The fact sheet from 2010 had the following timeline:
- final EIS Spring 2012
- design and permits 2012-2015
- construction 2014-2017
- start of operation 2016 (should probably be 2018)
Not sure how operation starts before construction is over, perhaps that's a typo and should have been 2018? if so, that's 6 years between final EIS and start of service.
The fact sheet in 2013 pushed back the timeline by 2 years, shortened construction by a year, and corrected the service start date, resulting in an expected start of service in 2019.
The EIS preparation took a lot longer. Draft EIS wasn't published until fall 2020 (putting us now over 8 years behind the original timeline), final EIS was published in Feb 2021 (9 years behind schedule). Note that the EIS process is mandatory for a project like this so…
If we take the original 2010 timeline (correcting the start of service) and move it forward accordingly, we get:
- design and permits 2021-2024
- construction 2023-2026
- start of service 2027
Looks like design and permits is behind schedule by a year. I'm not sure what the past 20 years have to do with how fast they can design and build this, but a) I'm not clear where the money for this is going to come from (SJTA can fund the design work but I don't know where they are going to get the money to actually build), and b) their original timeline of 6 years from awarding of initial design contracts to the line being operational hasn't really changed.
Paul Borokhov
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