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VTA Mismanaging BART Extension, Civil Grand Jury Report Says

Report finds that the VTA Board doesn’t have a plan for fiscal risks and lacks proper oversight.
Samantha Kennedy
A crew works to install cross braces in the tunnel under construction at the West Portal Site of the BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project in San José on Dec. 8, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s Board of Directors has failed to properly manage, oversee and financially control the project that is further expanding BART into Silicon Valley.

That’s according to a newly released report from the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury this week, which found that the project “exposes VTA to financial risks” and that its own board of directors knows that oversight needs to be improved.

The agency is building a 6-mile extension that will add four stations, connecting the Berryessa/North San José BART station through downtown San José and to the city of Santa Clara. But the project has come with delays and rising costs — a price tag of $4.7 billion in 2014 has ballooned to $12.75 billion, according to the report. VTA is targeting the project to be done in 2037, though an oversight consultant estimates completion in 2039.

“There is no realistic plan to deal with foreseeable financial risks,” the report said, “including significant uncertainty about BSVII’s construction and operating costs, reliance on expiring voter-approved sales tax measures, uncertain federal government support, cash flow, and declining ridership.”

All of the project’s funding sources, the report adds, are subject to risks. The project was banking on $6.3 billion from the Federal Transit Administration, but it only got $5.1 billion.

Construction crews work at the West Portal Site of the BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project in San José on Dec. 8, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)

The project also relies on the regional sales tax measure that would help fund AC Transit, BART and other Bay Area operators, even though it won’t be decided by voters until the November election.

VTA said that it takes the recommendations, including adopting a strategy that reduces “dependency on new sales tax measures” and preparing an alternative funding strategy, “seriously and remain[s] committed to continuous improvement, transparency and accountability.”

“Many of the issues identified in the report have been raised previously in various forums,” VTA said in a statement. “Most have been resolved, while others are actively being addressed.”

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VTA said that it included establishing the board’s Oversight Committee, which looks to provide guidance and oversee things like the costs of the project.

Another civil grand jury report in the past found problems with oversight, during which “its lack of transparency around changes to project scope and cost were identified as significant deficiencies,” the report added.

Because of a few deliberations or actions providing guidance and VTA staff receiving private input from individual board members, the report found that “the full Board does not benefit from Oversight Committee analysis.”

San José Mayor Matt Mahan serves as vice chair of the board and chairs the Oversight Commission. He said that VTA “must earn the public’s trust today.”

“The greatest risk to this project is time delay. I’ve encouraged the Committee and VTA staff and contractors to accelerate actual building rather than endless second-guessing that does more for the consultant class than our constituents,” Mahan said.

The civil grand jury said that the longer it takes for the project to be completed, the more likely costs associated with the construction and reliance on local sales taxes will grow.

The VTA Board of Directors has 90 days from June 17 to respond to the findings.

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