Published Sunday, January 18, 2004, in the San Jose Mercury News

Letter to the editor

Stop sinking money into BART to S.J.

It's no surprise that the Federal Transit Administration will rate
BART to San Jose as "not recommended" (Page 1A, Jan. 16
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/15934>).
Federal guidelines require the Valley Transportation Authority to show
it can afford to complete the project and continue to operate existing
service. <http://www.mtcwatch.com/pdfiles/09-02_FTA2002_FinCap.htm>
VTA doesn't come close.
<http://www.mtcwatch.com/pdfiles/9-24-03VTA%20memo.htm>

A few months ago, the VTA revealed that putting all of 30-year Measure
A into building BART to San Jose isn't enough to build it, even with
maximum borrowing. <http://www.mtcwatch.com/pdfiles/9-03_VTA_FundsMemo.pdf>
<http://www.mtcwatch.com/pdfiles/10-03_VTAonBART.htm>
That was before the state struck $760 million for the project from the
budget.

VTA borrowed more than $200 million this year, including $80 million
to sustain basic operations. Now, incredibly, VTA, which hasn't yet
figured out how it will pay for next year's operations, may borrow $51
million for an engineering study of the un-buildable BART project.

There will be enough money in Measure A to complete many projects, but
building BART, with its enormous cash flow requirements, is not going
to be one of them. Transit advocates hope VTA will focus its
attention on public transportation improvements that will bring relief
quickly to Santa Clara County: the Caltrain Baby Bullet, Caltrain
electrification, Dumbarton rail service, rapid transit bus service and
real-time schedule information.

Margaret Okuzumi
Executive director, BayRail Alliance <http://www.bayrailalliance.org>
Sunnyvale