Feds Tout Funding For BART to San Jose Extension

Feds give nod to funding for BART extension.

Sixty years is a long time to wait for a train. But take heart, San Jose: your chariot -- or at least the funding required to build the chariot -- awaits.

Federal transportation officials were expected to tell Congress on Tuesday to allocate $900 million to BART, so that the transit agency can build a $2.3 billion extension from Fremont to San Jose sometime over the next decade, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The recommendation has a 60-day review period that's but a mere "formality," the newspaper reported. The first bundle of $130 million could arrive next year.

Work could begin as early as this summer with the BART line beginning service in 2016.

Washington's nod for the project is a significant turnaround from prior years, when transit officials branded BART's scheme with the dreaded "not recommended" label. Since then, however, the proposal has cut costs and identified heaps of local funding -- like $760 million promised from the state a decade ago by then-Gov. Gray Davis -- and a half-cent sales tax approved in 2000. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, has also applied pressure to the necessary bureaucrats, the newspaper said.

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