USA: The Bay Area’s draft 2027–2030 Transportation Improvement Program places BART Silicon Valley Phase II and The Portal among more than 400 projects backed by $13.8 billion in committed funding.

BART train at Berryessa/North San José station with the station sign visible beside the platform.
BART train at Berryessa/North San José station. Photo: Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Draft 2027 TIP is a four-year funding program rather than a list of newly approved construction awards. MTC says inclusion in the TIP does not guarantee construction will start and does not itself allocate or obligate funds, even though funding shown in the four-year period must be committed or reasonably expected to be available.

That distinction matters for the two rail megaprojects. MTC’s project list shows very different funding timelines: The Portal has $4.6908 billion programmed within federal fiscal years 2027–2030, while BART’s Berryessa-to-San Jose extension has $30.702 million in that four-year window, with most of its programmed funding recorded in prior or future years.

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The Two Rail Projects Have Very Different Funding Timelines

Project Prior years
(USD m)		 FY2027–2030
(USD m)		 Future years
(USD m)		 Total programmed
(USD m)
BART – Berryessa to San Jose Extension 5,841.715 30.702 6,045.000 11,917.417
The Portal / Caltrain Downtown Extension 1,095.164 4,690.800 2,468.822 8,254.786

For The Portal, most of the four-year total is scheduled in FY2029/30, including $3.384 billion in “other federal” construction funding and $656.5 million in California Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program funding. The project is still in the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants Engineering phase, so those programmed amounts should not be read as a signed federal full-funding agreement.

BART Phase II Is Building the Tunnel Launch Site

VTA says BART Silicon Valley Phase II is in active construction. The six-mile, four-station extension will continue BART from Berryessa/North San José through downtown San José to Santa Clara. Its approximately five-mile single-bore subway is designed to carry two trackways, with underground stations at 28th Street/Little Portugal, Downtown San José and Diridon, plus a ground-level Santa Clara station and a new maintenance and storage facility.

Current work is concentrated at the West Portal/Newhall Yard launch structure and early station-site activities. VTA’s current project microsite targets construction through 2035, systems testing and commissioning in 2035–2037, and target revenue service in 2037.

The Portal Targets 2035 Service, Funding Dependent

The Portal is at a different stage. TJPA says 30% design is complete, the project remains in FTA CIG Engineering, and there is no main construction under way at present. Revenue service is anticipated in 2035, explicitly dependent on funding.

The approximately 2.2-mile underground extension would take Caltrain from Fourth and King to the already-built train box beneath Salesforce Transit Center. It includes a new underground Fourth and Townsend station, tunnel and ventilation/egress structures, track and rail systems, and fit-out of the two-level rail station below the transit center, with provision for future California High-Speed Rail service.

Public comment on the Draft 2027 TIP remains open until 5 p.m. on August 13, so the $13.8 billion program is still at draft stage.

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