BART to Livermore at Isabel
The potential to extend BART to Livermore with an Isabel Boulevard station involves several steps. Funding is key.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the entity which approves crucial funding. They will not approve funding if there is not high density urban development close to the proposed station.
Since Livermore's desired location for BART is currently open space, it would not qualify. Logic might suggest that MTC simply state the development that would be required in order for them to fund the station. They refuse to do this. Instead, Livermore must prepare a plan to develop what the City thinks might be sufficient to gain support for BART funding. Livermore has been engaged in a costly and time consuming Isabel Residential Rezoning process in order to satisfy this MTC requirement.
MTC will be presented with the final proposed development plan for MTC to debate and decide. If MTC commits to funding, the BART Board will then decide if it wants to extend. With approval of both entities, the process will move on to feasibility assessments and acquisition of the remainder of the necessary funds.
Traffic Impacts
It is often noted that a key goal of bringing BART to Livermore is to "take cars off the road", implying that the daily AM traffic jam on highway 580 would improve. This theory may be faulty, as the additional 12,000 residents added to the Isabel development will create more commute traffic than what is mitigated by BART. At up to 200 people per car (the uncomfortable term "crush load") a train can carry a maximum of 2,000 passengers. Every 15 minutes, up to 2,000 people are transported up the Dublin grade. This number does not change with the extension, but each day begins with one more empty train. That means extending BART to Livermore can only physically result in 2,000 more people per day exiting the valley via BART than the current configuration, with the terminus at East Pleasanton.
The Isabel development may create twice that many (or more) employees seeking westward commutes, plus and local school trips. Thus, the undeveloped Isabel Neighborhood without BART is more favorable to traffic than the completed project with BART.
