providers under one umbrella and reducing the overlapping and competition for fund.
Bart’s main trouble for these long extensions is that while convenient and usually cheaper compared to driving, they become way too long to travel-e.g., from East Bay to Fremont, let alone San Jose, takes easily 1.5 hrs one way in train time alone (not counting the inevitable delays). In those cases it’s actually slower than commuting.
people will prefer to use it only when it is connected till Downtown San Jose in the East Bay as well as having new lines to connect from Sn Francisco to San Jose through the Peninsula with stops at Palo Alto, Cupertino , Mountain View etc.
Going into DT San Jose is what public transportation is meant for and works. The Little Portugal’s station is a waste of money at this point as it is not dense in that area. Maybe put provisions for future building.
Provide a BART MONTHLY PASS. Most developed countried offer this for their metros. That will incentivize ridership and make it more affordable. This at the same time as providing BART with a more steady revenue stream
Build it!!! I have been waiting since 1972. Extend it to Gilroy and Watsonville as well for Santa Cruz and Monterey drivers. 45,000 cars per day go over 17.
What's sad was, people were excited for BART to come to the Flea Market, which was bustling, years ago. But from the looks of it, the Flea Market is disappearing to the building of new housing? Why? The Flea Market is a staple for the Bay Area. Everyone visited it. Sadly, they cut the size of it down dramatically. It's slowly disappearing. Wasn't that the reason for BART to build a station right at the Flea Market?
Kpix , I wish you were still using that vr/3d set for weather and more. It separated you more from other stations, very futuristic and it was just darn cool.
Scenario has changed now this companies requiring office work some of them hybrid which requires them to take a train just like a normal office commuter. Therefore the solution is to build it completely.
VTA has a long history of making empty promises about building new transportation infrastructure and then not delivering them on time nor on schedule or even on budget. Just look at how long they have been promising for the VTA light rail line to each the east side of San Jose. They are 40 years behind the curve of getting light rail to the east side of SJ, but they said it would be there back in the 80’s or 90’s….. yeah 😅
I cannot believe that the Bart extension is 10 years delayed. I was hoping it was going 2026 but however, the VTA is so slow I’m taking forever they need to hurry up
Many BART stations are surrounded by parking lots, highways, and single family homes. This includes Milpitas and San José, so of course they have low ridership!
How many people are riding Cal Train now? That's the reason San Mateo and Santa Clara counties opted out of BART in the 1960s. They already had the Southern Pacific commuter trains, now Cal Train. Cal train is going to be part of the HSR system.
Nope - they opted out due to a desire to pursue "suburban development" and "highways" AKA segregation and redlining. It's long past time that we right our wrongs of the past and turn BART into the system it was supposed to be.
Honestly no one uses the san jose line. A few people get off in hayward and then its empty. The most used lines are sfo richmond and antioch. They should have built the original bart trains out to pitsburg center and antioch
Imagine building a bridge that doesn't quite reach the other shore and then saying "this bridge was such a bad idea! no one's using it!" That's how America builds transit.
On point!! I wonder who's paying for these negative reports on Bart
and then the other problem is ridership
@@AlejandroRamirez-le2vv automotive lobby, oil lobby, any moneyed interests in highway construction contractors. There's a lot of money in the automotive industrial complex and if I was them I would be pulling these things up every chance I got. Bribery is legal in the US, it's just called lobbying and "news." Not to say there isn't real news but this 'report' here is basically just an opinion piece by another name.
@@mohammedsarker5756 You missed the point. His analogy was spot on. Imagine you have a bridge. The bridge in this case is Bart extension to Santa clara via SJ. This bridge that was built has only made it half way across the river. Now people are complaining that this bridge that is half complete has no ridership. There riders are not there. Thats like complaining about Bart for lacking the ridership when its not complete. It hasnt even reached San Jose or Santa Clara yet.
Ridership comes when density increases. A lot of people travel into San Jose for work. Bart would help with that.
That’s exactly what’s happening here once you connect to San Jose, you open up a connection between 2 of the largest population centers In California.
It needs to get built. It's shortsighted to base ridership projections on the last 3 years because of Covid and the subsequent work from home scenario. However, that's changing now and more employers are requiring employees to come back in the office. Ridership will continue to increase going forward.
