Significantly less than VTA had asked, but even $5.1B is a big win for a project that the FTA estimates will cost $12.7B for 32,900 daily riders (a staggering $386,000 per new rider)

Now Santa Clara County must raise another transit tax to close their budget, since project stakeholders refuse to descope, and indeed designed the project to be undescopable by starting construction from the far end. They can and will afford it: Santa Clara has the highest median household income in all of California.