To put it bluntly, we
’re tired of the BART-at-any-cost attitude that prevails among
many of those in the transportation advocacy power structure.
To put it bluntly, we’re tired of the BART-at-any-cost attitude that prevails among many of those in the transportation advocacy power structure.
While cost estimates for extending BART to San Jose have spiraled out of control, multiple funding sources are evaporating.
While the cost to build the 16-mile BART extension is now estimated at more than $4 billion (yes, that’s with a ‘b’), the federal government’s transportation wonks are recommending against funding the project.
While the operating costs for the line are expected to be in the neighborhood of $70 million dollars each year, the new BART to SFO line is struggling to find riders.
While the sales tax revenue from the half-cent sales tax fails to meet the rosy expectations of the dot-com boom era, the state has cut $76 million in funding that BART backers had been counting on.
While the Valley Transit Authority’s own staff has projected that the BART to San Jose extension will be broke by 2009, and will plunge the transit agency into a $1.9-billion hole by 2013, the agency has yet to deliver many of the projects promised to taxpayers by Measure A.
Consider all of this against the backdrop that the VTA is facing a financial crisis, has made drastic service cuts, and things look to get much worse before they get any better.
We can’t fathom how anyone could continue to advocate bringing BART to San Jose. Those who do, including many on the San Jose City Council and members of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, for example, need to take off their rose-colored glasses and get a new prescription to cure their public transportation myopia.
Instead of spending time lobbying Washington for funds for BART, our transportation leaders would better serve the region’s need by lobbying for intervention with Union Pacific, which has not cooperated with efforts to increase Caltrain service to the abjectly under-served South Valley. Instead of pushing for the revenue-sucking project, transportation officials would make better use of their time finding ways to make VTA more efficient.
If the push for BART at any cost continues, we wouldn’t be surprised to find some taxpayer advocacy group filing suit to repeal Measure A – and think about the world of hurt we’d be in if that hypothetical litigation were successful.
It’s time to get realistic. We can’t afford to extend BART to San Jose.
