⁴ᴷ⁶⁰ BART: Fleet of the Future and Legacy Trains at Milpitas (First Day of Service)

Welcome to Milpitas! After eight years of construction, Phase 1 of BART's Silicon Valley Extension has officially opened for passenger service on June 13, 2020. We promptly headed down the line to see the sights and film plenty of trains for you all.
Captured here are a majority of Fleet of the Future trains and some of the good-ol' legacy fleet on the first day of service at the rather beautiful Milpitas station. We did our best to show off snippets of the complex's aesthetic beauty, as well as the general atmosphere and ambiance of the place as trains whisk in and out.
Milpitas' entrance and structure are on the surface, with the platforms located just below. This configuration was chosen so trains could easily pass under the Montague and Capitol Expressways that enclose the station on two sides. Towards the southern end of the platform, the open sky lies above, similar to the semi-underground, slightly subterranean qualities of Balboa Park.
The station is the first stop in Santa Clara County for southbound Green and Orange line trains, and is located close to the Milpitas/San Jose border, as well as the Great Mall. VTA's Orange Light Rail Line, which operates between Alum Rock and Downtown Mountain View, is connected to the BART station via a pedestrian bridge over Capitol Expressway.
To watch some trains at Berryessa station, click here: • ⁴ᴷ⁶⁰ BART: Fleet of th...
To watch the first-ever public journey on a southbound train between Warm Springs and Berryessa, click here: • ⁴ᴷ⁶⁰ BART: Warm Spring...
To watch the return journey, from Berryessa to Warm Springs, click here: • ⁴ᴷ⁶⁰ BART: Berryessa/N...
Ever since BART’s inception, plans included service within San Jose’s city limits. This was indefinitely put on hold, however, when Santa Clara County pulled out of negotiations in 1957 in favor of building abominable expressways.
In the late 90s, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and East Bay officials met for preliminary discussions about the prospect of extending BART to San Jose. In 2000, VTA’s proposed sales tax for funding construction costs passed with 71 percent support. The line was to be built to Santa Clara, with stops at Diridon, Downtown San Jose, 28th St/Little Portugal, Berryessa, Milpitas, and Warm Springs/South Fremont.
Construction didn’t begin for another 12 years, at which point the extension had to be split into two phases due to the 2009 recession and subsequent budgetary shortfalls. The first phase was to be built to Berryessa, with one intermediate stop at Milpitas.
Originally slated to open in 2016, the extension experienced a series of setbacks that pushed the opening date back by four years. A likely partial culprit was the fact that the extension was built by one agency (VTA) and operates under another (BART), which caused no small amount of headaches during the construction period.
Nevertheless, construction and testing have been completed, and after decades of ambivalence and uncertainty, residents of Santa Clara County are able to board BART trains in their county for the first time.
The journey from Berryessa to Milpitas takes about four minutes, and an additional nine minutes to Warm Springs. The extension brings BART’s total station count to 50, and its total track mileage to 131.
In the year 2030, we may see the Orange and Green lines extended once again, this time further south as part of Phase 2 of the Silicon Valley extension to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara. The opening of Milpitas and Berryessa will likely remain the most recent expansion of the system for at least another decade.

[@FunWithMemesFunWithMemes]

Notice how the 4 newest stations (West Dublin/Pleasanton, Warm Springs, Milpitas, Berryessa) look so futuristic and sexy compared to all the other stations

[@michaelanthony2675]

New trains: sleek, sexy, modern

[@davidnissim589]

Man, that is one nice station.

[@dominicmatthews4686]

I think Bart 🚆 train new and old are awesome and amazing 👏 😀 Bart trains are the best

[@PHope-sl4nj]

I Love The New Milpitas Station.❤️

[@NomadicDmitry]

Both Milpitas and San Jose Berryessa stations are great :)

[@TheCloakedTiger]

The Milpitas station is so beautifully designed and it connects VTA light rail. I think this station is the missing link in the whole Bay Area transit system.

[@syomiraa]

To be honest, I used to hate the legacy trains.

[@davidnissim589]

I can go to the Great Mall without having to drive now!

[@phantompinoy]

Cool! Now I can go to Great Mall without the traffic!

[@SunRailMV]

Love that style!

[@contentdeleted670]

Thats such a nice station!

[@kidzanarkand]

Thank you for posting this. My toddler has been watching it for an hour now

[@galaxyrailfanning7860]

Awesome action!

[@bradleycrothers6577]

The lights by the platform is exactly what’s in the LA Metro Red/Purple line subways stations. It’s also in Berryessa, San Bruno and South San Francisco BART.

[@marcusarline1720]

Excellent

[@californiaporg]

I like the departing and arriving sounds on the legacy trains

[@c.alvarado503]

Thank you for posting this gotta make a trip down to the south bay some day just to hang around.

[@rcdo-ultrarailwaytransitfan76]

Nice I’ve Never Been To The New Stations Yet But They look nice tho

[@21xd09]

Absolutely stunning! Station definitely looks very sleek and modern! I wonder how many newer trains do you guys have in the fleet. Seems like they are beginning to out number the older legacy models. Nice video!