Decision casts doubt on extending rapid transit line to San
Jose
For the second year in a row, federal transportation officials have told Congress not to provide funding to Bay Area Rapid Transit’s planned extension to San Jose without credible ridership projections and a solid funding plan.
“I was expecting this,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, who also is a member of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s board of directors. “Number one, they told us they were not giving out that kind of money, and number two, we needed to bring costs down and we haven’t been able to do that.”
Jenna Dorn, an administrator with the Federal Transportation Administration, said the VTA “needs to do some work and sort out those issues.”
Last year, the federal agency also advised Congress not to give any money toward the plan to extend BART about 16 miles from Fremont to downtown San Jose. Although Congress isn’t required to follow the agency’s recommendations, its advice carries a lot of weight in the competition for limited dollars.
By not recommending the BART extension, the federal agency spurned supporters’ request for $973 million to help pay for the project. FTA officials believe it will cost $6.2 billion to build the extension, up from original estimates of $4.1 billion.
Critics of the extension said the recommendation supported their contention that the South Bay can’t afford the project and that it may be doomed to fail.
“There’s a lot of work that has to be done and without that money it’s going to be very difficult,” Gage said. “If the feds don’t come through, then the state’s not going to come through, and we have to have that money to do BART.”
VTA officials said the BART extension continues moving ahead with preliminary engineering work and environmental studies.
