San Bruno B.A.R.T.

  Three months after refusing to study a shortened BART extension to East San Jose, the Valley Transportation Authority announced Thursday that it would reverse course in order to boost the proposal's prospects of qualifying for federal funds.

  The transit agency is not dropping its commitment to build the entire $4.2 billion, 16.3-mile line from Fremont through downtown San Jose and ending in Santa Clara. Instead, local transportation officials announced they have received permission from the Bush administration to analyze the costs and ridership of an extension that would end at Berryessa Road, with federal dollars being contributed only to that 10-mile portion of the line. Local money would be spent on the remainder of the extension.

  The BART proposal is in jeopardy of failing to qualify for any federal funds because the extension's cost is too great for the limited number of new riders who are expected to use it under Federal Transit Administration standards. But Valley Transportation Authority officials believe an analysis of an extension that theoretically would end at Berryessa, costing somewhere between $1.3 billion and $1.8 billion, will boost the project's federal cost-effectiveness score.

  Local transportation officials have been given no assurances about federal funding. The new plan will be evaluated by the federal agency when it makes its next annual report on new transit projects in February 2006.

  ``We have been on hold for several months attempting to accommodate FTA's criteria needed to move this project forward,'' Board Chair Joe Pirzynski, a Los Gatos councilman, said in a prepared statement. ``This creative solution goes a long way towards satisfying those requirements and is good news for the BART project and VTA.''

  Just last month, the Federal Transit Administration announced it was tightening cost-effectiveness standards for funding transit projects. The Valley Transportation Authority had been studying the strategy of ``federalizing'' the Fremont-to-Berryessa segment of the line before that announcement.

  The shorter line would retain the benefit of the link to the existing light-rail network in Milpitas -- where the greatest number of riders coming from Alameda County are expected to get off -- while avoiding the most expensive segment through downtown San Jose, where it would run entirely underground and require costly tunneling. The line remains above ground to Berryessa.

  As part of the proposal, the Valley Transportation Authority said it also would seek a significantly smaller amount of federal money -- possibly just over half the $834 million originally requested -- potentially increasing the burden on local taxpayers. Federal officials had balked at the higher request.

  ``We haven't run the numbers yet, but we're optimistic it will be better,'' Ann Jamison, the valley agency's deputy director for congestion management and planning, said of the cost-effectiveness analysis for the 10-mile segment. ``We are hoping for a significantly improved'' cost-effectiveness score.

  A divided transit board of directors in January voted 6-5 against a proposal to study a phased Bay Area Rapid Transit District extension that would initially stop at Berryessa as a way of dealing with the plan's mounting financial problems. The new plan was created by valley transit administrators without a discussion by the board, though it appears to have support from most members.

  Valley Transportation Authority critics say the new plan points out why the full BART project never made sense in the first place.

  ``The primary benefit of this project can be achieved at Berryessa,'' said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Oakland-based Transportation and Land Use Coalition. ``After that, you are spending literally $3 billion for very few riders when that money could be spent on projects all around the county that would carry many more people.''

  As part of its submission to the federal government, the valley transit agency will have to produce for the first time a study showing how many riders would use a BART project that would end in Berryessa, in addition to evaluating the costs of a stand-alone, shorter line.

  The fact that the valley transit agency is now lowering its financial request to the federal government also troubles BART's critics.

  ``The cost for Santa Clara County voters just went up by $300 million to $500 million,'' said Greg Perry, a Mountain View city councilman.

  The valley agency is considering asking voters next year to approve another sales tax to cover the local share of the BART extension and other projects promised when voters approved the half-cent Measure A sales tax in 2000. Revenues from that tax are expected to fall well short of original projections because of the downturn in the economy.

  Laura Stuchinsky, director of transportation and land use for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, formerly known as the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, said that even if the cost-effectiveness numbers for the downtown San Jose portion of the line weren't as good as for the first 10 miles, there still were numerous benefits to constructing the entire project.

  ``We can get a lot more folks who are coming to and from work getting all the way to the major downtown areas. We'll also get folks to the airport,'' she said.

E-mail Barry Witt at bwitt@mercurynews.com