East Bay officials unhappy as BART keeps Irvington station plans on ice

FREMONT — A more than 30-year wait for East Bay residents will get even longer before they can use a planned Irvington BART station in Fremont — with a major funding gap putting the project on hold indefinitely, evaporating hopes for an opening early in the next decade.

Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Fremont, recently scolded BART for what she calls a “failure” to apply for state Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) grant money to help pay for the long-awaited Irvington station. BART told this news organization it decided to focus its efforts on a different project while dealing with a deepening fiscal crisis.

But Fremont officials say the decision will set back the station’s progress even further, after previously projecting construction to start sometime this year with an expected opening in 2031. City leaders maintain they’ve seen little to no progress from BART on the project since at least 2024, while they have continued building housing near the projected site with a promise to residents of a future station.

In a Jan. 26 letter to BART Board President Melissa Hernandez and other officials, Wahab slammed BART for “leaving state dollars on the table” by not including the Irvington station in its funding application last year, calling it “unacceptable.”

Since 2014, the state has allocated over $11.5 billion to transit agencies across California for various transit improvement projects, including BART. But, Wahab said, the agency appears to have forgotten its promise to build out Irvington station, which has faced repeated delays since it was first studied as part of the Warm Springs extension in 1979 and approval by the BART board in 1992.

The site currently awaits a station around the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Osgood Road, about halfway between the existing Fremont and Warm Springs/South Fremont stations.

The station would serve nearby residents, including those in the still-pending Arbor View and Affordable Housing on Osgood developments that include hundreds of future affordable housing units, in an area designated for transit-oriented development by the Metropolitan Transit Commission. The neighborhood is close to Ohlone College, Mission San Jose, the Mission Peak Trail and other heavily visited local attractions, according to the city of Fremont’s fact sheet.

Responding to Wahab, Hernandez wrote that Fremont is “responsible for taking the lead to secure funding for station construction” and that “the responsibility ultimately is with the city of Fremont.” Hernandez did not respond to a request to comment on this report, instead pointing to her letter, which also says BART has “prolonged financial shortfalls of approximately $350 million annually.” This leaves the agency “unable to commit funding” to the Irvington station, she wrote.

In her letter, Hernandez notes that BART is preparing to potentially close 15 stations and reduce service by nearly 70% if a proposed upcoming transit tax ballot measure fails in this year’s election — meaning that funding the Irvington station “is not prudent” and is considered a “significant risk” if BART’s services tank next year.

Apart from a financial crisis, BART has also recently suffered systemwide disruptions and meltdowns — including stoppages and delays caused by fires and power outages — that have plagued riders with halted trains and lackluster service. The agency is pushing voters to potentially approve billions of dollars in a sales tax ballot measure headed for this November election.

For the time being, BART officials decided to focus the agency’s efforts to secure state funding for its “highest priority,” the Transbay Core Capacity Project, according to BART spokesperson Alicia Trost. This project is focused on bumping the agency’s operations to include 30 ten-car trains per hour, or more than 300 additional railcars total, alongside other improvements such as a new control system, a new railcar storage yard in Hayward and adding more power substations to improve service. The agency currently runs a maximum of 24 trains per hour in each direction through the Transbay Tube between San Francisco and Oakland.

But Fremont officials, acknowledging BART’s financial challenges, say the agency still has a responsibility to help the city where it can to get the station built as soon as possible.

Fremont Public Works Director Hans Larsen said the design of the project is about 80% done, and nearing “shovel-ready” status, pending further funding. There are also still three parcels of land that BART needs to acquire to complete the project.

In 2023, the city estimated starting construction on the project sometime this year and opening in 2031. But an updated timeline for the project can’t be set unless BART applies for state TIRCP funding or finds an alternate source of funds for the project.

If BART misses the upcoming May 16 deadline for the next cycle for TIRCP funding applications, the proposed station faces even more uncertainty; the state has not yet determined when the next application window will open.

“We were very confident that there were a lot of ways to be able to get this into construction at the time,” Larsen said. “Unfortunately, the reality of the operating crisis kicked in and the project has been a bit frozen in time.”

 

The city previously secured $120 million in funding when voters in 2014 approved Measure BB, a 30-year half-percent sales tax increase meant for transportation improvements countywide. Fremont officials have since identified TIRCP as the most effective source to fill a more than $200 million funding gap holding the station’s construction back, outside of another ballot measure.

“Long story short, everything is lining up, but we have not been getting a straight answer from BART,” Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan said. “It has been very challenging to get any commitment.”

While the agency has yet to apply for funds for the station, it still can sometime in the near future.

“We feel like we’re just getting the runaround,” Salwan said. “We’re not asking for money, we just want them to sign the application and submit it.”