☆ Another week, another huge BART-to-SJ cost overage

Karl Marx famously said, "History repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce." SJ taxpayers are wondering—at least when it comes to yet another budget-busting BART overage—what comes after farce? Marc Joffe of Cato Institute explains in this Opp Now exclusive.

{Editor's note: While our current political class blithely writes BART bigger and bigger checks for its troubled extension into SJ (drug dealers are probably celebrating), at least two previous BART boosters and SJ mayors have seen enough. Both Sam Liccardo and Tom McEnery have said it's time to slow the train down and limit the scope of the extension.}

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At its March 7th board meeting, VTA directors received an update on the BART Silicon Valley Phase II extension from Chief Megaprojects Delivery Officer Tom Maguire. His presentation included new cost and time estimates developed in consultation with the Federal Transit Administration at a workshop in mid-January. Maguire advised directors that the estimated cost of the project had been increased from $12.237 billion to $12.754 billion, and that the start date for revenue service was being changed from October 2036 to May 2037. He went on to say that out of an abundance of caution, the federal grant application will quote a service inception date of February 2039.

Related:

• Analysis: BART, other CA transit systems in fiscally “dire situations”

• BART's “unacceptable” service quality unlikely to be revived by dollars alone

• Analysis: BART's anachronistic, stagnant business model makes DTSJ extension nonsensical

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