Preliminary engineering project for the BART line will continue
uninterrupted, VTA officials said, funded with local money.

Published Saturday, December 10, 2005, in the San Jose Mercury News

Setback for BART extension
Bid withdrawn for federal funds to bring BART to San Jose

By Barry Witt
Mercury News

With the Bush administration threatening to declare a planned BART
extension to Silicon Valley ineligible for federal funding, Santa
Clara County transportation officials announced Friday they were
abandoning their quest for federal money until they come up with a
better financial plan for the project.

The move represents a major -- though not necessarily fatal --
setback for the $4.7 billion, 16.3-mile line from Fremont to
Milpitas, San Jose and Santa Clara, for which the Valley
Transportation Authority was seeking $750 million in federal aid.

Authority officials say they will seek the federal money in a future
year. But they said before doing so, they must resolve the
transportation authority's ongoing financial problems and find a way
to improve the BART project's cost-effectiveness, which now rates at
the bottom of a federal scale and below a standard needed for
federal funding.

The most recent discussions have focused on a potential opening date
for the BART extension in 2018. Although the transportation
authority is not seeking federal money, locally funded engineering
work on the extension is continuing without interruption.

VTA's withdrawal, contained in a four-page letter to Transportation
Secretary Norman Mineta, came after Federal Transit Administration
officials warned the transportation authority in recent days that
the project was in trouble. The withdrawal occurred days after Sen.
Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell, had
touted their recent success in getting small appropriations approved
for BART project planning.

Federal transportation officials are scheduled to make
recommendations next week to the White House about which major
transit projects nationwide should remain in the pipeline for
federal funding, and a congressional source said the Bay Area Rapid
Transit District project was due to be dropped.

"I don't know where they would have ended up, but from our
discussion, it was not going to be positive for the project," said
VTA General Manager Michael Burns. Rather than be cut by the
administration, Burns decided instead to drop out first.

The transportation authority is "taking what I would call a `time-
out,' and it's a good idea," said John Flaherty, Mineta's chief of
staff. By ending its pursuit of federal money for the time being,
Flaherty said, the VTA can resolve ongoing differences with federal
transit officials over their ridership forecasts, attempt to improve
the project's cost-effectiveness and find a solution to the agency's
financial problems.

Key to the last point is whether the agency can persuade voters to
pass another quarter-cent sales tax in November. County voters
approved Measure A in 2000, a 30-year half-cent sales tax to pay for
BART, Caltrain improvements, new light rail lines and other transit
projects.

But revenues have fallen sharply with the downturn in the economy
while costs have gone up, and the agency lacks enough money to pay
for all the projects and operate them. To fund the local share of
BART's construction and operating costs today would require 84
percent of projected Measure A dollars, up from 33 percent that was
planned when voters approved the tax.

But to even get a tax on the ballot, the transportation authority
board of directors must first agree on how they would spend the
money, something they've been unable to do because of regional
divisions.

Representatives from the Peninsula and South County argue that BART
and other projects San Jose officials are demanding be kept in the
plan are coming at the cost of residents in their areas. But San
Jose officials contend the expensive projects that will serve San
Jose will be of benefit to the entire region.

A $170 million preliminary engineering project for the BART line
will continue uninterrupted, VTA officials said, funded with local
money.

A spokesman for BART's biggest booster, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales,
said the latest setback for the project was just another hurdle that
will have to be overcome.

"Ron is definitely confident this will not slow the project down,"
said David Vossbrink, the mayor's spokesman. "We're still moving
ahead with engineering."

Flaherty, the Transportation Department official who has a long
history in Santa Clara County as an aide to Mineta when he
represented the region in Congress, said he believed local officials
would eventually resolve their problems.

"We're encouraged by the commitment the county has shown," Flaherty
said.


Contact Barry Witt at bwitt@... or (408) 920-5703.