South Bay transportation leaders are a step closer to pushing BART service deeper into Santa Clara County.

After a yearslong debate over whether to build one tunnel or two, VTA says it has now finalized its plan, settling on building a single tunnel underneath Santa Clara Street to bring BART to downtown San Jose.

VTA planners on Monday released a cost report that they will present to their board of directors on Thursday. They say drilling a single bore will be less disruptive to businesses and cheaper.

"Even before we escalate dollars from current dollars to future dollars, if we were building the subway right now the twin bore would cost approximately $600 million more than a single bore would cost," VTA Megaprojects Officer Tom Maguire said.

VTA planners compare the single bore plan

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