Bay Area Rapid Transit District

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system will need $500 million in long-overdue rehabilitation work if the system is going to stay on track, General Manager Frank Wilson said. "My favorite expression here is that BART's people think the rapid transit system is eternally young," Wilson said. "That is not true." The 18-year-old system will start to look like the New York and Philadelphia systems unless BART can raise $500 million over 15 years and completely change its management approach, he said.

Nervous transit officials Friday prepared alternate plans to ease the commuter chaos from a threatened strike by Bay Area Rapid Transit unions. Meanwhile, negotiations continued, despite overwhelming votes by two unions Thursday night to reject the latest contract offer. A strike, slated to begin at midnight today if negotiations fail, could strand as many as 275,000 BART riders Monday morning.

After years of planning and major delays, an opening date has finally been set for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system extension to the San Francisco International Airport. BART officials said Sunday, June 22, will mark the public opening for the 8.7-mile, four-station airport extension. "The opening of the extension means you can go from home to Rome, or any other destination in the world," San Mateo County Supervisor Mike Nevin said Thursday. "BART is our connection to the world."

Preliminary engineering work will begin next month on a 13-mile, two-station extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit into the Livermore Valley, directors decided. The move represents the first extension of the 71-mile system since it was completed in 1976. Most of the construction will be funded from a half-cent sales tax approved last year by voters in Alameda County and from state and federal highway grants.

A rush-hour transit train carrying 300 commuters derailed Friday morning near the site of a derailment earlier this month. No one was injured, authorities said. The incident occurred at 7:15 a.m. between the Daly City and Balboa Park stations of Bay Area Rapid Transit, BART spokesman Sy Mouber said.

An estimated 1,000 rush-hour commuters were evacuated from an underground BART train Wednesday after electrical arcing dropped ceiling tiles near a train car, cutting power and possibly starting a small fire. There were no injuries in the 8:54 a.m. outage at the 19th Street station, according to Capt. Mike Kelly of the Oakland Fire Department. Bay Area Rapid Transit's Concord-to-San Francisco trains resumed normal service through the 19th Street station by 11:16 a.m.

Officials with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system may continue costly, all-night service on the system after the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge reopens, a spokesman said Friday. The overnight service costs an average of $17 a passenger. Officials do not want to turn away the estimated 130,000 new BART riders that have used the system since the Oct. 17 quake.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system has adopted a $475.2-million operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The budget, approved Thursday, closes a $42-million shortfall, largely through the elimination of 143 employee positions. Most of the jobs were eliminated through attrition, but BART expects to lay off 42 workers unless it can negotiate changes in work rules with its labor unions. The budget avoids raising fares.

Bay Area residents may have to alter their commuting routes if BART workers go on strike Sept. 4. A 2,800-worker walkout would seriously affect the more than 300,000 commuters who use BART daily, said Bay Area legislators who pressed BART board members Thursday to resolve differences with three unions.