Santa Clara VTA creates Ad Hoc BART Silicon Valley Phase II oversight committee

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has created an Ad Hoc BART Silicon Valley Phase II oversight committee that will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project, focusing on a full, independent and transparent review of costs, funding, risks and completion schedule. The work of the committee is intended to provide the VTA Board and the public with the scrutiny and information needed for confidence in VTA’s delivery of the BART Phase II project as it has done successfully on projects for decades. 

The committee will report back to the full VTA Board regularly to provide updates and report on any issues of concern and provide a full report and recommendations by or before the end of 2024. 

The announcement was made during a VTA Board workshop that reviewed updates on the cost, funding and schedule of the final six-mile extension of BART Silicon Valley. The estimated cost of the project is $12.2 billion, up from $9.3 billion last year, with the start of revenue service pushed out from 2033 to 2036. During the workshop, the VTA Board received an in-depth breakdown of the factors driving cost increases and schedule extensions. The VTA Board re-affirmed the importance of the project to the future of the Santa Clara County transit system and to the role of the project in completing the final leg of the regional goal of an integrated transit loop around the bay. The VTA staff sought the board’s review of the project cost, funding and delivery as expediently and efficiently as possible. 

“With the substantial increases in costs and schedule over the past two years, the [VTA] Board’s oversight is critical to this project moving forward with full, independent and transparent oversight. That’s why I established the Ad hoc committee,” said Patrick Burt, chair, VTA Board of Directors. 

“This project will be intensely scrutinized and it should be, as it is a very large investment in our infrastructure.  This completion of the BART system to downtown San Jose will help secure our Valley’s economic future, as we compete with other regions around the world. We don’t want people looking back in the future and wondering why we lacked the vision to deliver this promise of ringing the bay with rail in one of the most important economic centers of the world,” said Carolyn Gonot, VTA general manager and CEO.