The more comprehensive a system, the more people will use it. A very clear example of that was the Regional Connector that opened on LA Metro in 2023. After it opened, ridership increased noticeably because it made the system faster and more convenient.
BART to San Jose will be a game changer! We need to build it now! People will definately come and use! Just give it time!
like how useful? the only use I need bart for is to go to SFO but I don't want to all around the entire bay to go to SFO. They need to complete the entire loop.
I don't live in the Bay area and I look forward to riding it. Using my car which I love is the WORST in the Bay. Too many cars. Parking is expensive and finding it is a waste of time. GO BART!!!
@@teutguy1 Wait till you see the cost...driving is cheaper, especially if you have more than one person.
I won't
@@mrsleep0000 it's a long term investment...building the airports and freeways was hardly cheap and rife with cost over runs. But they both use oil...BART is running largely on renewables.
I take Bart from Oakland to Berryessa/North San Jose once a week, and then bike or bus to downtown SJ. All my coworkers think I'm crazy. And maybe I am. The multimodal journey is not for the faint of heart. I'm not the only one doing it, but if it was a simple train ride all the way to downtown I can guarantee you there'd be 1000% more.
Yah .. Its werido but Cars have seats with good support
Buket seats are fine till you go 6 miles then some guy farts.. A girl chucks and you're delayed in perpetuity till. Yah know spit wait
It would seem to almost be common sense that ridership figures would skyrocket if the line were extended to downtown San Jose and linked up with Caltrain in Santa Clara. Currently the line ends in sprawling suburbia. Not exactly conducive to attracting high ridership figures.
It is if remote work stops... where do you think all the people that work in the city live?
@@mrsleep0000 Most companies are now requiring 3x in the office in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.
Also link BART with ACE to Stockton.
Keep building it.
Keep going. We need to design cities for people, not cars.
The roads are for all users including cars... Pandering to Anti Car Groups is reason why safety issues are up the rise
Never going to happen when a vast majority of Americans rely on cars instead of mass transit. Not going to happen no way, no how, but good luck with that idea though
Ah, but WHAT is a city? That is the biggest problem. Serve the city and damn the suburbs, and you lose the riders from there.
@@valeman3 The reason safety issues are on the rise are because of cars. Cars don't grant freedom, they are a means of transportation, and a liability for anyone who cannot afford one. BTW no one is against cars, almost all the urbanists and traffic planners and whatnot are against car dependency.
@@starventure Suburbs also can be walkable. What allowed every major city to expand and sprawl is suburbanization. For example, Los Angeles built its first suburbs on streetcar lines (now they are buses); sure there are single family homes but there are also duplexes and triplexes.
Outside of the core system in SF/Oakland/Berkeley, the environment around the stations are oriented towards automobiles and not people, without much destinations developed around them.
You may have to learn to drive like the rest of us
Exactly. And even then, lots of the station adjacent areas are still badly underutilized. There are plans for massive redevelopments of Bart owned land on all of the lines east of the bay, and a lot of them look great, but they are equally including in most cases far more parking than they should, which I think is going to still limit its potential. Although increased land development revenue will certainly be a godsend for the agency regardless. It’s kinda too late for the blue line, though, without an extension to Livermore it just terminates in the 580 median and the user experience there sucks ass, not to mention the severely limited development potential in the catchment area.
I would also really love it if we unified all of the Bay Area transit authorities. We did that with SolTrans several years ago and it’s been a big improvement, so I think if, say, Bart, VTA, Muni, Caltrain, and all the buses were all unified under one banner, call it Bay Area Transit Authority or something, then interlinking would improve and the whole system would be more resilient to budgetary problems the way SolTrans has found it to be.
@@teuastPerhaps also include GGT, SMART, and the SF Bay Ferry System (WETA) in the unification with one easy fare transfer system. One umbrella management system would be politically interesting.
@@davidjackson7281 Definitely! I forgot about those ones, but yeah, they’re all important parts of the system and should all factor into a unified Bay Area transit network.
