The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Board Chairman announced the creation of an Ad Hoc BART Silicon Valley Phase II oversight committee that will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project, focusing on a full, independent, and transparent review of costs, funding, risks, and completion schedule. The work of the committee is intended to provide the Board and the public with the scrutiny and information needed for confidence in VTA’s delivery of the BART Phase II project as it has done successfully on projects for decades.

The committee will report back to the full Board regularly to provide updates and report on any issues of concern and provide a full report and recommendations by or before the end of the calendar year 2024.

The announcement was made during a Board workshop that reviewed updates on the cost, funding, and schedule of the final six-mile extension of BART Silicon Valley. The estimated cost of the project is $12.2 billion, up from $9.3 billion last year, with the start of revenue service pushed out from 2033 to 2036. The meeting was a productive discussion on managing an extremely complicated project.  The Board received an in-depth breakdown of the factors driving cost increases and schedule extensions. The Board re-affirmed the importance of the project to the future of the Santa Clara County transit system and to the role of the project in completing the final leg of the regional goal of an integrated transit loop around the bay. The VTA staff sought the Board’s review of the project cost, funding, and delivery as expediently and efficiently as possible.

“With the substantial increases in costs and schedule over the past two years, the Board’s oversight is critical to this project moving forward with full, independent, and transparent oversight. That’s why I established the Ad hoc committee,” said Patrick Burt, Chair, VTA Board of Directors.

Carolyn Gonot, VTA General Manager/CEO, added, “This project will be intensely scrutinized. And it should be as it is a very large investment in our infrastructure.  This completion of the BART system to downtown San Jose will help secure our Valley’s economic future as we compete with other regions around the world. We don’t want people looking back in the future and wondering why we lacked the vision to deliver this promise of ringing the bay with rail in one of the most important economic centers of the world.”