U.S. Transportation Secretary Praises Work On Future BART Sites In Santa Clara County

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA – A federal official went on a tour today at future BART sites that will address traffic congestion in the South Bay and was one of many projects in Santa Clara County that can receive additional funds through a sales tax measure facing voters in November.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx spent the morning on a tour of the BART Silicon Valley project run by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Reps. Mike Honda and Zoe Lofgren, VTA CEO Nuria
Fernandez and other local officials also joined the secretary during his visit.

Foxx went to the future Berryessa station in San Jose, the endpoint for the first phase of the project that is nearly completed.

He also visited the second phase that stretches through San Jose's Alum Rock neighborhood, downtown area and Diridon transit station and ends at the Santa Clara Caltrain station, where he arrived in a red VTA bus for a news briefing this afternoon with about a dozen local and federal leaders.

"The country needs this region to be one in which people can get from place to place. Our economy depends on it," Foxx said.

The secretary said it was "incredible" to see the region address its future transportation needs as travel times will increase with more people expected to arrive to Silicon Valley in the next 30 years.

The transportation projects in the county are creating a multimodal system in which people can get around by taking transit, which allows for more predictable travel times, Foxx said.

"Those choices are going to be the difference between people getting stuck in traffic and people having a good quality of life," he said.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo thanked the secretary for his leadership in bringing $900 million for the first phase of the BART project that helped build the Berryessa station, which set to open a year early in
2017.

Liccardo said he's one of 101 local officials who support VTA's Measure B, a half-cent tax for 30 years that would help the transit agency with transportation projects including the second phase of BART Silicon
Valley and obtain additional funding from the state and federal governments.

"We can leverage billions of dollars of federal and state money, but they'll only move if we move first," Liccardo said.

If passed by a two-thirds majority, Measure B would help the VTA collect $6 billion to $6.5 billion to fund transportation projects, repair roads and help improve connections for bicyclists and pedestrians throughout
the county, agency officials said.

The second phase of the BART project would receive $1.5 billion and $314 million would go to help improve the Caltrain corridor, according to the VTA.

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who also supports the measure, also highlighted the importance of receiving additional funding from the state and local levels.

"Silicon Valley and our needs are not only on the map of our local region, but on a national level people understand the importance of the economic vibrancy of the community," said Chavez, who also serves as VTA
board chairwoman.

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--Bay City News/Image via Valley Transportation Authority on Facebook