VTA now projects the cost of the final phase of extending BART into downtown San Jose and Santa Clara will be more than 30% higher, and take three years longer, to 2036, to complete.

After weeks of negotiations, state legislators will start voting today on a budget deal that sets spending and policy across a wide range of issues affecting Californians.

Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, said that without the state cash, BART and other big-city transit systems will have to make drastic service cuts.

If the free transfer project allowing riders who transfer between two or more transit agencies to pay only the full fare for the first transit agency they use is approved , transfers from BART to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, for example, could be discounted up to $2.50.

Without additional revenue from fares, new taxes or some other source, BART is on track to run out of pandemic-era emergency relief funding by mid-2025.

In a Tuesday interview, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan discussed prioritizing public safety and accelerating housing construction to address the homelessness crisis.

The VTA needs to use eminent domain because of the urgency to meet its expected 2030 opening date for the BART extension through downtown San Jose.

The VTA board authorized the purchase of a high-tech tunnel boring machine for a massive underground train line under downtown from Berryessa to Diridon Station.

Although Clipper cards were already available to the greater student body at the university, the BayPass allows students to take public transit without worrying about crossing county lines and having to pay fares in public transit within that county,

The first contract package, for the tunnel and trackwork, for $235 million, has been awarded to Kiewit Shea Traylor

BART reversed itself to reinstate masks, even though the California Department of Public Health also announced last week that it would align with the CDC and drop its own mask requirement for public transit and transit hubs like bus stations and airports.

Airlines, airports and other transportation agencies, including BART and Caltrain. had followed suit in making masks optional.

The VTA had said in February that it would not update its anticipated cost and schedule for the project until it awards four major contracts, including one for tunneling and trackwork slated to be finalized this summer.

The BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project achieved another major milestone to help advance the biggest infrastructure project in Santa Clara County history.

The development shrinks the longstanding East San Jose flea market to five acres, one-third of its original size, leaving many of the 430 vendors worried that they will be squeezed out. 

If given the green light in a special meeting Friday, Gonot's first day, complete with a $350,000 base salary, would be July 12.