VTA 47 (Milpitas BART — McCarthy Ranch via Park Victoria)
and other acts of pure bus cannibalism
In January, the 47 route is scheduled to absorb the 44 route, which I reviewed here. This is a move we could have seen from a mile away — the value of the 44 route came from its connection to Alder LRT (which, for the record, is the part being absorbed by 47), and Alder to Milpitas is covered by the light rail.
47 is a 30 minute jaunt through the Milpitas suburbia, starting at Milpitas BART/Transit Center and ending at the McCarthy Ranch strip mall out near the salt ponds. It deviates in the middle to serve the surprisingly nice Milpitas Library.
the route
I’ll be riding the 44 and 47 on one bus. That’s how connected these two routes are. We started at Milpitas, leaving the Transit Center, then turning onto the horrendously wide Montague Expressway heading east.
From Montague, it’s a right onto Park Victoria to get us deeper into beautiful suburbia. Not much to see up here. It’s suburban subdivisions, as well as the most bougie, Chipotle-looking fire station I have ever seen.
On Calaveras Boulevard, more of the same. We passed a freeway, though, this time! The bus makes a deviation to Milpitas Library at this point in time — the core of the building is the NRHP-listed Milpitas Grammar School, surrounded by a massive modern annex. It’s an impressive facility!
This is one of the few truly urban or urban-feeling parts of Milpitas. Importantly, this is also where 47 interlines with the frequent 66 route, which should really have a Rapid line superimposed on it.
Well, it’s back into the ‘burbs. Just as boring. We continued onto Calaveras, then off onto McCarthy, making our way around the McCarthy Ranch shopping center to our terminus at the Walmart. This is where the 47 ends and 44 (RIP) begins.
in review
This is a heavily trafficked route. I rode this on a Sunday afternoon, when transit service is at its least frequent and (supposedly) least needed. The bus was consistently half-full throughout the route, and considering its hourly frequency on Sundays, this is disappointing at best. The axing of route 44 provides little improvement to service hours nor frequency on 47. It’s, frankly, a major disappointment.
The neighborhoods it goes through are pretty well-set for transit! Definitely nothing too special — it’s a suburban route going through suburbs, after all — but its service of downtown Milpitas is pretty fast and competent. Its intersection with 66 around the library makes for very easy travel between the BART station and downtown.
final thoughts
6/10 — THIS ROUTE HAS THE BONES! It’s got everything for a good suburban route except for investment in it! These new service changes have been a squandered opportunity for VTA to try something new in Milpitas that isn’t microtransit, and they’ve largely swung and missed on it. The ridership was higher than I had expected, and its route hit lots of important neighborhoods and areas around Milpitas. I’ll say it again: this route has the fundamentals down!