Santa Clara VTA pauses pre-revenue service on Berryessa extension

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) last week announced it has suspended most of Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) pre-revenue operations on the 10-mile BART Silicon Valley Berryessa extension in California to create a “more practical” work plan.

Since June, VTA and BART have been working on starting passenger service on the extension before year's end. The work has involved efforts by both agencies to complete final systems modification testing, BART’s system acceptance testing and BART’s pre-revenue operations.

However, the complexity of the project, which requires simultaneous testing and acceptance from both agencies, has required VTA to pause pre-revenue operation activities while it completes its remaining testing, VTA officials said in a press release. Following VTA’s testing, BART will then complete its remaining Phase 3 acceptance testing and restart full pre-revenue operations activities.

Resequencing these activities eliminates the conflicting needs for access to the track and other facilities, but will delay the overall project beyond 2019, VTA officials said.

VTA and BART are developing a revised testing and training plan before resuming full pre-revenue operations.

The decision came after “extensive review and coordination” with BART management, VTA officials said.