The many decades long vision of a ring of rail around San Francisco Bay may be fulfilled in the foreseeable future. Â The project to bring BART to Silicon Valley is moving forward, with environmental review beginning now, and funding for the project being sought in a 2016 transportation ballot measure.
The project was originally funded in a ballot measure in 2000. Many things have changed in the last 15 years, and since VTA (which is managing the project) did earlier phases of environmental review. Â The environmental review process needs to study project options that are relevant in today’s world, and analyze the benefits and impacts based on current conditions and expected trends.
VTA-BART is soliciting comments and questions with a deadline of March 2.  This page has instructions on where to send comments. They are holding three meetings on February 12, 17, and 19 where you can provide questions for VTA to study.
In order for VTA (and voters) to make good decisions about the project, there are key questions to ask about how this project would be most valuable in today’s world.  Read on, and add your own questions .
San Jose General Plan – Urban Villages
Since the plan was first conceived, San Jose conducted a major update of its General Plan, Envision 2040 that was adopted in 2011. The General Plan included ambitious goals to evolve the sprawling city, focusing jobs and housing growth in “Urban Villagesâ€, and greatly reducing the share of driving.
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San Jose has recently completed a plan for the Diridon Station Area, which depends on service by BART and Caltrain to achieve its transportation goals.
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The Alum Rock area was the focus of the city’s first Urban Village plans, created in a process that was strongly supported by local residents.
Caltrain ridership increase and electrification. Â
Since the BART-Silicon Valley was funded in 2000, Caltrain ridership has well over doubled. The introduction of the Baby Bullet in 2004, which made the train faster than driving, helped drive a rapid and continuing increase in ridership.
Caltrain electrification has been funded, with contributions from local and regional stakeholders, and the project is scheduled to be complete in 2020/2021, Â before BART will reach San Jose.
Caltrain electrification is expected to result in even faster, more frequent service, including service to the currently lightly-served Santa Clara station, and Caltrain will be better able to support close schedule connections with BART service at Diridon.
California High Speed Rail. Â
Since the BART Silicon VAlley plan was conceived and last studied, the California High Speed Rail project has been funded; the first segment has broken ground; and a plan for a “blended system†with Caltrain has been adopted to serve San Jose to San Francisco.
With High Speed Rail added into the mix, the Diridon Station will be even more of a major regional transit hub. Â Connections to San Jose International Airport, which were considered from the Santa Clara station years ago, may be better suited for Diridon.
Platform compatibility between High Speed Rail and Caltrain, may create opportunities for designs for the Diridon Station that provide better transit connections, and have more economic development value for the city
Transbay and the Downtown Extension
The Transbay Terminal is under construction in San Francisco, and is planned to serve Caltrain and High Speed Rail. The Downtown Extension project to connect Caltrain from it’s current stopping point at 4th and King to the Transbay terminal is not yet fully funded, but a funding plan includes contributions from High Speed Rail and major new buildings that are currently being build around the station.   When complete, the Downtown Extension will provide a one-seat ride between San Francisco’s financial district and downtown San Jose.
Given all of these changes, here are some questions that are relevant for the Environmental Impact Report:
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Assume it is possible to create a 5-minute transfer from BART to Caltrain at Diridon. Â Â Â What will be the difference in ridership, if those riders are provided a one seat ride to Santa Clara, rather than if they need to make a 5 minute transfer at Diridon.
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What would the impact be on Santa Clara station ridership, if Caltrain can provide four trains per hour at peak?
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How many more jobs are accessible to low-income residents in the Alum Rock area, within a 45 minute transit commute, if a station is added at Alum Rock.
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The cumulative section of the EIR should include the Downtown Extension to Transbay.  For a passenger starting at Diridon station, how long will it take for them to get to Montgomery BART station at a peak travel time if they head “left†via Caltrain, or “right†via BART
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Study alternative locations for train storage and maintenance and train reversal for the BART Silicon Valley extension if the Santa Clara extension is not built in this phase
- If the Santa Clara extension will not be built in this phase, study alternative locations for an additional station that do not duplicate existing backbone rail service.
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With platform compatibility between Caltrain and High Speed Rail, it may be possible to create a more compact, cost-effective station that leaves more land for economic development. Â Is it possible to add additional transit facilities or buildings above the BART terminus?
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The City of San Jose has initiated a study evaluating alternatives to provide an SJC connection from Diridon Station. In a cumulative scenario including high speed rail, compare the ridership between SJC and Diridon, and ridership between SJC and Santa Clara.
What other questions do you have for BART-VTA to explore about the project in today’s world?
Has any consideration been given for a station design that integrates multiple transit providers–ie, AMTRAK, Caltrain, BART, and if it were to be designed/funded better, High Speed Rail? Especially one that uses passenger-level platforms where riders don’t have to use any (or a very limited number of) stairs? Or a station whose design will allow for additions in the near future? Have case histories from other multiple-provider stations been considered?
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After electrification, most of Caltrain station should be served minimum 15~20 min headway 7 days a week. “Most of” means this exclude very low ridership (and low potential) station like College park, Atherton. In addition, we will expect express train every 15~30 min 7-days a week. Electrified Caltrain’s advantage over BART is running express train.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel – that’s the most important thing. Lucky for us we are decades behind in this regard and we can look overseas for multiple examples of transit system integration “dos” and “don’ts”. It seems like BART needs to get as close to SJC as possible – a people mover connection from Santa Clara BART is better than a Diridon transfer from BART then another people mover transfer. Let’s think big and re-route BART so that it goes from Diridon right into SJC Terminal A! That’s what the rest of the world would do. A people mover could then be built to link with Caltrain at Santa Clara.
