LIVERMORE — Fed up with delays, the City Council on Monday backed a proposal to take away control from BART directors for building an extension to Livermore.

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New Dublin BART parking garage put on hold “There is no leverage that we have on the BART board,” said Councilman Bob Woerner. “They allow strikes, they’re the highest paid, have terrible service, incredible reliability issues, they can’t keep the escalators clean … they’re not particularly good, and they don’t care.”

Woerner, along with other council members and Michael Tree, executive director of the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority, said it seems no BART board directors support a BART-to-Livermore concept, with the exception of Director John McPartland, who represents the city.

“It’s the moment to take control of a project that’s basically been floundering for 50 years,” Tree said. “It’s been planned to death. This is the moment to stand up and say, ‘We’re gonna get local control and we’re gonna get this project done.'”

Tree said that BART directors “have no intention of bringing BART to Livermore.”

The council supported proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 758, introduced by Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R- San Ramon, and Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, to create a new rail authority for the BART-to-Livermore project. The Tri Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority would plan a regional rail connection between BART, Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) in the Tri-Valley, or a new regional connection between the valley and San Joaquin County, according to a city report.

The bill recommends transferring any funds already dedicated to the Livermore project to the new panel. The bill also states that BART would assume ownership and operations once the extension is built.

BART President Rebecca Saltzman said she found the comments by the council and Tree both “frustrating and surprising.” She said BART is working on an environmental impact report, which would include alternatives and pricing. She said BART needs to be able to work collaboratively on this project with the city.

Saltzman said that BART has been working diligently, and that the EIR is expected to be finalized this year. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission contributed $10.23 million for the EIR and the Alameda County Transportation Commission $1.17 million.

“We are committed to having a transportation solution for Livermore,” she said.

BART and the city agreed to study building a BART station at Isabel Avenue in 2012. She agreed it has taken some years, but the study is moving along.

However, it is not moving along fast enough for the Livermore City Council.

“It’s so urgent that something gets started. … We’ve been talking about this since the 1970s. To a cynic like myself, it doesn’t seem like we are that much closer,” Councilman Bob Coomber said.

Baker said Tuesday that the inspiration for the bill came from seeing a real need to see progress for sending BART deeper into the Tri-Valley.

“I think the consensus is that decades of waiting and paying for a BART system was not acceptable,” she said.

Regarding the council’s comments Monday night toward the board, Baker said she believes they are “a very real reflection of how the Tri-Valley feels about this particular extension.”

The council’s goal Monday night was to offer direction on the proposed legislation, before a regional working group that Livermore is a part of meets this week. That group, the Altamont Regional Rail Working Group, also has been presented with alternatives for the BART-to-Livermore project, including using diesel-powered trains.

The Antioch BART extension project will use the diesel trains, which are about 60 percent cheaper than conventional BART trains.

But in Livermore’s case, adoption of any of these new train alternatives would be inconsistent with the city’s General Plan policy established with the adoption of the “Keep BART on I-580 Initiative.”

The initiative was adopted by the council in 2011 and strengthened language in the General Plan supporting a freeway alignment, instead of an underground station downtown and an above-ground station along Vasco Road.

A BART report from 2010 said the extension from the Dublin/Pleasanton station to Livermore is expected to cost $1.2 billion. However, Livermore Councilman Steve Spedowfski said the Altamont Regional Rail Working Group estimates the extension could cost $800 million.

Last week, legislators passed a $52 billion transportation bill, which included $500 million for projects including an extension of the ACE train to the Central Valley.

In September, the BART-to-Livermore project received $2.26 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.