Commuters Rejoice! BART to San Jose On Track For Late 2017
Planned for completion by the end of this year, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has been ahead of schedule in construction around BART’s new extension to Silicon Valley. The first phase, labeled “Silicon Valley BART,†will soon offer San Francisco residents more public transportation opportunities. The 10-mile, two-station extension from the recently opened Warm Springs/South Fremont station to the Berryessa neighborhood of San Jose is about three months ahead of schedule, with 94 percent of the work already complete. Though this progress is exciting, BART needs at least 30 to 40 more cars to serve the extension, which will hopefully be in line with construction timelines.
Riders of the transit system can already see how overcrowded BART rides are, and how packed the train can get during common commutes. With the addition of these new cars, passengers will experience less crowded trips and faster ride times. While there will be less new cars arriving this year than initially planned, 166 new rail cars to be exact, more are slated to arrive in 2018. Delivery of additional new cars is planned to continue through 2022 with at least 341 cars in service in 2019, 529 at the end of 2020 and 721 at the end of 2021. The remaining BART cars are planned to arrive in 2022.