advertisement

---

Yesterday, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) agreed to allocate $50 million in state funding to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) to help fund the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Silicon Valley Extension project.

The State Transportation Improvement Program grant will be used to help expand and improve BART's Hayward Maintenance Complex to accommodate the additional fleet, and other system and operational needs when the future BART Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension launches service, VTA officials said in a prepared statement.

The funds will pay for shop reconfigurations to maintain the BART Silicon Valley extension fleet, a component repair shop and trackwork to connect the new facilities to the existing yard track and tie-ins to the BART mainline, they said.

"The improvements … will help support the plan for future increases to the BART fleet, services and efficiencies that will be demanded by the 560,000 daily riders BART will carry in 2025; and nearly 46,000 of those trips will be generated by the new Berryessa extension and service to San Jose," said Silicon Valley Leadership Group Chief Executive Carl Guardino.

The BART Silicon Valley project involves a 16-mile extension of BART's system to San Jose, Milpitas and Santa Clara, Calif. The first phase, the Berryessa Extension, will be a 10-mile, two-station extension.