SF Gate: BART to link to SFO June 22/After many delays, latest date is firm, transit officials say

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Friday, April 18, 2003 (SF Chronicle)
BART to link to SFO June 22/After many delays, latest date is firm, transit=
 officials say
Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer


   The mystery that has vexed Bay Area residents and visitors alike for
months, even years, has finally been answered.
   June 22 is the day that BART's extension to San Francisco International
Airport will open to the public.
   After decades of planning, months of delays and a couple of squashed
endangered garter snakes, BART officials -- joined by a passel of
politicians - - announced the opening date Thursday by pulling a sheet off
a sign reading: "BART to SFO . . . BART to the world, June 22, 2003."
   "It has taken about 47 years to get to this point," said Pete Snyder,
president of the BART Board of Directors, referring to a 1956 study that
recommended construction of BART with a link to the airport. "But when
that first train glides into the airport, it will have been worth the
wait."
   This is not the first time BART officials have given a projected opening
date for the 8.7-mile, four-station SFO extension, though it is the most
specific. When BART broke ground in November 1997, officials predicted
that the first train would roll down the Peninsula from Colma and into
SFO's international terminal by the end of 2001.
   But weather -- and the endangered snakes that were crushed at a
construction site -- forced BART to push the starting date back to late
fall 2002.
   Then in July of last year, BART officials admitted they wouldn't be able
to open in time for the holidays and predicted a January start.
   In early January, they backed off that promise and refused to do any more
speculating until contractor Tutor-Saliba/Slattery completed the project
and handed it over to BART for final testing.
   That finally happened Monday -- and BART officials set the opening date.
   "It's not going to change again, is it?" joked San Francisco Mayor Willie
Brown, as he arrived at an Embarcadero station ceremony to announce the
opening date. "You guys keep changing the date."
   BART officials assured the mayor he would be able to ride a train into S=
FO
on June 22 -- the second day of summer.
   "We're sure the opening date is going to stick," said Tom Margro, BART's
general manager.
   8 WEEKS OF TESTING
   While the contractors have tested the components of the extension, BART
will now begin about eight weeks of comprehensive testing, running trains
from other parts of the system onto the extension as if it were in
service.
   "We'll be running trains, we'll have people out there in (station agent)
booths, we'll be making sure everybody knows where everything is," Margro
said.
   The official opening day -- a Sunday -- will be preceded by a couple of
celebratory openings: a private reception on June 20 and a public ceremony
on June 21.
   "This will be not only a benefit to tourists and visitors to our city but
to residents of the Bay Area who will be able to hop on a train and get to
the airport," said James Fang, a BART director who said he'd pushed for
the SFO extension since joining the board in 1990.
   4 NEW STATIONS
   While everyone refers to the extension as the SFO extension, the airport
is just one of four stations. Heading south from Colma, trains will stop
in South San Francisco and San Bruno, with some heading straight to the
airport and others heading to Millbrae, a major transit hub where BART
will share a station with Caltrain. A shuttle train will carry passengers
between Millbrae and the airport.
   Trains on the Dublin/Pleasanton line will serve SFO directly, with
Pittsburg/Bay Point line trains heading to Millbrae. But Margro said some
Pittsburg/Bay Point trains might be scheduled for direct trips to and from
SFO.
   Passengers on other lines would need to either transfer to a direct train
to get to the airport or catch the shuttle train in Millbrae.
   "The opening of the extension means you can go from home to Rome, or any
other destination in the world," said San Mateo County Supervisor Mike
Nevin, who worked to bring BART into his county. "And BART is our
connection to the world."
   E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at mcabanatuan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx=20
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Copyright 2003 SF Chronicle

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