On March 21^st 2023 the San Jose Mercury’s Eliyahu Kamisher provided important new information about the VTA’s grotesquely ill-conceived BART Phase II extension, the projected cost of which has increased from $4.8 billion in February 2018 to today’s astounding $9.5 billion.

Unfortunately, the VTA’s ridership forecasts have proven to be no more accurate than its cost estimates. Back when the BART extension was first being promoted zealots were projecting 70,000 riders a day or more by 2040. The VTA later reduced these rosy early projections to a total of 54,600 riders a day at the four Phase II stations. On April 14th the San Jose Mercury reported that a new federally-mandated forecast had dropped the projected 2040 ridership by another 40% to just 32,900 riders a day.

If this latest ridership estimate is accurate, it would mean that under no circumstances could a project cost of anything close to $9.5 billion be justified.

BART’s Link 21 program envisions a multi-billion-dollar passenger rail network throughout northern California, beginning with a $29 billion second subaqueous rail tube between Oakland and San Francisco. During the last year BATWG spent a considerable amount of time and effort trying to figure out whether or not BART’s Link 21 team was making progress. What we do know is that over the last four years, BART’s small Link 21 team, with five private consultants reporting separately to it, has burned through over a hundred million dollars.

So, what exactly has been accomplished in four years for this large planning expenditure?

Thanks to the arcane structure of the Link 21 management hierarchy, coupled with BART’s obvious reluctance to reveal anything substantive about the project, taxpayers remain in the dark about how their tax money is being spent. In early January some rudimentary conceptual engineering sketches belatedly appeared on the Link 21 website that seemed to indicate progress. On January 14, 2023, after reviewing the sketches, BATWG submitted thirteen questions to the BART Board, which were both timely and deserving of answers.

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BART has sucked up more of the Region’s transit funding than any other agency, but when it gets it right it deserves recognition.

After a long slow start, BART has now picked up the pace and is both accelerating its “station hardening” program (making it harder to evade fares) and making better and more effective use of its police and unarmed “ambassadors”. Combating fare evasion is a tricky business because to be effective a reform program has to address all of the different ways that are used to evade payment.

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On December 16, 2021 writer, analyst and world-acclaimed transportation consultant Alan Pisarski, in a discussion with BATWG members, suggested five ways in which the transit agencies should alter their programs because of COVID and the resulting societal changes.

From his remarks it was clear that Pisarski thought the dogged determination of some local and regional agencies to proceed assuming that everything would soon “get back to “normal” was most unwise. His recommendations were valid then and remain so today. Here they are:

First he recommended a “moratorium on all expansion-based transportation investment”.

Next, he recommended that the focus be on restoring and modernizing existing systems.

Third, he recommended that a high priority be placed upon determining the long-term impact of the work-at-home trend.

Fourth, he called on the transit agencies to be “responsive to the accessibility needs of lower-income populations”. To this end he encouraged the use of buses, vans and jitneys.

Finally, Mr. Pisarski called for a “strong focus on private sector solutions—utilizing disruptive technologies, capable of responding rapidly to evolving traffic patterns.”

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BART has long been recognized as an agency in dire need of independent oversight. In June of 2019, pursuant to State Senator Steve Glazer’s SB1488, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Harriet Richardson to be BART’s first Inspector General (IG) from among three candidates selected by the BART Board. The job calls for the IG to oversee BART’s finances and report upon any instances of “waste, fraud and abuse”.

Under Ms. Richardson’s able leadership the small IG staff, despite being hindered by the BART staff, Board and Unions, and denied the resources needed to fully cover BART’s vast operation, has been remarkably diligent and successful in identifying and reporting on a large number of inefficient and otherwise improper BART activities. Most of her recommendations have been adopted by BART and some have been put in place.

We are sorry to report that Ms. Richardson has decided not to put her name in the running for reappointment when her four-year term expires in June. It can only be hoped that her successor will be as fiercely independent and effective as she has been.