Published Friday, February 9, 2001, in the San Francisco Chroncicle
BART Considers Using Speedy Light Trains
Tracks exist in eastern section
Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
BART may deliver relief to gridlocked eastern Contra Costa not by
building a billion-dollar extension to Antioch but by running light,
speedy trains on existing railroad tracks.
The "eBART" proposal, as BART calls it, could cost just a tenth of
the price of an extension and reach much farther east, possibly into
the San Joaquin Valley.
BART planners have only begun exploring the idea, but say eBART
wouldn't necessarily prevent BART itself from being extended. Finding
the money and political will to extend BART more than 8 miles to
Antioch, however, would likely take more than a decade. Antioch has
been the envisioned end point of an extension from the existing
Pittsburg/Bay Point terminus.
The proposed eBART, on the other hand, could be rolling in three
years after it wins funding and go to Brentwood in far eastern Contra
Costa, and eventually to Tracy.
"As traffic has gotten worse, it's become clear that we need to find
a cost-effective way to bring relief to east county now, and a BART
extension could be a long way off," said Joel Keller, who represents
the area on the BART Board of Directors.
Keller asked BART staffers last year to look for an affordable
alternative to extending BART. They came up with eBART, which would
use diesel-powered light-rail vehicles on a little-used rail line
owned by Union Pacific Railroad.
BART would need to buy or lease the track.
A similar system -- the nation's first -- is under construction in
southern New Jersey.
The eBART trains would run between Brentwood through Oakley, Antioch
and Pittsburg, and terminate at the North Concord/Martinez station
where tracks come close to BART.
Trains -- depicted in a drawing as sleek and silver with the familiar
blue BART stripes -- would run every 15 to 20 minutes during the
morning and evening commute, and less frequently in between.
Several commuters interviewed as they waited for a Pittsburg/Bay
Point train last night at the Powell Street station in San Francisco
enthusiastically welcomed the idea.
"That would be wonderful," said Yvonne Rusting, an Oakley
resident. "They've had it in Europe for years. They really need it
here."
According to preliminary estimates by BART planners, it would cost
$100 million to buy the trains, lease and improve the rails and build
stations or platforms. The cost of running eBART would be an
estimated $5 million a year.
Keller and BART General Manager Tom Margro are shopping the idea to
local transportation authorities, in hopes of winning money to study
the idea.
While Keller expects many commuters will rave about the proposal, he
knows some eastern Contra Costa residents won't be satisfied.
"Some people will say we've been paying for a Cadillac all these
years and now you're offering us a Chevy," Keller said, "and some
will say, why spend all this money on a train when we need a wider
freeway? This proposal goes down the middle. It's realistic, it may
be achievable and it would provide congestion relief."
Union Pacific spokesman Mike Furtney said the railroad hadn't
discussed the idea with BART and had no comment.
Some rail and transit advocates who have criticized pricey BART
extensions praised the plan as a cost-effective and relatively quick
way to ease congestion.
"With the roads as clogged as they are, this is what people need
instead of dreams of getting BART sometime in 2030," said Stuart
Cohen, head of the Transportation Choices Forum.
But more important than the promise of traffic relief in eastern
Contra Costa, Cohen said, is BART's apparent willingness to try a
different approach.
Margro admitted that is a different way of doing business at BART.
"This is a bit out of the norm of what BART may have done in the
past," he said. "BART wouldn't have come up with anything other than
BART. But these are different times."
E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com.
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