BART Airport Extension Opening Day?

[BOOGE]

Does anyone know if a date has been set to open the extension of the Colma
line to the Airport and Millbrae? I am also interested in the opening of
the peoplemover at SFO.

[Richard Mlynarik]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1997/11/03/MN94.DTL
"About 68,000 people a day are expected to use the extension
when it opens, currently scheduled for sometime in late 2001."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/07/11/MN12298.DTL
"The 8.2-mile extension is expected to start operating in 2001."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1999/01/20/NEWS10473.dtl
"... set to open by 2001"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1999/02/06/NEWS14615.dtl
"... will be completed by the end of 2001 ..."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/06/15/MN47BAR.DTL
"Expected to open in December 2001..."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/05/11/MNR4BA4.DTL" "... by the end of 2001."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/07/17/MN76661.DTL
"...completed by New Year's Eve 2001..."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/08/18/MNR5BA5.DTL
"The stations are slated to open New Year's Eve 2001."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/12/08/MNW93168.DTL
"...is now scheduled to open in fall 2002..."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/06/06/MN136875.DTL
"...expected to open in fall 2002."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/08/05/TR97377.DTL
"won't open until autumn 2002, at the earliest."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/01/29/MN76282.DTL

One Bay Area transportation official who asked not to be
named also expressed concern that "any new money that
goes into the BART project doesn't jeopardize any other
transportation project or agency in the area."

Margro denied that this will ever happen.

"We are not talking about taking money from anybody," he
said. "We're not talking about depriving any other agency in
the Bay Area of any money. This idea that BART is going to
starve everyone else out is just rhetoric inspired by people
who don't like this project."

Here's another good one:

http://search.newschoice.com/ArchiveDisplay.asp?story=d:\index\newsarchives\ang\anghe\fpg\20011230\1282459_m2as130.txt

BART SJ cost may rise to $5-6B, ex-director says

Published Sunday, December 30, 2001, in the Tri-Valley Herald

BART's way to San Jose a tricky one
Keeping down building costs will be no small feat in itself

By Sean Holstege
Staff Writer

The last time the Bay Area embarked on a massive BART expansion,
vaulting over political hurdles was the challenge to reaching San
Francisco International Airport. That was 13 years ago.

[...]

BART construction managers are staying out of the airport
issue, but they warn of other lessons to be learned from the
SFO project. There, they had to dig through Colma's cemeteries
without disturbing graves, had to tunnel through San Bruno and
face lawsuits by disrupted businesses and had to build around
the habitat of a protected garter snake.

Construction Manager James Van Epps says the 8.4-mile
extension, now 89 percent complete, is on course to finish on
time, close to budget.

[...]

Hey, Jim, would that be the $610 million budget, the $890 million budget,
the $1167 million budget, the $1500 million budget, or the $1800 million budget?
Just curious.

[Ian Kluft]

You can bet they'll make a big deal about it when an opening date is
announced. No such announcements are up yet.

According to an SFO Airport press release yesterday, the SFO airport people
mover ("AirTrain") will have a "preview tour" for the media only this morning
at 10AM. The opening is still described vaguely as "in 2002".
http://www.flysfo.com/about/press/releases/SF-02-09.pdf

Current estimates for BART on the web are "late 2002". They've delayed that
estimate before so you'd be safer expecting early 2003 and just be pleasantly
surprised if it opens before that. My own hunch is that they may not have
enough of a handle on the construction progress to announce an opening day
until about 3-6 months before they're ready to open. So don't expect to hear
anything before Summer at the earliest.

Here's where to look when more info becomes available...

SFO info on BART http://www.flysfo.com/future/construction/bf_ccn_bart.asp
SFO airport rail http://www.flysfo.com/future/construction/bf_ccn_rail.asp
BART SFO extension http://www.bart.gov/about/sfo/
BART news releases http://www.bart.gov/news/
BART newsletter http://www.bart.gov/news/newsletters/

When it's announced, it'll be all over the media too. And ba.transportation.