Transportation News Items

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)  -- Despite some dramatic improvements in Bay Area air quality over the last 20 years, pollution remains a significant factor in thousands of premature deaths every year.

Over the last several months, we've written occasionally about the need to solve the impending transit funding crisis. For longer than that, we've worked around the country, but especially in California and New York, to find new and innovative ways to advance transit service. Lately, we've also implored Congress to provide emergency funding to keep drivers employed as legislators have considered jobs bills.

How the deal fell through: An annotated guide to the Oakland Airport connector

November 2000 – Alameda County voters approve a sales tax for a list of possible transportation improvements. A new link from the Coliseum BART station to the Oakland International Airport is included in this list. TransForm and other nonprofits begin working with BART on the project.

July 2001 – BART completes a draft of the Environmental Impact Statement on a new link from the Coliseum BART station to the Oakland International Airport. BART Proposes a train which would cost $200 million to build, and then $7.3 million annually to operate (by 2020). For comparison, the existing bus service would cost around $2 million to operate annually.

March 2002 – BART completes the final Environmental Impact Report. It finds that a train on it’s own dedicated track is the preferred option. The BART board votes to build it.

By Malia Wollan

SAN FRANCISCO — The Federal Transit Administration pulled $70 million in stimulus money from a planned expansion of the commuter rail service here Tuesday after it found that the local rail agency had not appropriately studied the project’s impact on low-income and minority residents.