Service to S.F. Airport set to begin next Sunday

Finally.

After being delayed by everything from budget troubles to construction hitches to endangered garter snakes, the long-awaited Bay Area Rapid Transit extension to the San Francisco International Airport will open next Sunday.

The 8.7 miles of new track -- through South San Francisco and San Bruno, into the airport's international terminal, and south to a Millbrae station that links BART and Caltrain -- are the culmination of 5 1/2 years of building, more than a decade of planning and 30 years of dreaming.

``That is an extraordinary thing,'' said BART extension spokeswoman Molly McArthur. ``We have people from all over this country coming to look at it saying, `How did you do that? We want one!' ''

But important questions remain: Who is going to ride? And will enough people use the system to justify its long construction delays, increased travel costs and parking complications?

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