Earlier this week, on October 25, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) took a significant step towards improving public transit in the Bay Area by granting $375 million for Phase II of the VTA's BART Silicon Valley Extension Project, a detail confirmed by the Valley Transportation Authority. This funding advances BART service closer to downtown San José and Santa Clara, indicating a united regional effort to build sustainable transportation routes inline with California's transitional infrastructure initiatives.
The BSVII Project's funding routes owe their establishment to Santa Clara County citizens who have continually passed local tax measures in favor of public transit capital improvement projects over the past two decades. With measures such as the 2000 Measure A, 2008 Measure B, and 2016 Measure B, Santa Clara County local sales tax measures are anticipated to fund approximately $4.3 billion for the construction of VTA’s BSVII Project.
In 2018, Bay Area inhabitants approved for Regional Measure 3 (RM3) with the expectation of raising $4.45 billion to finance highway and transit improvements. This includes $375 million for the construction of VTA's BSVII Project, clearly showing a desire by the San Francisco Bay Area to fund transit improvement projects steadily.
The FTA’s New Starts Program reviewing process digs into various project aspects including ridership projections, current and future land uses, and local policies to determine whether a particular project qualifies for CIG funding. One factor distinguishing VTA’s BSVII Project is the existing local funding commitment. Thanks to over $6.2 billion in local and state funding, VTA has been accepted into FTA’s New Starts Program and continues to receive “favorable” ratings during ongoing evaluations, according to the Valley Transportation Authority.
