Have you ever gazed at the system map while riding BART and noticed some dotted-line ‘proposed extensions’ and said to yourself “Haha yeah right, as if I’m going to live that long!”? Well, one of those proposed extensions has taken a significant bureaucratic baby-step forward. The BART to Central Valley concept has been around for years, but the system hopes to inch a little further toward San Joaquin County as BART has just released Livermore Station environmental impact reviews covering four different Livermore plan options.

Right now, the furthest so-called “Tri-Valley” BART station is the Dublin/Pleasanton station seen above (what, you don’t recognize it?). This new proposed extension would send the BART system 5.5 miles out further directly east to Livermore, with a proposed station site at Isabel Avenue and I-580. The EIRs consider standard BART service, and a few enhanced or express bus options connecting outlying Altamont Pass and San Joaquin areas.

Does this sound awesome? The project is currently assessed with a $1.3 billion price tag. That’s a little much for transit-obsessed State Sen. Scott Wiener (though it’s not his district, it’s Sen. Steve Glazer’s).

“Many billions of dollars of investment, and parts of [BART] are falling apart,” Wiener tells ABC 7 in an interview. “To put a brand new BART line on top of it that will suck a lot of resources out. It's just going to undermine the rest of the system.”

Are you up in arms over this ridiculous misuse of transit funds, or passionate for more public transit to the Tri-Valley and its magnificent outlet shopping? If so, you can air your passions or grievances at one of two public comment sessions in late August, both of them way out in the East Bay, where support for this project is likely to dominate. (Tuesday, August 22, 2017, 7 p.m. at the Robert Livermore Community Center, and Tuesday, August 29, 2017, 7 p.m. at the Shannon Community Center.)

Related: Things People Do On BART: Pepper-Spray, Carry Crack, Attack, Shave