Santa Clara Councilman Suggests Building BART Extension in Increments. Santa Clara city councilman John McLemore has suggested that the planned BART extension to the South Bay end in East San Jose instead of Santa Clara, at least for the time being, but ... [San Jose, CA - Topix.net]
A day after it was reported that BART to San Jose won't do what it was sold to do, Santa Clara's VTA representative suggested that they could build BART as far south as the proposed Berryessa station, then wait for more funding to continue to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara.
This move would save money, because the tunnel beneath downtown is the biggest cost. It would also allow San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales to claim that he brought BART to San Jose (just not downtown). Plus, it would provide developers with smart growth opportunities at the flea market site, which is probably the main reason for choosing the east San Jose alignment. Politically the move makes sense.
From a transit standpoint, however, it still stinks. Under this proposal BART would enter San Jose and stop well short of destinations like airport or the San Jose Arena. It would still avoid the concentration of jobs in north San Jose. In short, it would reduce projected ridership even further.
If VTA wanted to make the route shorter, less expensive, and increase potential ridership, they would drop the east San Jose alignment, bring BART down 880 to Montague Expressway and then head to the airport. From there, it could go downtown. Of course, this route doesn't help the developers who contributed heavily to the Mayor. So don't expect it on the table anytime soon.
10:31:44 PM 
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