BART TO SAN JOSE TIMELINE

Four decades ago, planners envisioned BART trains running from San Jose to San Francisco to Marin and throughout the East Bay. Along the way, many of those routes were scuttled. Here is a history behind the long struggle to bring BART to the South Bay.

• 1957: Legislature approves BART board, with representatives from San Mateo, Marin, San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

• 1961: San Mateo County supervisors vote to opt-out of BART, saying their voters would be paying taxes to carry mainly Santa Clara County residents.

• 1999: Meetings are underway between San Jose Mayor Ron

Gonzales and East Bay officials to explore extending Caltrain-style service from Union City to San Jose.

• 2000: Gov. Gray Davis earmarks $760 million for a BART extension to San Jose. Polls show very high support for the extension, but county supervisors block a tax plan that would need a majority vote. Pushed by Gonzales, the Valley Transportation Authority puts a 30-year tax on the November ballot. It requires a two-thirds vote and gets 70.4 percent support.

• 2004: The Federal Transit Administration gives BART a “not recommended” rating, saying that though the VTA has money to build part of the BART line, it has no way to pay for operating trains and the $6.1 billion cost through downtown San Jose is too high.

• 2008: Santa Clara County voters approve a one-eighth-cent salestaxtocoveroperationsofa future BART line.

• 2009: The VTA divides the BART line into two segments, the first of which would run to the Berryessa area of San Jose at a cost of $2.3 billion.

• 2010: The FTA recommends the extension to Berryessa be considered for federal funding.

• 2012: FTA approves giving VTA $900million in federal aid to complete financing for the shortened extension. Construction to take off in spring.