State and Local Leaders Announce Funds to Assist in VTA Recovery Efforts

At a news conference earlier today, state and local leaders discussed an important announcement regarding recovery efforts following the horrific mass shooting that occurred at the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Guadalupe Rail Yard on May 26th of this year.

Watch a recording of today’s news conference at this link.

Earlier this month, Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose) made a budget request to the Governor alongside Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) to address VTA’s immediate need.

After weeks of ongoing discussions, the State Legislature is set to vote on a multi-million dollar VTA funding allocation, formed in partnership with Senate leadership, Assembly leadership, and the Governor’s Office, on Monday - AB 129 & SB 129.

 

 

Funding Breakdown 
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Amount: $20 million total

(Page 472 Line 38-39)
$10,000,000 to Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority for worker support and facility improvements.

(Page 430 Line 1)
$10,000,000 shall be available for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority for worker assistance, including mental health services, worker training, and retraining.

 

 

The funding will assist VTA in addressing the needs of VTA workers and their families, resuming their light rail service, as well as making initial repairs and safety upgrades at the VTA Guadalupe Rail Yard. 

I’d like to thank Governor Newsom, Senate and Assembly leadership, including Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins, for recognizing this urgent need and taking swift action to provide relief to employees that are struggling and to get the light rail services running again as soon as possible,” says Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose). “This deal is certainly not all that will be necessary, but it will address the very immediate and urgent need that exists right now to ensure that VTA and our community can rebuild in the aftermath of this tragedy.

I am grateful to the Budget Chairs, Senate and Assembly Leadership, and the Governor for including this crucial budget allocation to help our community heal in the wake of such a horrible tragedy” says Assemblymember Kalra. “These funds for worker mental health support, relocation and retraining, and facility upgrades, are imperative to addressing the workforce’s health and wellbeing, rebuilding regional transit, and preventing future workplace violence.”

The funds allow VTA to jumpstart their recovery process and meet their most pressing needs.

Funds can also go toward facility improvements including repairs, reconfiguring and relocation where necessary, as well as safety upgrades to ensure full light rail and bus services and to prevent future total light rail or bus system shutdowns.   

Nearly a hundred workers witnessed this tragedy firsthand and the long-term mental health impacts on workers are unknown and unfathomable. To this end, funds can also go toward supporting traumatized workers who lost colleagues through grief counseling, staff support and training considering that some employees may want to be retrained and relocated. 

Our community has truly come together in the wake of unconscionable and inconceivable loss and during a time of tremendous need to support our essential workers and their families,” says Jean Cohen, Executive Officer of the South Bay Labor Council. “Thank you to Senator Cortese and Assemblymember Ash Kalra for fighting for our workers and for taking steps to ensure we never experiences such a tragedy again.”

This money will give the Valley Transportation Authority the flexibility it needs to begin the long process of recovery and rebuilding after the deadliest mass shooting in Bay Area history. I want to thank State Senator Cortese, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, and Governor Newsom for recognizing the severity of the challenges VTA faces as an organization, and responding with an immediate infusion of resources,” says Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez.

Thank you to our state and local leadership for taking immediate action to support our workers that have been so devastatingly impacted by this senseless tragedy,” says John Courtney, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265. “We lost members of our family - essential union employees that provided vital public transit service everyday of this pandemic. This funding will go a long way as we work to build back our community.”

 

Background on the VTA Tragedy and the VTA Guadalupe Rail Yard Site

On May 26, a VTA employee entered the VTA Guadalupe Rail Yard and began a shooting rampage at 6:30 am that killed nine of his coworkers at the facility.  When San José Police Department officers and County of Santa Clara Sheriffs entered the facility just minutes later, the shooter took his own life.

This shooting is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Located at 101 West Younger Street in the City of San José, the VTA Guadalupe Rail Yard site operates as the nerve center of Santa Clara County’s local transit network (for bus and rail) and serves as the sole facility for VTA’s light rail vehicle storage and dispatch; light rail vehicle maintenance; light rail technical training; light rail maintenance training and the Way Power and Signal (WPS) Department, which dispatches crews that service tracks, overhead lines that run the trains, station maintenance, and field facilities, such as power substations. 

The most recent count of employees at Guadalupe before May 26th of 2021 was 379.

The Guadalupe Yard has been the only home for light rail equipment and activities in Santa Clara County since light rail service began in in 1987.  The Guadalupe Division, including all of its maintenance buildings, track, and parking is located on this 17.5-acre site bounded by SR-87 to the west, I-880 to the north, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office to the east, and a vacant site to the south. 

In addition to light rail, VTA’s main Operation Control Center is housed at Guadalupe Division, which manages communication with field units and all service vehicles, both light rail trains and VTA’s approximately 400 active transit buses each day.

The shooting occurred in locations integral to the operation of the light rail service, particularly adjacent to the Operation Control Center room and the entry to the entire second floor of the administration center. 

Light rail services have been suspended for the foreseeable future.

 

For more information, contact Tara Sreekrishnan, Office of Senator Dave Cortese, at 408 480 7833 or tara.sreekrishnan@sen.ca.gov.