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The first phase of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s (VTA) planned Silicon Valley extension recently received an overall “medium” project rating from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

VTA is requesting $900 million in federal New Starts funding and a medium rating “positively positions the project to qualify and compete” for the dollars, agency officials said in a prepared statement.

The first phase calls for building a 10-mile, two-station extension of Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) system from Fremont to the Berryessa area in north San Jose, Calif. The project is undergoing preliminary engineering — VTA applied for entry into that phase via the New Starts program in September — and is scheduled to enter final engineering next year. The project would be eligible for a funding recommendation in fiscal-year 2012.

The entire BART-to-Silicon Valley project calls for extending BART’s system 16 miles from a future Warm Springs station to San Jose, Milpitas and Santa Clara. If VTA executes a Full Funding Grant Agreement with the FTA and the project proceeds as scheduled, the extension could open in 2018.