VTA Light Rail Service Suspended Indefinitely Following Shooting

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Light rail service for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority remains suspended indefinitely and substitute bus services are unavailable due to low levels of staffing following a mass shooting last week at a VTA light rail facility.

The shooting last Wednesday at the Guadalupe Light Rail Yard in San Jose by a VTA employee killed nine coworkers. In a statement on Monday, VTA said that while staff takes time to grieve, it was directing all resources to the regular bus network. The agency did not have a timetable for resuming light rail service. Bus services are also expected to be less frequent with limited staff.

“Now, our primary focus is the well-being and health of our people,” said Evelyn Tran, the Interim General Manager of VTA, in a statement. “I have directed staff to make our people our first priority. We will marshal all the resources we can to assist our people through this. It will mean providing less service to the community than we would wish. But healing our organization must be our first priority.”

Tran added: "There are many factors involved in restoring service, most importantly the human factor."

VTA has three rail lines and around 70 bus routes that serve Santa Clara County. The "orange" rail line goes between Mountain View and San Jose's Alum Rock neighborhood; the "green" line between Santa Clara and Campbell; and the "blue" line runs through San Jose from north to south.

Riders can contact VTA’s Customer Service at (408) 321-2300 during regular business hours for service information and/or use TransitApp for real-time bus information. View their routes here.