1972  The San Francisco Airport Access Project Report studied various BART alignments to the
          SFIA

1984  The Senate Concurrent Resolution 74 - Peninsula Mass Transit Study (SCR74) studied and
          compared alignments and travel modes from San Francisco to San Jose

1988  Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) New Rail Transit Starts and Extensions
          Program (Resolution 1876) lists the BART-San Francisco Airport Extension as the first
          regional priority for federal funding

1989  MTC authorized to lead a pre-Alternatives Analysis Screening Process

1990  U.S. Department of Transportation, Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA)
          approves MTC's request to initiate Alternatives Analysis process

3/1991  Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 calls for completion of the
             BART-San Francisco Airport Extension with funding "earmarked" for the project

5/1992  BART Board of Directors adopts resolution defining the Locally Preferred Alternative
             (LPA), signaling selection of a preferred alternative alignment for which further
             environmental and engineering studies will be prepared

6/1992  MTC Policy Committee recommends the LPA

6/1992  SamTrans Board of Directors and MTC adopt LPA; BART Board reaffirms LPA

7/1992  BART submits grant application for final environmental documentation and preliminary
             engineering

10/1992 U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration (FTA, formerly
              UMTA) approves continuation of environmental work and preliminary engineering

5/1993   FTA Award of Grant for final environmental documentation and preliminary engineering

Regional Travel Demand - Regional travel forecasts indicate that traffic flow from San Mateo and Santa Clara counties to downtown San Francisco will increase 16 percent between 1987 and 2010, and traffic to and from the SFIA will increase 52 percent over the same period.

Highway 101/Interstate 280 Congestion - Given the regional travel demand noted above, the burden on the Peninsula's two primary north/south highways will increase. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) indicates that traffic on these critical arteries near the SFIA and into San Francisco already regularly exceeds capacity. With projected demand, the periods of stop-and-go conditions on the highways will rise significantly.

Airport Growth - The SFIA has recently embarked upon a major expansion program that will increase the number of annual air passengers by 70 percent between 1990 and 2006. Since more than 65 percent of air passengers and employees drive to the SFIA, automobile congestion will increase dramatically without better connections to the regional rail transit network.

Regional Air Quality - Air quality attainment plans prepared under state and federal law by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, with the cooperation of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments, include a variety of measures intended to improve air quality to the level of the state and federal standards, and then to maintain air quality at that level. One of the key transportation-related measures is the expansion of regional rail transit, with extension of BART to the San Francisco International Airport specifically identified as part of that expansion. The BART-San Francisco Airport Extension, combined with other regional rail projects, is projected to reduce reactive hydrocarbon by 1.2 tons per day, nitrogen oxides by 1.7 tons per day, and carbon monoxide by 17.0 tons per day.