mercurynews.comPosted Jul 20, 2020, 1:59 AM UTC
So much real estate speculation going on over there, it's being built for developers, not south bay residents.
This was paid for by VTA. If you have beef it belongs on that reddit page.
midflinx first of all, there is probably enough room to fit a small yard between Warm Springs and Milpitas. Second, there isn’t a yard at the end of the Dublin line. Trains just park on spur tracks overnight.
I think the Santa Clara section is pointless. The 22, 522, Caltrain, ACE train, AND Capitol Corridor all serve that section. And Barts whole reason for that extension is SJC service, which makes no sense because the 60 bus exists, and creating an express bus from Berryessa to SJC would be much cheaper.
As the article says BART wants a storage and maintenance yard there because Hayward is far away. All the other transit options serving Santa Clara can't fix that.
If I lived in Santa Clara, I would fight it. BART brings BLIGHT.
!nwordcountbot
7 BILLION?! How is it so ridiculously expensive to build 6 miles of track and a maintenance yard? For comparison Vancouver built an entire 12 mile driverless, grade elevated line for $2 billion. No wonder you have people on both sides criticizing this project.
For one thing this is below grade. It's using such a large boring machine that stations won't be excavated separately because they'll fit inside the tunnel. This saves money on station expense and reduces disruption at street level, but adds to boring expense.
This doesn't excuse all the expense, but it makes a big difference compared to elevated viaduct like Vancouver's.
That SkyTrain line was constructed between 2007 and 2009 (impressive!). Concrete product prices have increased by a third since then. How much have construction industry wages increased since then? BART's project won't open until late this decade when costs will probably be even higher and the $7 billion has to account for that. Adjust BART's price tag to 2008 levels and it might be more equivalent to $3.5 billion vs SkyTrain's $2 billion. Expensive yes but as the second comment says BART will be all in a tunnel instead of elevated.