SAN JOSE, Calif. — Bay Area Rapid Transit will miss the Dec. 31 target date for beginning operations on its Berryessa Extension into San Jose.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which is building and will own the extension to be operated by BART, made the announcement in a Friday blog post. That post said the VTA “has made the difficult decision to defer most of BART’s pre-revenue operations” on the 10-mile extension, which will “necessarily result in the start of passenger service after Dec. 31, 2019.” The post made no mention of a possible new start date.
The message said VTA and BART had simultaneously been attempting system acceptance testing and the pre-revenue operations, which include training and simulated operations. “It has become increasingly evident,” the post said, that this “would not result in the earliest passenger service.” The two agencies are now working on a revised testing and training plan.
The Silicon Valley Business Journal reports that VTA spokeswoman Bernice Alaniz said BART sometimes needs to run its test trains up to 20 hours a day, leaving the VTA with only a four-hour window to conduct its own testing. The Business Journal quotes a Monday statement from the VTA in which the agency would not offer an estimate when it would complete its testing beyond “we still see that on the near horizon.”
The San Jose Mercury News had reported in October that a delay in opening the extension was likely because of more than 1,000 problems engineers had discovered since the tracks were turned over to BART to begin testing. Further extension into downtown San Jose, originally planned for 2026, is now likely to be in 2029 or 2030.
Construction on the extension began in 2012, with an original projection that service would begin in 2016.
What a freaking joke. I moved here almost three years ago exactly, and the tracks have been in place and the opening has been imminent shortly after I hit town.
Gross incompetence by the VTA.
Odd, this news was already known here in Silicon Valley months ago, why is it just now being confirmed…and Paul’s comment below is inaccurate, you can lay the blame on this squarely at BART’s feet. 20 hours a day for testing and training…um, what the hell do they need to do that much training for, the system practically runs itself..