San Jose Light-Rail Service Resumes

Last week, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) resumed “limited” light-rail service for the first time since the May 26 shooting at VTA’s maintenance center. Service began on the Orange Line and part of the Green Line. A week later, part of the Blue Line opened along with another segment of the Green Line. VTA has to test tracks on each segment before it can open; some lines were lower priorities, said the agency, because they carried few riders, providing further support for the Antiplanner’s belief that light rail was the wrong technology for San Jose in the first place.

VTA closed its light-rail system for more than three months and part of the system will be closed for even longer. Photo by Minh Nguyen.

VTA claims it closed down the light-rail operations “to give employees time to heal from the traumatic experience” of the May 26 shooting. But transit advocate Eugene Bradley pointed out “that other major cities that experienced violent disruptions of transit, such as New York and London, managed to restore service within hours.” Not only did VTA not run light-rail trains for three months, for much of that time it didn’t provide light-rail riders with alternative bus services. “VTA is showing the world how to not recover from a tragedy,” said Bradley.
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Meanwhile, another transit-advocacy group called Turnout4Transit recently issued a report on VTA’s budget showing that the agency has transferred operating funds to its capital fund, probably to help pay for cost overruns on the BART-to-San Jose construction project. The agency then complained about its “operations deficit,” which was one reason why it failed to offer alternative bus service while the light-rail lines were closed.

VTA has consistently demonstrated a capacity for spending lots of money and getting very little benefit. In 2019, it carried 10 percent fewer riders than at its peak in 2001, before the dot-com crash. Silicon Valley has recovered from the crash, but VTA has not. In 2019, fares covered only 9 percent of operating costs and average ridership on VTA light-rail trains was well below the national average. Instead of throwing more money at the agency, Santa Clara County taxpayers should disband it and let private operators take over bus services where they can pay their own way.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

3 Responses to San Jose Light-Rail Service Resumes

  1. paul says:

    Apologies for repetition but for anyone new to this blog:
    The system appears to have been built so that areas adjacent to the line could be upzoned to higher densities as this was “smart growth” being next to transit. Most people living in these areas still drive everywhere, so once the higher density places were built there has been no real need to keep the light rail running. In contrast the New York and London transit systems are vital to those cities as these cities were built around them. Modern San Jose was built around the car so only really functions with most inhabitants driving.

  2. Hugh Jardonn says:

    “Meanwhile, another transit-advocacy group called Turnout4Transit recently issued a report on VTA’s budget showing that the agency has transferred operating funds to its capital fund, probably to help pay for cost overruns on the BART-to-San Jose construction project.”

    If it 5really wanted to fight cost overruns, VTA would “value engineer” the BART extension and eliminate the duplicative and wasteful line between the San Jose and Santa Clara Caltrain stations, where BART will duplicate existing Caltrain and VTA service.

  3. Tempe Jeff says:

    “VTA claims it closed down the light-rail operations “to give employees time to heal from the traumatic experience” of the May 26 shooting. ” So, the Employees got a nice, paid vacation. I guarantee, no one missed a paycheck.

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