Twenty years after voters first approved funding to build a BART extension into the heart of the South Bay Area, the project is finally ready to offer rides to the public.
"For the first time in BART history, trains will cross into Santa Clara County starting this June," report Fiona Kelliher and Evan Webeck.
BART officials this week announced that the "very-long-awaited" BART extension into Milpitas and San Jose would open to riders on June 13, 2020.
"At 7:56 a.m. on June 13, a Richmond-bound train will pick up passengers at the San Jose/Berryessa station, making BART’s first public train trip from San Jose, through Milpitas and continuing on what used to be known as the Warm Springs/South Fremont line," according the article. The new extension includes stops at two stations: the Milpitas Station and the Berryessa Station in San Jose.
As also noted in the article, the big opening will culminate a two-decade-long process of bringing the regional rail transit system into the highly populated Santa Clara County. "Voters first approved to fund the extension into Santa Clara County in 2000 with an increased sales tax," recall Kelliher and Webeck. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority finally broke ground on the project in 2012, and now the extension is almost ready to open. Further extensions into San Jose and Santa Clara County face significant cost and construction hurdles, as reported earlier this year.
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