San José Mineta International Airport Dedicated Transit Solution Moves Ahead

The City of San José is moving forward with an innovative, dedicated transit solution to connect the city’s two largest transportation hubs, Diridon Station and San José Mineta International Airport (SJC). The City Council voted yesterday to accept a staff recommendation to enter into a pre-development agreement with a group of firms under the name San Jose Connection Partners, led by equity partner Plenary Americas.

The staff recommendation follows a multi-year process and is based on a competitive request for proposals that was open from May until November of last year. The selection of San Jose Connection Partners was based on a combination of a strong team, an innovative and well-thought-out solution, and competitive costs.

Members of the San Jose Connection Partners team include:

• Plenary Americas (lead developer and equity provider)
• Glydways (transit technology provider)
• Webcor/Obayashi (lead design and construction contractors)
• HNTB (lead designer)
• ACI (operations and maintenance provider)

“Diridon Station is poised to become the most significant rail and bus hub on the West Coast in the decades ahead,” said San José Mayor Matt Mahan. “It just makes sense to connect this central station with San Jose’s exceptional airport, which serves over 11 million people per year. I’m hopeful that a public-private partnership will enable us to deliver a seamless connection cost-effectively for both riders and taxpayers.”

“This is an early step in an exciting, first-of-its-kind project for San José. The City is working to give people more car-free options that are safer, cleaner, and more pleasant than sitting in traffic,” said John Ristow, Director of Transportation. “We’re hoping that this project serves as a model for future transit solutions that can be quickly expanded across San José.”

“San José Mineta International Airport is on a positive growth trajectory, and our new airport branding sums up what travelers can expect at SJC: Fly Simple,” said John Aitken, Director of Aviation. “This new transit connection to our terminals will provide another convenient option for our passengers and reiterate why our airport is recognized as the #1 airport in North America for customer experience.”

“The San Jose Connection Partners team is incredibly excited to partner with the City of San José in creating an innovative, new transit solution to better connect the San José Mineta International Airport and Diridon Station,” said Dale Bonner, Executive Chairman at Plenary Americas. “We look forward to working with the City and key stakeholders on this project.”

Plenary Americas is a leading US infrastructure developer and investor. The company has a portfolio of 59 projects with a total value of more than $23 billion. Their proposal was thorough and clearly described a workable project that would share the cost and risk between them and the City. The proposed transit technology from Glydways uses small, autonomous vehicles driving along a fixed guideway. The proposed system is designed to initially carry over 2,000 passengers an hour in each direction.

By approving the staff recommendation, the City Council directs the administration to enter the first phase of a multi-phase agreement to develop the project. It will result in a “Project Feasibility Validation Report.” That report will allow the City to validate the technical, commercial, and financial viability of the proposed solution. If the staff validates the proposed approach, the project will again return to Council for consideration and direction to move on to the next phase. The second phase will include further design and environmental study.

The prospect of building a new transit system in less than a decade, with much lower cost to the public, is hopeful. If successful, the Airport to Diridon Connector Project could be expanded to other corridors across San José and the South Bay.