Congress Appropriates $65 Million for BART Extension to SFO.

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 1999--

BART Board President Dan Richard said today he is pleased with the news out of Washington that Congress has appropriated $65 million in the Federal Government's FY00 budget for the BART Extension to San Francisco International Airport.

"This was the second largest appropriation made by Congress for a single transit project in the nation for the coming year," Richard said. "It marks another major step in the long-awaited BART extension to San Francisco International Airport."

Richard thanked both California's Congressional delegation and members of the Senate and House appropriations committees for their work in getting the appropriation through Congress.

"I especially want to thank California's Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Representatives Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, Ellen Tauscher of Danville and Tom Lantos of San Mateo for their strong effort on behalf of the BART-SFO Extension, and for representing the people of California and the Bay Area so well in Washington," Richard said.

"And we, the people of the Bay Area, must also recognize Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), chair of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Virginia), chair of the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, for shepherding the appropriations through their committees. They are helping lead the way to a transit system that, by serving the fifth busiest airport in the nation, will serve the interests of the nation."

Washington has pledged $750 million in a Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) as the Federal portion of the $1.5 billion project. The FFGA was issued by the Federal Transit Administration in July 1997. Congress has already appropriated $154 million since 1993.

"With the fastest growing, most robust regional economy in the United States, the need for regional rail service to the airport is of paramount importance to the people of the Bay Area and to the United States," Richard said. "The Bay Area is still America's gateway to the people, the nations and the economies of the Pacific Rim."

The extension is expected to carry nearly 70,000 passengers per weekday by the year 2010, including nearly 18,000 trips to the airport each weekday.

Overall, four of the five contracts for the extension, totaling more than 90 percent of the work on the 8.7-mile, four-station project, have already been awarded. These include the largest single contract, the Line, Trackwork and Systems Contract that includes all track structures and trackwork from Colma to Millbrae and part of the aerial structure serving the airport; the power, communications and computerized train control systems for the entire project, and the subway boxes and shells for stations at South San Francisco and for San Bruno at Tanforan.

Two miles of cut-and-cover tunnel work have already been completed under that contract.

Work on the Millbrae Station and parking structure also has begun. It entails building the southern terminus station of the extension and future hub of a regional transportation system connecting for the first time the BART and Caltrain systems to link five counties of the Bay Area through 182 miles of rail service.

The 102,000-square foot, five-track Millbrae Station -- three BART tracks and two Caltrain -- will have two center platforms and one side platform with an overhead concourse containing ticketing and fare collection facilities. The station will feature a central platform shared by BART and Caltrain, allowing convenient transfers between the two systems. Escalators, elevators and stairs will connect the concourse and platforms.

The station will also offer a 2,100-space parking structure, adjacent surface parking for 900 vehicles, and internal bus and auto circulation roads.

And two weeks ago BART held the Construction Kickoff for the San Bruno Station.

Meanwhile, officials at San Francisco International Airport, which is overseeing construction of the BART terminal at the airport's new International Terminal, report work on the project is progressing on schedule.

The BART-SFO Extension is a partnership of BART, the Federal Transit Administration, SamTrans, San Francisco International Airport, the California Transportation Commission and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

The extension is targeted to open for service by the end of the year 2001.