Discussion related to commuter rail and transit operators in California past and present including Los Angeles Metrolink and Metro Subway and Light Rail, San Diego Coaster, Sprinter and MTS Trolley, Altamont Commuter Express (Stockton), Caltrain and MUNI (San Francisco), Sacramento RTD Light Rail, and others...

Moderator: lensovet

  by lpetrich
 
San Jose BART delay: Milpitas, Berryessa stations likely to miss 2019 opening – East Bay Times
The culprit: More than 1,000 problems engineers have discovered since BART received the stations and tracks from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority over the summer, delaying more intensive testing BART needs to do before its trains can carry passengers to the new stops.

VTA, which is funding and building a $5.6 billion extension into downtown San Jose that BART will eventually operate, acknowledged last week that it has pushed back its estimate for when BART trains will reach planned stops at First and Santa Clara streets and at Diridon Station. Service there is now projected to start sometime in 2029 or 2030, rather than in 2026, as initially projected.
The extension will need at least 3 months of testing -- testing that has not officially started yet.
  by lpetrich
 
Will new Milpitas and Berryessa BART stations open this year? They just missed a key deadline – East Bay Times
BART was supposed to begin its “pre-revenue testing” process at the two new stops by Oct. 21 at the latest, the date an agency spokeswoman said had to be met if the stations were to open by the end of the year. But the testing did not begin until Monday — a week late. The Milpitas and Berryessa stops are the first phase of the long-awaited extension that will eventually bring trains through Downtown San Jose.
So its opening may be pushed into early 2020.
  by lensovet
 
Delayed yet again because VTA loves to over-promise and under-deliver.

VTA, in June 2019 (https://www.vta.org/blog/another-milestone-achieved)
BART now has exclusive access to begin the final phase of testing and pre-revenue operations in preparation for passenger service at both the Milpitas & Berryessa Transit Centers planned to begin before the end of 2019.
VTA, in November 2019 (https://www.vta.org/blog/vta-and-bart-w ... -extension)
Before resuming full pre-revenue operations activities, VTA will complete remaining testing which resulted from required modifications to train control and rail intrusion systems.

Following VTA’s completion of these items, BART will complete its remaining Phase 3 acceptance testing and restart full pre-revenue operations activities. Resequencing these activities eliminates the conflicting needs for access to the track and other facilities associated with simultaneous testing and pre-revenue operations but will necessarily result in the start of passenger service after December 31, 2019.
So much for that exclusive access.
  by lpetrich
 
Milpitas and Berryessa BART opening date: Get ready to wait - 2019 Dec 5
But estimates laid out by the agencies in recent weeks indicate the Milpitas and Berryessa stations might not open until April — if not later.

Before the stations can open, VTA crews need to finish their work on the 10-mile extension and resolve problems BART workers identified when they worked on the system earlier this fall. VTA spokeswoman Bernice Alaniz said the agency plans to wrap up its work by Jan. 31.

From there, BART will need a while to conduct its own safety testing and make sure there aren’t any lingering problems that it still wants VTA to fix. Precisely how long that will take isn’t clear.
  by lpetrich
 
BART’s San Jose extension is woefully delayed, and the hardest part is still to come – East Bay Times - March 31, 2020
VTA drops plan for record-breaking downtown San Jose BART tunnel, will seek smaller options – East Bay Times - April 17, 2020

About their planned single-bore tunnel: 56' or 48'? A 56' one would allow side-by-side tracks and center-platform stations, while a 48' one, while cheaper, would mean stacked tracks and stacked station platforms.

Finish line finally in sight for BART’s new Milpitas, Berryessa stations? – East Bay Times - April 20, 2020

Still no target date for opening, though the article stated that it could be as early as June. From the article, BART ought to have started simulated service in late April.
  by lpetrich
 
Opening day set for long-awaited BART stations in Milpitas, San Jose – East Bay Times
June 13

Gov. Davis, San Jose Mayor Gonzales got BART on track to San Jose – East Bay Times
Though they were no-shows in the announcement ceremony for the extension's opening day.

Check out the new BART map: Redesign makes room for Milpitas, Berryessa stations – East Bay Times
It shows both new stations as on lines to Richmond and Daly City.

Other Bay-Area passenger-rail lines are shown in light gray: SF and SJ light rail, Caltrain, ACE, and Amtrak Capitols and San Joaquins. Also in light gray is the rest of the San Jose extension.
  by Jeff Smith
 
A bit dated: https://sf.streetsblog.org/2020/04/08/s ... n-station/

Some pretty interesting concepts being discussed.
A planned top-to-bottom rebuild of San Jose’s main railway station could cost anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion and, when completed, will vastly change the way people travel to and through the city.

