SANTA CLARA VTA RIDERS UNION
P. O. Box 390069
Mountain View, CA  94039-0069
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/

NEWS RELEASE

TO: Editor, News Assignment Desk, Transportation Reporter

* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *

Press Contacts (in alphabetical order):	

Eugene Bradley	24 hr. cell/pager (408)888-2208 
Margaret Okuzumi		(408)732-8712

SILICON VALLEY TRANSIT SPENDING OUT OF CONTROL

Transit Advocacy Group Urges VTA Delay BART To San Jose 
Engineering At Tonight's Board Meeting

SUNNYVALE, CA (February 5, 2004) - In lieu of a proposed 
third consecutive year of transit fare hikes, the Santa Clara
VTA Riders Union (SCVTARU - http://www.vtaridersunion.org/), a 
transit advocacy and watchdog group in Silicon Valley, today 
calls upon the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) to delay
$50 million in engineering for the BART extension to San Jose.  
The VTA Board of Directors will vote on whether or not to 
fund the engineering at their next meeting TONIGHT at 6:00pm at 
the Santa Clara County Supervisors' Chambers at 70 West Hedding 
Street in San Jose.

With state and federal funding for the San Jose BART extension 
still uncertain, combined with a proposed transit fare hike this 
summer and more service cuts next year, it is puzzling to SCVTARU 
that VTA can find $50 million to hire engineers for the BART to 
San Jose project.  This is another example of how VTA is 
suffering from a spending crisis which was pointed out in an 
opinion piece by Mountain View City Councilmember Greg Perry 
recently in the San Jose Mercury News.  
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/16123) In that 
opinion piece, based on information from the 2001 National
Transit Database 
(http://www.ntdprogram.com/NTD/ntdhome.nsf?OpenDatabase), Mr. 
Perry mentions how VTA spends twice as much money to run its 
buses any other transit system in America.

While VTA claims that they need to prepare for the San Jose 
BART extension when funding comes in, their proposals - under 
agenda items 11 and 17 - ensure that Silicon Valley's bus and
light rail services remains dysfunctional and expensive to run,
and thus unprepared for a full local economic recovery.

Until VTA comes up with a written guarantee for funding for BART 
to San Jose from either Governor Schwarzenegger, U.S. Secretary 
of Transportation Chief Norm Mineta, or President George W. Bush,
state and federal funding for the San Jose BART extension is
nonexistent for the time being.  In the meanwhile, SCVTARU urges
the VTA Board to use the $50 million to preserve transit fares 
and keep Silicon Valley's buses and light rail an affordable 
alternative to driving in automobile gridlock tonight at 6:00pm
in San Jose.

###

About the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union
--------------------------------------
Founded in October 2000 by Eugene Bradley, the Santa Clara VTA 
Riders Union is a grassroots-based organization dedicated to 
ensuring that elected officials improve and implement cost-effective, 
frequent, and reliable mass transit in Santa Clara County.  Our web 
site is at www.vtaridersunion.org.  We are based in Sunnyvale, CA.  
Our organization has absolutely no affiliation with, nor is endorsed 
by, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in any way 
whatsoever.

Note to Editors and News Desks:  More information on SCVTARU can be 
found at the following URLs:
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/whoarewe/who.html
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/PR