California’s other transit ‘boondoggle’ laid bare as costs double: ‘I’ll be retiring by then’

The Golden State has more than one transit “boondoggle” to wrestle with.

Another blighted project seeking to connect the Bay Area with the San Joaquin Valley — the Valley Link Rail Project — has seen millions of dollars poured in since 2018, with absolutely nothing to show for it.

The transit project was supposed to relieve traffic congestion in the area and provide commuters with traffic-free transport through areas like Altamont Pass, but it hasn’t left the planning stages in the 8 years since it was proposed.

Estimated costs for the project have ballooned from a $2 billion price tag to $4.4 billion, further delaying construction. Kevin Sheridan, Valley Link Rail Authority’s executive director, told the East Bay Times that the large costs have forced them to divide the project into two phases with the second phase potentially running from Vasco Road to a new Mountain House station.

A big reason for the project’s sluggish pace is money.

“At the highest level, money is a big piece of it,” Sebastian Petty, a senior transportation policy advisor for SPUR, told the East Bay Times.

Officials have secured $800 million in funding for the project, but they still need a lot more. The project requires about $2 billion more in local, state and federal funds to start construction. That amount still wouldn’t be enough to make it to the planned Mountain House station located in western San Joaquin County.

“All of those processes take time, securing that money takes time,” Petty said.

He says transit projects like Valley Link require several sources of funding from the local and state level to prove its financially viable. There’s more competition for the funding than there is the capacity to give it, Petty mentioned.

“In a broad sense, there is greater demand for funding than there is capacity,” Petty said. “What makes things slow down, stall out – none of these projects have a full tank of gas. They kind of have to increment things together to be able to move forward.”

There’s also a chance the project is shelved if Bay Area voters don’t approve a 14-year sales tax to bail out BART, which has suffered from budget deficits and fiscal issues.

“From a narrow Bay Area perspective, I think the most important thing in Bay Area transit right now is to make sure that BART is operationally solvent and financially funded,” Petty said. “For Valley Link to really be a valuable project that delivers on its potential, it is essential that BART be in a healthy state.”

Commuters are sick of the talk about the heavily-delayed project.

“They’re only talks. Nothing has actually happened as of now,” commuter Sohan Nayabu told the East Bay Times. “I don’t even think I want it anymore.”

He was excited to learn the transit line would stretch to his Mountain House home and he’ll have a faster commute, but has since given up on his hopes. Nayabu, 43, is convinced he’ll retire before its built.

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“By the time they come to Mountain House, I’ll be retiring by then,” Nayabu said.

The larger statewide boondoggle is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high-speed transit project that will cost $126 billion to finish — promising a transit line from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Billions has already been spent on the project with no operating date, despite seeing voter approval via a ballot measure in 2008.

President Donald Trump yanked federal funding for the project last year, and called it the “train to nowhere.”

Newsom has persisted with the project, announcing the southern railhead facility had been built in Kern County this February. The governor said then that California was “proving” high-speed rail “can be done.”