»In which the whole is less than the sum of its parts

An interesting counterpoint to the "If you build it, they will come" school of mass-transit development is the BART to SFO extension. Much anticipated, this BART extension has yielded disappointing ridership

Its impact has been more than low ridership or lower-than-expected revenue for San Mateo County: commuters who relied on SamTrans, which cut bus service from the Peninsula to San Francisco International Airport, now find that they pay higher prices for less-frequent service. One cannot obtain a weekly or monthly pass for BART, either, unlike with SamTrans. Thus concession and airline employees commuting to the airport to work found themselves paying more for services not necessarily convenient for them.

Also, who is number one?

Ironically, one reason the SFO/Millbrae extension is struggling could be competition from Caltrain, which SamTrans also helps to finance. A year ago, Caltrain began running Baby Bullet trains between San Jose and San Francisco, making far fewer stops along the way. Since then, Caltrain weekday ridership is up more than 12 percent.

But that's a healthy trend for the two rail systems rather than a discouraging one, said Mark Simon, special assistant to SamTrans CEO Michael Scanlon.

"They complement one another," he said. "They give people more options to get out of their car."

He said the only reason people are disappointed with BART ridership is those old projections, which were made at the height of the economic boom. Ridership at the stations from Colma south is up 8.4 percent from the first quarter of 2004.

"Any other system, if it was sustaining annual growth of more than 8 percent, that would be hugely successful," Simon said.

Still, because of the Baby Bullets and because all Millbrae BART trains go through SFO, Caltrain riders now can get to many areas of downtown San Francisco slightly faster and for less money by staying on the train instead of switching to BART in Millbrae. Many BART projections have assumed that lots of Caltrain riders would switch in Millbrae, but it isn't happening.

BART's spokesman is named Linton Johnson.