@@ToddDunning you may have to learn to dream a little bit bigger, darling
This will be important because timed transfers makes public transport much more convenient. The few times that two NYC subway trains actually meet their schedule and I transfer saves a lot of time. You want a good public transport system it needs to be fast, convenient, and actually connect where people want to go. Parking lots are terrible for transit, but a park and ride garage in a mixed use development can do a lot.
This is a no brainer... Berryessa is a sprawly suburb not optimized for any sort of transit, so it's obvious why no one is riding to/from there. Once it connects with the dense housing, jobs, and schools in Downtown San Jose--and what's set to become the Grand Central station of the west (Diridon)--the ridership will come. On top of that, when (hopefully not if) CAHSR is finally connected to the Bay Area, this extension will serve as the entry point to the BART system into the East Bay from every point south of Diridon.
well said!
I used to use the Berryessa station to go north when I lived in Sunnyvale. Would take my bicycle
That too much long-term planning for some Americans. Only short term profit please.
Public transit still works in suburban areas. Finland is a good example to look it who made it work!❤
Fremont is under utilized because it isn't far enough south.
- Extend Dublin to Tracy
- Extend Antioch to Brentwood
- Finish the damn train from SF to LA
It will all improve the economy, traffic, & livelihoods of everyone.
What needs to happen is the Counties and BART need to figure out the true costs themselves and find competing contractors. Too much bloat come from corrupt contractors.
The Bay Area has the best public transport in the US. We can still do better!
No
exactly
Disagree. Nothing beats the Metro system in D.C.
I know you just didn't say bart is better than new york transit
the bay area does not have the best public trans in the U.S, that award goes to NYC lol
BUILD IT!!!!
We should be expanding BART 10x more than this, at a much faster pace too. The Bay Area has the economy and political climate to be a leader in the transition away from fossil fuels and car-dependency, but corruption and complacency get in the way of it.
BART was born from ambition, a first-in-the-nation system funded almost entirely by local tax dollars. We need to bring that spirit back and invest similarly large amounts of money into turning BART into a true regional transportation system, serving *all* of the Bay Area with fast and affordable transportation which beats driving in nearly all situations. Couple that with urban metro systems in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and Oakland - plus Amsterdam-style protected bike lanes and sidewalks on all our roads - and needing to drive to get around the Bay Area will be a thing of the past.
VTA should consider replacing it's low ridership light rail system with grade separated BART trains. That's the true system hemorrhaging money in San Jose.
@@PASH3227 hell yes!
The riders aren’t going to come as long as the system is unsafe. But also, imagine if they decided to stop building the interstate system way back when because not enough people were using it because there just wasn’t great enough car ownership. America just doesn’t know how to build anything anymore unless there isn’t an immediate return that aligns with expectations. That’s why we can’t get that high speed train built in a reasonable amount of time compared to what other countries can accomplish because they plan and then fund and then plow forward and get it done instead of argue about it.
What are law enforcement doing then?? Getting fat by eating donuts and doing nothing else?
I lived in San Francisco from 1991-1993. I would’ve loved to have been able to BART from The Embarcadero Sta. to Milpitas and take the bus to work in San Jose. I was so tired of driving to work, I moved to SJ. BTW - my SJ 1 brm apartment downtown was $564. utilities and parking included. 🙀
That's $1205 in 2024 dollars. Enough for a downtown one bedroom apartment today....in Des Moines Iowa.
We need this project. Finish it!
Yet, rarely have planners ummed and ahhed over need & demand when deciding about building a four lane highway🙄. Besides, maybe the extension could have been constructed faster & cheaper if the NIMBYs hadn't demanded on twin-bored tunnels as opposed to an elevated viaduct or possibly a cut-and-cover tunnels just below street level
> Proposes building an airport
> "but planes never land here !"
Trains into downtown are the best. Delays are usually caused by objections which causes it to cost more.
Keep building. Get safety issues and dirt in downtown stations fixed. Redevelop station surroundings, build condos in walking distance. Wait till gas prices skyrocket and/or the last dumb*ss understands that it is not a wise idea to burn fossil fuels, while battery powered cars might not be a full replacement. Then riders will come. This extension is a long-term investment. Do it. And be proud of BART!
