Bill Exempts Transit Extension From FTA Cost-Effectiveness Standards
Aug. 5–A few key words inserted into the massive transportation bill approved by Congress last week has removed a potentially insurmountable hurdle for the planned $4.2 billion BART extension to Silicon Valley.
The bill, expected to be signed by President Bush soon, exempts the 16.3-mile BART extension and three other projects nationwide from new cost-effectiveness standards issued by the Federal Transit Administration earlier this year.
The BART extension and the other three projects all were likely to flunk the FTA evaluation, which compares travel-time benefits for transit users against the overall cost of a project. The FTA had said any project that failed to score a “medium” cost-effectiveness rating in its evaluation would not be recommended for funding, and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority officials acknowledged there was no way the BART project could reach that threshold.
The exemption does not guarantee federal money for the BART project, but it at least means “it doesn’t get derailed,” said Jay Staunton, a spokesman for Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell, who worked to get the language inserted in the bill.
“There was a concern obviously for the BART project because the new standard posed the threat of leaving BART short of the new guideline,” Staunton said. In an announcement last week regarding the exemption, Honda noted the assistance he received from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco in getting the language included in the bill.
The other projects to receive exemptions were San Francisco’s Third Street light rail, a proposed rail project in Beaverton, Ore., and a rail link to Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C.
When the new standard was announced in March, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and other advocates of the BART extension complained that the Bush administration had changed the rules unfairly in the middle of the evaluation process for projects already under consideration.
“The bill allows the BART project to move ahead under the FTA rules that were in place last year,” said David Vossbrink, a Gonzales spokesman. “That means we can continue to move ahead with the goal of getting funding under the same criteria we started with.”
VTA expects to seek from $550 million to $750 million from the federal government for the BART extension.
Under the old rules, a project could still be recommended for funding even with a poor cost-effectiveness grade if good ratings for other considerations, such as land use and other environmental benefits, offset the poor result.
“Now their rating is not on just one factor. It enforces what we believe was the congressional intent all along — to base it all on a number of factors, not just cost effectiveness,” said Kurt Evans, legislative analyst for VTA.
To qualify for federal funds, however, VTA must still come up with a stable plan to pay for its share of the construction costs, and operating costs of the BART line, while not hurting existing transit services. Officials are considering putting a quarter-cent sales tax on the November 2006 ballot to make up for existing shortfalls.
Opponents of the BART plan were dismayed by the congressional action.
“By exempting this, Honda has basically admitted this project will never fare well compared to other projects and the only way to get it done is through pure political power and not through any objective, rational transportation planning process,” said Stuart Cohen, executive director of Oakland-based Transportation and Land Use Coalition.
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