Not sure I understand why the current VTA SJC/Caltrain line 10 connects with Caltrain at Santa Clara station in stead of at SJ where there are way more trains, and ride is actually faster on 87 than the circuitious path taken today.
Instead of ending BART at Santa Clara where we already have Caltrain service, let’s end it at Santana Row.
This VTA neglected area with no planned light rail or BRT lines is always congested and would do wonders to relieve congestion.
Lesson from Japan? Build a several story mall / office building on top of Diridon Station that is managed and leased by VTA and make the line profitable without having to rely on subsidies, taxes, and fares. eg: http://sociecity.org/2012/transforming-suburbia-into-eco-utopia-part-3/
Seems like Santa Clara would be redundant. Why not extend the line down Stevens Creek all the way to De Anza?
[…] Green Caltrain Looks at San Jose’s Changes in the Last 15 Years Since BART-to-Silicon Valley Study […]
Can we stop with the mythical 5-minute Caltrain-BART transfer time at Diridon? Even during peak rush hour times, Caltrain is unable to do that at Millbrae station.
And if you thought the Caltrain-BART transfer was extremely convoluted at Millbrae, that’s nothing compared to the station layout BART is planning at Diridon.
A big reason that Caltrain can’t connect to BART reasonably at Millbrae is that Caltrain is super-infrequent and the schedule is irregular. An electrified system ought to be able to have more frequent service and make better connections.
You have it exactly backwards. With an infrequent service, it is easier to coordinate its schedule with the one-and-only connecting service. (It is also much more important to do so, since passengers are already being made to wait a lot). And as I indicated, Caltrain is unable to provide 5-min transfer time even in the peak hours, when trains are running with 15-minute headways.
And to re-iterate the point: the transfer at Diridon will be even more convoluted than Millbrae, because the BART trains will be 2 levels underground.
@Daniel Brenner: Yes and that’s what SEIR scoping comments are for.
@Malcolm Kettering: The rest of the world would take HSR to SJC and reach the terminal by the time Caltrain is done circumnavigating CEMOF.
@Martin & Jonathan Parry: Agreed on Valley Fair, Santana Row & De Anza. Any thoughts on the spaceship?
@Drunk Engineer: Not necessarily because the tracks intersect at 90 degrees so nearly identical transfers between northbound/southbound BART/Caltrain are totally doable if the “BART planning” oxymoron ends at Berryessa.
Roland,
Plans posted to the VTA web page show the BART station out in the parking lot. BART/VTA think it is more important for BART passengers to have convenient access to the 8-level(!!) parking structure planned.
Roland: Thank you very, very much for mentioning how my comments tie into the SEIR process. I admit I am somewhat in the dark about San Jose (although yes I DO know enough about the fact that ACE/AMTRAK/BART/CALTRAIN/HSR could/should come together and learn from the international dot.com set that is running Santa Clara’s economy and realize they are only becoming more retarded by the day when they don’t realize there needs to be ONE station that links Everything together. NOW.) Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot. Is High Speed Rail going over Pacheco or Altamont Pass? Wait, is there money for Northern California for HSR after September of 2017? McFly???
I oppose the “Build Alternative” as presented by VTA. There is no attempt to eliminate waste and “gold plating” of the BART extension by reducing the scope to eliminate duplicate facilities. Specifically, a revised “build alternative” needs to be added to the study that eliminates the duplicative and wasteful section between the San Jose and Santa Clara Caltrain stations. The BART segment from the San Jose to Santa Clara Caltrain stations would duplicate the existing Caltrain line, to a station that has only 900 riders. This is extremely wasteful and sends the wrong message to voters who will be asked to approve yet another sales tax increase in 2016. This is extremely insulting considering recent voter approval of two BART tax increases, a vehicle registration fee, high speed rail, and statewide infrastructure bonds. Regarding the endless tax/fee increases, when is enough enough?
Construction is disruptive and damaging to the environment. Therefore it needs to be minimized when there is existing transportation capacity in the route in question. Between the Santa Clara and San Jose Caltrain stations, the following services currently operate: Caltrain, ACE, Capitol trains, VTA 22 and 522 bus routes, the latter soon to be upgraded to Bus Rapid Transit. Therefore, building another expensive transit system between those two points would waste valuable public funds and cause damage to the environment from the emissions of the construction equipment and the additional emissions of vehicles forced into inconvenient detours around the construction sites, plus the emissions from the generation of electric power for the BART trains. Why add emissions to the existing bus and rail service? Demand for transit service between San Jose and Santa Clara can be met with the existing and proposed transit services between those two points, without a costly BART extension.
BART to Santa Clara is not needed. VTA needs to eliminate waste and bloat from its existing transportation projects before returning to the voters in 2016 with yet another tax increase.
I occasionally transfer from BART to Caltrain at Millbrae. Caltrain is frequently late. Sometimes an hour or more late if there is an accident or suicide on the tracks. Until Caltrain is completely grade separated from cars and pedestrians timely transfers are going to be a crap shoot at Millbrae.
Why does BART stop short in downtown and not have a connection to the airport? Or offer some type of connection service. What’s the purpose of stopping at Santa Clara where I believe the numbers are low? Or can a connection from there to the airport unless there’s restrictions crossing over tracks,Merc.