Santa Clara County made a mistake for refusing to join BART in 1972. A bunch of wealthy car loving a-holes. So now we have to pay for their poor foresight. The pandemic was an opportunity to acquire land and properties needed at lower prices, and save money. But they fumbled that, and instead every contractor is gouging the state and cities to make as much money as possible.
Who is the "we" you speak of? SC county and so by extension it's residents are the ones covering the tab - not the riders or residents of Alameda, CC, and SF Counties...
@@triaxe-mmb No, you're mistaken or just misinformed. SC residents funding are expected to cover only a fraction (4.3 billion) for this project (12.2 billion). That's less than half of the projected cost. "We" all pay for the rest with higher fares and taxes for cities, state, and federal funding.
@@pimaxuma actually - no one in AC, CCC, or SF are paying for the extension. It is funded with 3 taxes passed by the residents of SC county and yes the rest of the funds are coming from the Federal govt (expected to be about half or potentially a little less) and the rest is from the State I believe. At least that is what's projected in the last update on project funding.
Now, the original post stated that "we" by which I assume you meant the riders of BART or the current tax supporters of BART in the 3 Counties that have sales, property and other taxes specifically to fund BART, it's past expansions, the purchase of new train sets, and such are going to foot the bill...this is not the case. 🤷🏾♂️
Sure my federal and state taxes probably go indirectly to fund the extension but it does that for projects all over the Country and the State respectively - As a resident in Alameda County, I am not paying any direct tax to specifically fund the expansion into SJ - that direct tax has so far been born by the residents of Santa Clara County...
Now how am I wrong again?
@@pimaxuma also, how was the pandemic which had a drop in Real Estate prices for like 3-6 months and then a rapid uptick in prices supposed to be the ideal time to save money? The cost of literally everything went up shortly after the pandemic hit due to supply chain issues, the Suez Canal closure, the Ukraine war, and and and...we had a very brief window in things the prices were either down or flat - highly unlikely that large transactions for land, materials, contracts for engineering and construction could all be times to fit a small window of opportunity that was unexpected in the timeline...
Have you every worked on a large infrastructure or real estate development project? Trying to steer it is like trying to direct a super tanker...takes a long time to change direction, stop, or get going...short term fluctuations can rarely if ever be taken advantage of since the time it would take to change strategies and planning is longer than the window of opportunity that opens up...
Now if we hit a massive 2008 style economic collapse and everything craters and stays low for 3-4yrs, then we could have an "advantageous" opportunity assuming all the levels of govt needed to fund it can keep their shit together and not cancel such a large project to save short term costs...
We also need more TOD around BART stations in Fremont and Santa Clara County.
Agreed. At least replace the surface lots with one large multi-story parking structure.
If there was a single station in San Francisco (no cheating either by having it one of the often used Market Street stations) BART wouldn't get many riders in SF either. A single station in San Jose will only take people out of the city who live near by otherwise it's a coinflip to whether they take Caltrain to SF (if that's where they're going) or BART, most likely in Santa Clara they'll stick with VTA, but a number of stations in the city and properly placed areas and BART becomes useful as an in-city transit as well. Now I have no idea if the San Jose stations are going to be in useful areas, i.e. near LOTS of places with jobs and so forth, but that lady was right with here statement "Today is the cheapest it will ever be". So VTA/San Jose needs to make those hard decisions
I disagree I just think it’s becoming to expensive if your go to pay a premium than u mite aswell just drive …public transportation is suppose to be cheaper than driving that’s the only selling point.
I think it's vital to connecting San Jose to the East Bay. Oakland is building a good amount of housing and offices along their BART stations. Many from Oakland will likely commute to job rich San Jose.
@@kalb.3002 How are you going to measure "cheaper" though if you only measure cost of gas vs public transit then it has never been "cheaper" than driving, if you have to cross bridges and pay tolls then it starts getting comparable in price these days, if you compare public transit to a completely car-less lifestyle then it absolutely is cheaper, but if you have a car anyways... then yeah it gets complicated.
That said other selling points are faster or less stressful (more convenient), some might spend a little more for not sitting in traffic for hours every day. Everyone is different though, so each has to make a choice for themselves.
