The 10-mile Bay Area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension project is on track to be completed by fall 2017. Here in town, test trains are expected to run on tracks leading into and out of the Milpitas BART Station in about six months, according to Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.

The station, the newest gateway into the city continues to take shape near the corner of Montague Expressway and East Capitol Avenue adjacent to the Great Mall, as critical elements come online including completion of a six-story parking garage, according to Nicole Franklin, a VTA spokesperson.

“Right now for the Milpitas station they are putting in some of the track work in the boarding area, some improvements for the pedestrian overcross which will connect the BART station to the VTA station,” Franklin said. “The parking garages have been topped off, the whole structure is complete and both the Milpitas and Berryessa stations will have 1,200 parking spots.”

She added all related trench work — where trains go underground in places between the Milpitas station and the Berryessa BART Station in San Jose — for the $2.3 billion extension has also been completed.

“For Milpitas, people would enter the station building at ground level and take the stairs or elevators down below ground to the loading platform,” Franklin said.

Because VTA operates all public transit in the South Bay and since Santa Clara County was not one of the original counties that initially joined the BART District Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties) VTA is building the Milpitas and Berryessa stations and handing them over to BART to run, VTA spokeswoman Brandi Childress said.

Likewise, VTA took over construction from where the new BART Warm Springs/South Fremont Station ends, Childress said. This involves VTA building two miles of track in Fremont, 4.5 miles of track in Milpitas and 3.5 miles of track in San Jose for the 10-mile extension.

The Milpitas and Berryessa stations are expected to see an estimated 23,000 daily passengers on opening day, with 13,000 expected at Berryessa and around 10,000 at the Milpitas station, Childress said. She added those numbers are expected to double by 2030.

The system in Milpitas, which is supposed to offer less than one-hour trips to San Francisco from the South Bay, will also feature a ground level concourse, below-ground boarding platforms, a connection to VTA’s light rail station, a private shuttle, a VTA bus transit station and a loading area for passengers.

The line will proceed in the former Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way through Milpitas, the first station, and then to Berryessa at the second station. If future funding is secured, the line is planned to extend to downtown San Jose and eventually Santa Clara.

Bernice Alaniz, VTA director of communications, said the stations were being constructed with a combination of local and state funds, and $900 million in federal funds.

Alaniz said a 30-year eighth-cent Santa Clara VTA sales tax for BART passed by Santa Clara County voters in 2008 and a 30-year half-cent sales tax for public transit capital improvement projects and operations approved in 2000 are being used to fund the construction and will also be used to fund maintenance and operations.

Alaniz said bringing BART into the South Bay is intended to relieve the “horrible traffic” on Interstates 680 and 880.

“VTA is contributing to 60 trains, with 40 intended to be used in this extension. When we add the extension it increases ridership overall…BART is getting all new trains we are contributing, they will just add them in as they come, we are contributing to the cost of the vehicles and we are sharing them,” Alaniz said.

According to VTA, the line and track systems for the entire 10-mile extension costs $772 million. Also, a six-story parking garage in Milpitas and a seven-story garage in Berryessa together cost an additional $86.9 million.

Franklin said ongoing contruction in Milpitas will include installing a canopy at the Montague light rail station, and finishing the BART track and then “energizing the system.”

Contact Aliyah Mohammed at amohammed@bayareanewsgroup.com or 408-262-2454 or follow her on twitter.com/Aliyah_JM. Visit us on our social media sites at facebook.com/MilpitasPost and twitter.com/MilpitasPost.