Year in Review for Santa Clara County transit
Hello everyone! We hope you’re enjoying the holidays and able to spend time with your loved ones.
It was a pretty big year for transit, and before 2023 ends we wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the big news items that happened in our county.
In April it was announced that the Eastridge to Bart Regional Connector project secured its last piece of funding through TIRCP.
July saw over 4,000 people tour the new Caltrain EMUs at Diridon Station.
The ridership report from VTA in August showed that bus and light rail ridership was up 25% over 2022.
September was Transit Month! VTA announced their new “Guaranteed Ride Home” program.
VTA’s Equitable VMT program was announced. We have a write up about it on our site.
Transit service was restored between Gilroy and Salinas with the restoration of MST line 59.
The tunnel boring machine for BART SV Phase II was purchased by VTA in November.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. There were so many other things that happened around the county and the Bay Area! Transit agencies faced enormous fiscal cliffs, but riders and activists worked together to prevent massive budget cuts. BART retired it’s legacy fleet and stopped accepting paper tickets. We just wanted to focus on the good news from the year in our county.
We’re exited to see what gains public transit will make in Santa Clara County in 2024, and celebrating those wins together!