@@PASH3227 I agree, but the key is where are those San Jose stations going to be, I don't know much about San Jose or where the stations are planning but they need to be somewhat near those jobs to get riders. I know if BART didn't have any stops on Market street it wouldn't be anywhere near as useful in San Francisco
These news stations never gripe about the cost of car infrastructure
How much ridership funds a freeway? Unless you're on a tollway you're only indirectly paying for it.
How do other countries do it? For Japan, doesn't the transit companies own land around the stations and collect rent (sometimes at a premium?) I do recall Brightline is also employing this strategy too. To completely rely on fares for funding is completely absurd
Oh man, we really needed to know how many days were in 47 years! Thank you for letting us know!
Look at the price of automobiles today. They are getting more and more expensive, not only to purchase, but to own and operate. Wont be long until they are unattainable to most people like owning a home is today. The problem is a lot of people look at the world today, instead of the world of 2036 when this is suppose to be completed and beyond. The interstate highway system was not cheap, but we are all using the crap out of it now. Look at the difference between the 1920s and the 1990s, why is it so hard to understand that the 2090s will not be what we have today?
Bay area is built on stupid freeways which are clogged day in day out coz of office hour traffic. Literally all of them would prefer a timely rail based public transit system. But coz of idiots like this reporter who wont present the full picture, transit system is in such a mess in most parts of the country. People will take transit when it is end to end and can compete with cars, right now you cant take bart to silicon valley coz after bart you have to take seriouslly slow and infrequent buses which make your commute completely impractical. Bart needs to be built right across santa clara valley and not just uptil one station in santa clara. It should connect most of the corporate offices, THEN you will see ridership.
I grew up in Sunnyvale in the 70s and early 80s. I never understood why BART wasn’t a complete loop around the bay. I’ve lived in LA now for 40 years. Our subway has beautiful stations and is terrifyingly dangerous and under used and doesn’t serve the 4 million + people in the valley. CA needs to get their act together.
A better and more complete BART will grow exponentially in ridership.
Imagine I-880 Freeway only extending south to Berryesssa. It would have lower ridership too.
Basing relevance on ridership "expectations" is unforgivably stipid. I hope they judt build it. People will come and this IS the only way to decarbonzie and de-car. I would expect better from California.
Extend BART to Livermore, there would be plenty of riders.
valley link rail is a light rail project that will connect Tracy to the dublin bart station. i think they’re planning it currently
so we will have a rail connection in Livermore to the bart station eventually
Keep going and move forward.😮
Public transportation is very important for moving people around within cities, however the Bart fare is still quite expensive for average people so BART should run more efficiently. Lower fair will booth more ridership in long run.
Bart is so expensive since BaRT is required to cover the majority of their operations with fare revenue...this is codified in the laws that founded BART and funds them...
This is also why even small changes in ridership has outside impacts on BART...and this is no small reduction...they were too commuter focused and now there are just a whole lot less commuters...
The TV channel got lost in their production values and forgot to compare having a comfy ride on a new BART car versus driving as a single occupant in a car from Santa Clara to the Embarcadero BART station in SF ...during RUSH HOUR. (Where did they find those tiny people? They're so cute. I can imagine my cat chasing them. That would be fun to watch.)
The budget nearly doubles. No consequences. The timescale jumps by a decade. No consequences. What a colossal money pit.
and yet you spend $20 billion on caltrans every year and you dont say anything
Nobody wants it, nobody uses it. I think the correct question to ask is who will profit?
Whereas, the antioch station lot is always at capacity. Brentwood extension would be cheaper, and better serve "disadvantaged communities" in the exurbs. San jose already has light rail... they need a long range east-west link anyway, it could pass by berryessa and provide transfer similar to that at millbrae with fare gates in the middle of the platform. Berryessa is close enough to downtown to where this could make sense
We definately need a BART extension to Brentwood!
Agreed with the VTA manager, not building it ain't gonna make it cheaper
Both BART needs to be built to Santa Clara **and** VTA's light rail needs to be tweaked for both better service and actual Transit-Oriented Development. That's all.
Basing the ridership now to decide the future usefulness is really shooting itself in the foot. BART really is a regional train and not a Metro anymore, and should be in SJ/SC.
They should definitely finish the project, San Jose and San Francisco/ Oakland wil literally link over 10 million people.
