SAN JOSE — A round-trip ride from the yet-to-be-opened Berryessa BART station to Embarcadero station and back, could cost riders $15.50, officials say.
BART’s governing board is expected to approve the proposed $7.75 one-way ticket price on Thursday. The cost is in line with its other stations, said Chris Filippi, a spokesman for the agency.
For commuters, there’s little choice but to pony up the full price. Jesus Caampued Jr. commutes daily on BART from Santa Clara. Even at $7.75 per ride, he said the cost of parking and taking the train — he will travel round-trip from Milpitas when that station opens alongside Berryessa as part of a 10-mile system expansion — will still be cheaper than taking Caltrain.
“But you don’t really have a choice, do you?” Caampued said.
To help offset the cost of its fares for low-income passengers, BART is joining MUNI, Caltrain and Golden Gate transit in a regional income-based fare pilot that will offer discounts to those who qualify. The program is expected to begin in the fall, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which is spearheading the effort.
There’s no date set yet for when the two new stations will open, though officials say it will probably be toward the end of the year. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which paid for and constructed the extension, says it expects to turn over the stations to BART in June. After that, BART will need at least six months of testing before would-be riders can start boarding trains.
The stations were supposed to open this summer. But in September, officials at the VTA discovered a contractor had installed the wrong routers and communications systems that control passenger information signs, public address announcements, closed-circuit televisions, fire alarms and other equipment.
News of the error put Bridget Awolowo on edge. The San Jose resident commutes daily from her downtown San Jose home to San Francisco’s Civic Center station by hopping on an express bus that whisks her to the Warm Springs BART station. With the opening of the new BART stations, the VTA said it would reroute or cancel many of its express buses, but it hasn’t put forward a plan for what those new routes would entail.
“I’m worried about the reliability,” Awolowo said. “But I’ll try it a few times. If it’s convenient, I’ll probably take it.”
Before that can happen, the two agencies also must agree on how they will pay for the continued operation and maintenance of the extension. While BART will operate the stations as a seamless extension of its system, the VTA constructed and owns the infrastructure. Earlier this year, the president of BART’s board of directors abruptly canceled a meeting between the two agencies because officials were still bickering over details.
Those differences are being resolved, Filippi said. And, the VTA expects to present a draft agreement by June, with the intention for both sides to sign it by the fall, said Bernice Alaniz, a spokeswoman for the agency.
“There’s nothing left in the negotiations that would prevent us from finalizing and signing an agreement by the time the extension is ready to open,” Filippi said, adding the agreement doesn’t need to be signed until service starts.
The VTA expects 22,500 riders to flock to BART at the start of service, adding to BART’s already crush-load commuter crowd. By 2035, that number is expected to more than double to 46,500.
To accommodate the growing crowds, BART has been adding new train cars to its fleet, and now has 60 cars either carrying passengers or undergoing testing prior to deployment, according to the agency. By February 2020, it plans to have 160 new train cars, an increase in capacity of about 13 percent.
San Jose resident Sarah Ross is hoping more train cars will mean more service to the new stations. She’s anxious to see the trains up and running, she said, because that will mean shaving off about half the time she spends driving to and from the Warm Springs station.
“I figure that’s my ‘real’ commute, because it’s time I can’t get back,” she said of the driving portion of her trip. “On BART, I can look at articles and read books and do whatever I want really.”
She added, “I can’t wait.”
