BART Inches Closer to Building Oakland Airport Connector
BART is slowly pulling out of the station with $20 million of regional transportation money secured to build a controversial rail line connecting Coliseum Station to Oakland International Airport.
The funding awarded by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Wednesday only seems to have heightened the differences among BART's directors over whether to build a rail line critics say is costly and not worth the jobs it will create.
"We're talking 2,500 to 5,000 direct or indirect jobs. It would stimulate our economy," said BART director Carol Ward Allen.
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The three-mile line would cost nearly $500 million that director Tom Radulovich said would be better spent on infrastructure needs.
"Unfortunately we have this culture of boondoggle of or denial here at MTC and at BART where if new money becomes available we don't put it towards those essential transportation needs," said BART director Tom Radulovich.
BART's goal of replacing every one of its 669 rail cars with higher capacity cars that carry more riders, for example, will cost around $3.5 billion, a spokesman recently told KCBS.
BART lost a $70 million federal grant for the project because it did not adhere to certain guidelines. The transit agency is now trying to generate $50 million through federal loans and other sources.
