BART has rejected a last minute plan by SamTrans to pay a portion of its $11 million debt and said it will give the San Mateo County transit organization one last chance to pay its bill in full.
BART President James Fang said the conditions connected with the payment of the $8.9 million were unacceptable in a letter to San Mateo County Supervisor Mike Nevin, who chairs the SamTrans Board of Directors. Fang stopped short of saying BART would follow through on a threatened lawsuit. With one chance left, SamTrans could find itself slapped with a lawsuit in coming weeks.
After last-minute negotiations Thursday, SamTrans offered to pay $8.9 million of the $11 million it owes BART in unpaid operating costs associated with the expansion into San Mateo County. The offer was coupled with stipulations that BART decrease some services in order to save SamTrans future costs. BART officials said changes have already been made and will not accept anything less than the full amount owed.
"There is no basis in either the language of the spirit of our agreement for SamTrans to make new demands as a condition of paying $11 million for service already rendered," Fang said. "It is that insistence by SamTrans that is the sole cause of the present dispute."
BART officials said they've already made concession including the reduction of services levels and costs on Feb. 9. Making any further cuts to services would only hurt Bay Area commuters, Fang said.
"Trying to force BART to accede to service cuts, as the sole solution to SamTrans' problem is not good for San Mateo and not good for the Bay Area," stated Fang in the letter to Nevin.
Recommended for you
The battle between the two public agencies erupted Wednesday when BART announced it would pursue a lawsuit against SamTrans. SamTrans shot back on Thursday by admonishing BART for not paying them $10 million borrowed to construct the extension to the San Francisco International Airport. Officials also said BART was billing them based on outdated estimates of riders.
When SamTrans agreed to pay the operating costs at the San Bruno, Colma and Millbrae stations, officials expected to pay about $ 6 million a year. The current bill is something closer to four times that, Nevin said.
BART has billed SamTrans based on "phantom riders" - a 1995 ridership projection that never became a reality, said SamTrans General Manager Mike Scanlon at a Thursday press conference.
BART estimated more than 50,000 riders a month, but the number is actually closer to 24,000. Last fall, Scanlon told BART officials that its bills exceeded the district's budget for extension service because it was working with the outdated numbers. The result is a loss of about $1.8 million a month.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.