Grace Crunican, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) general manager, recently urged the federal government to continue funding a BART project.
The Transbay Core Capacity Program has secured $2.3 billion in funding but needs $1.25 billion in federal funding to move to the engineering phase. The Federal Transit Administration has delayed a Capital Investment Grants Program for more than a year.
The delay is costing taxpayers $120 million annually, BART estimates.
“BART District voters approved money for core capacity when they passed Measure RR,” Crunican said. “BART riders are contributing money to the project through their fares. Now it’s up to the federal government to do its part and take action.”
Once the project is completed, BART will be able to operate up to 30, 10-car trains hourly in each direction between Oakland and San Francisco through the existing Transbay Tube, an underwater rail tunnel. Current capacity is 23 trains an hour.
The program is expected to increase train frequency between the two cities by more than 30 percent and overall capacity by 45 percent.
Approximately 14,200 people hourly can drive across the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge on weekdays compared to up to 28,000 people commuting through the Transbay Tube.