Redundant rail supporters claimed that because voters approved measures that specifically included extension to Santa Clara, not building the line to Santa Clara means breaking promise to voters.
We believe that if voters were given a choice, they would not have supported building the redundant rail line. During the drafting of these tax measures, calls were made by transit advocates to separate the parts (redundant and non-redundant parts) and were rejected without discussion. The reason is obvious, politicians from San Jose need support from those in the City of Santa Clara in order to resist efforts from the northwest part of the county demanding more allocation of transportation funds.
While the products in the tax measure appeared to be all or nothing, VTA nonetheless broke promises to voters by delaying, shortchanging, if not canceling various projects from the 2000 tax measure:
- Providing connections from the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport to BART, Caltrain and VTA light rail. – project canceled due to lack of funds.
- Extending light rail from downtown San Jose to the East Valley. – project downgraded to bus lanes.
- Improving Caltrain by double-tracking to Gilroy – Some double tracking was done but service got reduced from 4 round trips in 2000 to presently 3 round trips.
- Electrifying from Palo Alto to Gilroy – VTA delayed the project for more than a decade. Additional funding had to be obtained from the state to move forward.
- Connecting Caltrain with the Dumbarton Rail Corridor. – VTA had not allocated any money for that project.
- Developing new light rail corridors… Sunnyvale/Cupertino; Santa Teresa/Coyote Valley; Downtown/East Valley Connection to Guadalupe Line; Stevens Creek Boulevard; North County/Palo Alto; Winchester/Vasona Junction; – Light rail system has not expanded since 2005 under this program. The last extension was completed that year with funding from the previous tax that has since been expired.
- Initial study of BART connection from Santa Clara through Palo Alto to San Mateo County – This was not done and still shouldn’t be done because Caltrain is moving forward with electrification and the corridor has been designated for high speed rail.
Since 2000, VTA service has deteriorated, ridership significantly declined (191,000 in 2001 and 146,700 in 2016), despite the fact that more taxes are sent to VTA.
Given the fact that VTA does not have the funding to fulfill everything in the tax measure, or even operate the bus system that it used to have, no project should be exempted from being evaluated on merits. Actually not building the redundant line would result in the least harm since it would do little very to improve transit, and not doing it would free up millions in funding for other priorities.