BART Extension Kerfluffle: East Bay Officials Pushing for New Rail Authority

If the city of Livermore and several state legislators gets their way, a proposed extension of BART to the city of Livermore would be planned and built by the Tri Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority.

April 17, 2017, 11am PDT | James Brasuell | @CasualBrasuell

A BART train at what is now the penultimate station on the Dublin/Pleasanton line.

Eric Fischer

Flickr

"Fed up with delays, the [Livermore] City Council on Monday backed a proposal to take away control from BART directors for building an extension to Livermore," reports Angelo Ruggiero.

With the vote, the City Council supported state legislation that would create a new rail authority for the BART-to-Livermore project, called the Tri Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority.

"The Tri Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority would plan a regional rail connection between BART, Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) in the Tri-Valley, or a new regional connection between the valley and San Joaquin County, according to a city report," adds Ruggiero.

The article includes scathing assessments from local officials of BART's planning of an extension to Livermore. Michael Tree, executive director of the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority, is quoted in the article saying the regional transit system has "no intention of bringing BART to Livermore." BART President Rebecca Saltzman responded by noting that BART is expecting to finalize an Environmental Impact Review for the project later this year.

Full Story:

Livermore says BART board doesn’t care, wants local control over new station

Published on Monday, April 10, 2017 in East Bay Times