However, it’s unclear how long it will take to complete designs and get the project done. “It’s a multi-year endeavor, a mega project,” said Liz Scanlon of Kimley-Horn & Associates, one of the principals developing the plans, during a lunchtime Webinar for SPUR in San Jose. “This will culminate into a road-map for implementation.”

...

Currently, Diridon Station is essentially a terminus for Caltrain, ACE and Amtrak’s Capitol Corridors (although a handful of Caltrain trains and Amtrak’s Coast Starlight do continue to points south). However, in the future, the majority of trains will continue on newly electrified tracks to Gilroy and beyond. “In the future, it will operate as a through-station. And electrification to Gilroy is baked into our thinking,” said Scanlon.
...
  by lpetrich
 
BART's Milpitas-Berryessa extension is now open, as of June 13. Service to Milpitas and Berryessa is an extension of service to Fremont, and more recently, Warm Springs, with SF-Ber and Ric-Ber lines.
  • Weekdays: Ric-Ber, Ric-Mlb, Ant-SFO, DP-DC, Ber-DC, SFO-Mlb
  • Saturdays: Ric-Ber, Ric-DC, Ant-SFO, DP-DC, Ber-DC, SFO-Mlb
  • Sundays: Ric-Ber, Ant-SFO, DP-DC, Ber-DC, SFO-Mlb
(late nights weekdays and Saturdays have less service, holiday service is like Sunday service)

Looking at bus service, VTA's express buses to Fremont and Warm Springs are now gone. They were lines 180 and 181. AC Transit's buses extend to Milpitas. Line 217 now goes Fremont BART - Warm Springs BART - Milpitas BART station, with in-between service.

Plans for Irvington BART Station Move Forward After Board Vote – NBC Bay Area - construction is now set to start in 2022 and finish in 2026.
  by lpetrich
 
BART Access Bridge Reaches Construction Milestone | Fremont, CA Patch - "With the truss in place, it now looks like a bridge."

Warm Springs/So.Fremont Station West Access Bridge & Plaza Project | bart.gov - shows what the bridge is to look like. It has two spans, which I will call the inner and the outer span. The inner one connects to the station, it goes over the main tracks, and it has a truss. The outer one swerves a little from the inner one's direction, making it somewhat northwest - southeast. It goes over a track spur. At the outer end of it, where the staircase and escalators are, there is a pole sticking up and tilted outward. This pole has cables attached to it, making the outer span a cable-stayed one.

Warm Springs West Pedestrian Bridge construction update | bart.gov shows construction of the bridge pier for the inner and outer spans.
  by lpetrich
 
i looked at some mapping sites. Google Maps shows Warm Springs as open, with its park-and-ride lot filled with cars. The station's roof and the canopies' roofs are covered with solar panels. The road closest to the station building is Transit Road and the one between it and the parking lot is Pavilion Way.

The east-site transit village looks half-built, and it has street names Prism Terrace, Lumen Terrace, Reflection Common, Silhouette Common, Kilowatt Way, Tom Blalock St., Network Common, Electric Terrace, Volt Terrace, Ambient Common, Chroma Common, Halogen Common, Velocity Common, Kinetic Common, Navigation St..

The west side also looks half-built. It has street names Lopes Ct, Accelerator Ave., Synergy St., Innovation Way, Wisdom Way, Quantum Dr., Ambition St., Insight St., Enlighten Common, Challenge Common, Success Common, Improvement Terrace, Enrichment Terrace, Development Terrace, Advancement Terrace, Invent Terrace, Explore Common.

In order of recency, as judged from construction progress:
  • MapQuest - oldest
  • Yahoo
  • Google
  • Bing - newest
  by lensovet
 
lpetrich wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 12:36 am In order of recency, as judged from construction progress:
  • MapQuest - oldest
  • Yahoo
  • Google
  • Bing - newest
Looks like Bing and Apple use the same provider, as the position of vehicles on Apple Maps' imagery is identical (as is the construction progress). However, the image quality looks better to my biased eyes :-D
  by lpetrich
 
Warm Springs Extension News | bart.gov
"January 2021 - Since the completion of Preliminary Engineering in the Summer of 2020, the BART Irvington Station Project Team has been making significant progress with Final Design. "

I also checked on some mapping sites to find the status of the western access bridge of the Warm Springs station. Google Maps and Bing Maps shows a largely-complete bridge, while Apple Maps and Mapquest do not show anything there. The overpass broadens at its west end, with both covered escalators and uncovered stairs to get to street level.

Warm Springs / South Fremont | bart.gov does not mention that bridge, and BART Warm Springs West Access Bridge & Plaza Project | City of Fremont Official Website does not look recently updated.
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