Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo says the project to bring BART to the city’s downtown needs to be scaled down, citing ballooning costs that have now amounted to $12.2 billion, a stunning admission coming from arguably the transit extension’s greatest supporter over the years.
In an interview on Thursday, Liccardo said he would like to see a section of the project — the connection between Diridon Station and Santa Clara — nixed from the proposal and possibly finished at another time, citing the fact that Caltrain already covers the route.
He also said he’s thought about reining in the project since the beginning of 2022, while he was mayor and fending off reports of cost estimates exploding, but was optimistic at the time that federal funding would adequately cover the extension’s costs.
“We’ve got a situation in this country where transit construction costs are wildly out of control,” said Liccardo, who is currently running for District 16’s congressional seat. “We need to find better ways to build. And in the meantime, we have to build within our budget.”
Though Liccardo currently doesn’t hold any sway over the BART plans, his flip on it will almost certainly raise serious questions about the future of the project with Valley Transportation Authority’s administration and Mayor Matt Mahan, a key champion of the extension, most seriously the fact that there are plans to spin up the project’s tunnel boring machine in Santa Clara.
VTA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mahan was unable to comment before deadline.
The news comes a day after a VTA audit report came to light that found that the agency misled the public and its governing board over the cost of the project.
In October, VTA officials announced the most recent increased cost estimate and launch date of 2036 — more than double the original 2014 projection and a decade later than expected — sparking the VTA’s Board of Directors to launch a watchdog group overseeing cost and timeline concerns. As the project currently stands, the six-mile extension would run from San Jose’s Berryessa station to 28th Street/Little Portugal, underground through the city’s downtown until finishing in Santa Clara near the Caltrain terminal. In total, the project will add four stations.
This is a developing story and will be updated.