SAN JOSE, Calif. — The new general manager of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority says the agency won’t be restarting light rail this month, as it had previously hoped.
Carolyn Gonot, who became the VTA general manager this week, told the San Jose Mercury News the agency is now hoping to resume service in mid-August. Gonot told the VTA board on Tuesday that full recovery from the mass shooting that shut down the system could take years. Plans are for extensive renovation or complete rebuilding of two buildings at the Guadalupe Light Rail Yard, which will require operating the light rail system out of an “intermediate” facility for three to five years. A temporary facility is under construction until that new location is ready.
Gonot also told the newspaper that the agency has not offered bus service in place of the light rail network, as it did briefly after the May shooting first shut down the system, because that requires about 60 bus drivers. She also said service would differ from its previous form, reflecting the post-pandemic need to better serve transit-dependent essential workers. “I know part of that will be looking at more frequent service, more mid-day service, more late-night service,” she said.
Gonot returns to VTA, where she worked for more than 20 years, after leaving in 2019 to head the Utah Transit Authority.