Just get the station within walking distance to Levis Stadium. Problem solved. I would pay $25 round trip for events. Your going to pay that anyways to park and enjoy a traffic jam
Yep this. Light rail to Levi’s is usually packed on event days, and the traffic disruption in surrounding areas is pretty severe. Another form of mass transit to the stadium can only help.
Transit Oriented Developments should be replacing every single surface parking lot around every BART station in the region. What should each TOD include? AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR ALL! As well as shops, offices, entertainment venues all connected to transit. Vancouver is the prime example of how to densify your city and improve transit ridership.. More people on transit also makes sure the trouble-makers generally either behave or be brought to justice...
Blame it on car dependency
I live in NJ and have worked in various governmental entities and authorities over the years. It seems that these plans are always overly optimistic. I think it really comes down to "everybody is making money" on the project at super inflated prices.
That's very true. That's the constant problem with building public transit in America today, and California especially. There's a lot of money here, and a lot of NIMBYs in general as well as insufficient methods of getting projects funded and started. CA has billions in its state budget deficit every year that don't get used, yet projects like this or with LA Metro's construction it heavily relies on grants and countywide half-cent tax initiatives voted on by residents. Whenever anything related to public transit is involved in a ballot, it's _always_ voted in favor and yet all of these guardrails are firmly set in place, seemingly impossible to change.
Typical news reporter in the US shooting down transit. I agree that what exist now can be a disappointment but don't let that hold you back.
Such bad coverage not talking about adjacent land-use or transit-oriented development around the line which would increase ridership.
Is there enough roadway ridership to fund freeways? Do freeways make any money? No. Yet no one bitches about building roads everywhere.
I always want BART SV to Santa Clara, CA and I always love BART SV to Santa Clara, CA.😮
We don’t need to worry about ridership. With the prices of cars, gas, and insurance going up. People will have no other choice but to ride Bart. Only then will you see Bart turning around with more funds coming in and the increase of people is the only way to reduce crime. Keep building!
Build housing, commercial and offices around the stations and you'll see the ridership exceeding the expectations. Promote green mobility options and make car-free pedestrian zones. You'll see new districts flourish, happy people and customers and new job opportunities around the BART Network. Problem solved
Can BART please extend to West Contra Costa County?
Public transport doesn't need to fund itself through fares, we don't expect a public library to turn a profit or do we? We build public transport for a common good, it allows people from all walks of life that either can't drive or don't want to to get around town easily and it allows people that can't afford a car more economic opportunities to get themselves out of poverty because they can reach a far greater area for good jobs. Just a simple argument: When was the last time you asked if that road in front of your house is turning a profit?
Because lord forbid they go with the time tested cut and cover. It's much cheaper then using deep boring machines, and you also get to replace all the pipes under the streets you build the new Subway
Fun fact: Bart uses the Indian broad gauge, not the standard gauge. Good for capacity, but not so good for inter connectivity with other systems. It also needs customized equipment.
The biggest problem with BART is that the Bay Area has so many public transportation providers that overlap each other, and they compete hard for the funding. Why do we have Caltrain when BART would serve the same area? Why did BART decide on diesel trains for the eBART, which contradicted with the "clean air initiative" and was subjected to the volatile fuel price? And so forth. If San Francisco could follow the Nuremberg model, which has one of the largest coverage in Germany by combining all of the providers under one umbrella and reducing the overlapping and competition for fund.
0:33 can i have it after their done?
Bart’s main trouble for these long extensions is that while convenient and usually cheaper compared to driving, they become way too long to travel-e.g., from East Bay to Fremont, let alone San Jose, takes easily 1.5 hrs one way in train time alone (not counting the inevitable delays). In those cases it’s actually slower than commuting.
people will prefer to use it only when it is connected till Downtown San Jose in the East Bay as well as having new lines to connect from Sn Francisco to San Jose through the Peninsula with stops at Palo Alto, Cupertino , Mountain View etc.
Going into DT San Jose is what public transportation is meant for and works. The Little Portugal’s station is a waste of money at this point as it is not dense in that area. Maybe put provisions for future building.
Safety, Safety of the riders is paramount.
How many homeless people are riding on BART? That's a big reason for the decline in ridership.
