SAN FRANCISCO — After appearing to close a long debate in December with the decision to award construction contracts for a rail link to the Oakland International Airport, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District now faces the threat of losing $70 million in federal stimulus funding on civil rights grounds.
In a letter dated Jan. 15, Federal Transit Administration administrator Peter Rogoff told BART that the FTA is considering pulling a $70 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant from the project because it appears to have failed to conduct a civil-rights equity analysis of the service and fare changes the project will create.
The idea of building a rail connection to the Oakland airport has been floating around for two decades, according to BART, which provides rapid transit rail service to four San Francisco Bay Area counties.
Currently, a dedicated $3 bus service transports passengers the three miles between the airport and the nearest BART station. The fare for the connector train is not yet set.
The rail link proposal has always had vocal critics who argue that the project is a boondoggle that won’t deliver benefits commensurate to the price tag.
An earlier procurement attempt fizzled out in late 2008, after none of the qualified bidders proved willing to submit a bid.
The project was revived last year with the help of federal stimulus funds and an economy that encouraged more aggressive bids.
The final deal the BART board approved in December calls for spending $492 million to build the driverless train system. It will be funded largely through grants paid for by regional taxes and tolls, but also with the expectation of the $70 million ARRA grant and a plan to apply for a $79 million federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan.
With the approval of the contract, the project’s backers thought they were in the clear, but the FTA’s January letter, citing “serious concerns” about the project, appears to place a large question mark over it.
The letter gave BART a very tight timeline to respond, and threatened the loss of the $70 million grant, not just to the agency but the entire region.
The letter strongly suggested that the region’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission allocate the stimulus grant funding to another project or projects.
According to Rogoff’s letter, ARRA’s language requires the transit administration to withdraw un-obligated grants by March 5.
“By law, those funds must be redistributed to other urbanized areas or states that have not had funds withdrawn,” the letter said.
“If BART were to fail in any respect to make progress or to meet its deadlines as established in the action plan, FTA would have to de-obligate the ARRA funds for the project and would be prohibited by law from re-obligating those funds to alternative projects in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Rogoff’s letter said.
The FTA’s concern, in a nutshell, is that BART has failed to conduct an equity analysis, required under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, on the potential impact the project’s service and fare changes would have on minority communities. The FTA’s analysis came in response to a complaint filed by opponents of the connector project.
BART officials insist the agency will satisfy the administration before the deadline.
“We’re trying to work closely with the FTA in terms of resolving the outstanding issues they need to see resolved,” said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, meeting last Wednesday, voted to restate its support for keeping the ARRA grant with the airport connector project. However, it hedged its bets by scheduling a special meeting for Feb. 17, allowing it the option of revisiting the grant before the FTA’s deadline.
It is unclear what would happen to the project without the ARRA grant.
“We’re not focused on that,” Johnson said. “We’re focusing on working with the FTA as we have in years past — the FTA often asks for additional information on a project.”
Closing of the construction contracts is conditioned on the ARRA grant being finalized.
The airport connector has been described in the past as a public-private partnership project, but all the financing comes from the public.
The procurement departs from tradition through its use of a design-build-operate-maintain structure, in which Dopplemayer Cable Car, one member of the consortium selected to build and run the system, Flatiron/Parsons JV, would operate the connector trains for 20 years, in addition to supplying the rolling stock.
The $492 million cost figure is for building the line and obtaining the trains.
BART is assuming that fare collections for the airport connector will pay for the annual operating costs of the system, as well as repay money borrowed through TIFIA or, if the loan is not approved, through the bond market.
