U.S. Officials Pull Funding for Bay Area Transit Project

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal officials, citing a failure to adequately study the civil rights impacts of the project, have followed through on a threat to withdraw a $70 million stimulus grant that was to help finance a rail link between Oakland International Airport and the nearest Bay Area Rapid Transit District train station.

In January, Federal Transit Administration chief Peter Rogoff issued a warning letter, saying BART appeared to have failed to conduct required civil-rights analysis of the service and fare impacts of its $492 million airport people mover project on low-income and minority communities.

The 3.2-mile automated train line is supposed to replace an existing bus service that charges a $3 fare. The fare for the planned connector train had not been set.

Rogoff issued a follow-up letter Friday, rejecting BART's proposed corrective action plan.

On the same day, the executive director of regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Steve Heminger, announced that in order to preserve the $70 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant for the Bay Area region, the MTC would shift it away from the BART project to a variety of smaller back-up projects for a number of local transit operators, including BART.

The airport connector project has been discussed for years, and an earlier public-private partnership procurement effort fizzled out in late 2008, after none of the qualified bidders proved willing to submit a bid.

BART officials revived the project 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. Most of the capital funding was to come from grants paid for by regional taxes and tolls, but was also predicated upon receipt of the $70 million ARRA grant.

BART also planned to apply for a $79 million federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan, with the intent of issuing bonds if the TIFIA funding wasn't forthcoming.

Loss of the $70 million stimulus grant could well bring an end to the connector project, BART general manager Dorothy Dugger said at a news conference Friday, after the FTA's decision was announced.

"It was the availability of $70 million in stimulus funding in the winter of 2009 that made delivery of this project and pursuit of this project possible," she said. "Without a solution to close that funding gap, the project cannot go forward."

BART approved construction contracts to build the connector in December, but closing of the contracts was conditioned on the ARRA grant being finalized.

Earlier attempts to build the connector were described as public-private partnership projects, but under the most recent funding scenario all the money came from the public.

The airport connector project has vocal critics who argue that it is a boondoggle. They helped trigger the FTA review, Dugger said.

"Longtime opponents of this project are using the Civil Rights Act to stop the Oakland Airport Connector project and the thousands of jobs it will bring to this region, many of which would be held by minority workers," Dugger said Friday.

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