Keep building it, the U.S. needs world class public transportation. Driving as the only option sucks!
Caltrain Service on the Eastside of the Bay between Oakland and San Jose may have been a better project.
Provide a BART MONTHLY PASS.
Most developed countried offer this for their metros.
That will incentivize ridership and make it more affordable. This at the same time as providing BART with a more steady revenue stream
Build it!!! I have been waiting since 1972. Extend it to Gilroy and Watsonville as well for Santa Cruz and Monterey drivers. 45,000 cars per day go over 17.
What's sad was, people were excited for BART to come to the Flea Market, which was bustling, years ago. But from the looks of it, the Flea Market is disappearing to the building of new housing?
Why? The Flea Market is a staple for the Bay Area. Everyone visited it. Sadly, they cut the size of it down dramatically. It's slowly disappearing. Wasn't that the reason for BART to build a station right at the Flea Market?
They should connect Sacramento the Bay Area
See Rapid Transit in Europe is to understand why they must complete it to link with Caltrain, ACE, Amtrak, California HSR and more buses.
Kpix , I wish you were still using that vr/3d set for weather and more. It separated you more from other stations, very futuristic and it was just darn cool.
We still do! Here's Monday's weather forecast...
ruclips.net/video/Qs1xQaO9i-U/видео.html
@@cbssf🥳
Scenario has changed now this companies requiring office work some of them hybrid which requires them to take a train just like a normal office commuter. Therefore the solution is to build it completely.
Yes and yeah of course BART SV to Santa Clara, CA.😮
As long as it doesn't bring crime over here... I live in Sunnyvale and it's fairly peaceful.
i hope they keep expanding
VTA has a long history of making empty promises about building new transportation infrastructure and then not delivering them on time nor on schedule or even on budget. Just look at how long they have been promising for the VTA light rail line to each the east side of San Jose. They are 40 years behind the curve of getting light rail to the east side of SJ, but they said it would be there back in the 80’s or 90’s….. yeah 😅
They need more TOD around the stations. Too many American train stations are surrounded by carparks and nothing else.
build it and they will not come.
It is incomplete until SJC and SFO are connected.
I cannot believe that the Bart extension is 10 years delayed. I was hoping it was going 2026 but however, the VTA is so slow I’m taking forever they need to hurry up
5:54 he used to, but he doesn't anymore
Many BART stations are surrounded by parking lots, highways, and single family homes. This includes Milpitas and San José, so of course they have low ridership!
They built the VTA Lite Rail extension to the west and its an expensive disappointment
Why not improve CalTrain and have high-speed trains? If not, have some express trains running from SFO to stop at some of the major cities.
See thats the thing... They are doing everything they are doing in the bay area for the tech workers. It's wild
Too expensive to ride
More expensive than fuel?
It is taking the wrong (longer) path, it is expensive, and it takes forever. Why would anyone take it?
public transportation is infrastructure, it shouldn't need to be profitable. It's a public good
BART has a million problems that make ridership so low. Its existence is not one of them. Build it. Make BART beter.
We'll see changes in behavior patterns soon as the total effort is complete. I'm rather sure.
More riders will join the network once the extension is done.
How many people are riding Cal Train now? That's the reason San Mateo and Santa Clara counties opted out of BART in the 1960s. They already had the Southern Pacific commuter trains, now Cal Train. Cal train is going to be part of the HSR system.
Nope - they opted out due to a desire to pursue "suburban development" and "highways" AKA segregation and redlining. It's long past time that we right our wrongs of the past and turn BART into the system it was supposed to be.
The Blue Line should also go further east!!!
BART need to connect SFO airport to SJC airport, and another line crossing across the bay to alleviate traffic on San Mateo bridge
WASTE OF MONEY BUILD IT ON GEARY INSTEAD
Sounds like a great idea but most people also want express service.
Cause and effect. Low ridership because it doesn't serve enough areas. If you build it, they will come
Honestly no one uses the san jose line. A few people get off in hayward and then its empty. The most used lines are sfo richmond and antioch. They should have built the original bart trains out to pitsburg center and antioch
We do need this extension, but did they really had to choose the most expensive tunneling option? C'mon
For me, safety from crimes is the key factor whether I will take BART.