Bay Area Rapid Transit (
BART) is a
rapid transitA rapid transit, metro, subway, underground, or elevated railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with high capacity and frequency, and which is grade separated from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically either in underground tunnels or elevated above street level...
system serving the
San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Yay Area, is a metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and...
. The heavy-rail public transit system connects San Francisco with cities in the
East BayThe East Bay is a region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States and comprises both Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. It lies on the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay...
and suburbs in northern
San Mateo CountySan Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
. BART operates five lines on of track with
43 stations in four counties. With average weekday ridership of 346,504 passengers, BART is the
fifth busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
BART is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, a special-purpose
transit districtA transit district or transit authority is a special-purpose district organized as either a corporation chartered by statute, or a government agency, created for the purpose of providing public transportation within a specific region....
formed in 1957 covering San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties. The name
BART is an acronym and is pronounced as a word, not as individual letters. In some ways, BART is a successor to the
Key SystemThe Key System was a privately owned company which provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when the system was sold to a newly formed public...
, which ran streetcars across the lower deck of the San Francisco Bay Bridge until 1958.
BART has served as a highly successful rapid transit and commuter rail system, and has provided a valuable alternative transportation route to the
freewayA freeway is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all cross traffic through the use of grade separations and...
s. Due to the success and number of commuters depending upon the system, BART has been undergoing a vast modernization to furthern the quality and its ability to serve the public's transportation needs; including station overhauls, new and refurbished
rolling stockRolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...
, and planned extensions.
Development and origins
Much of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)'s current coverage area was once served by the electrified streetcar and suburban train network called the
Key SystemThe Key System was a privately owned company which provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when the system was sold to a newly formed public...
. This early twentieth century system once had regular trans-bay traffic across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. By the 1950s the entire system had been dismantled in favor of automobiles and buses and the explosive growth of highway construction. A new system was proposed to take its place in the late 1940s with formal planning made in the 50s. Funding was secured for the project in 1959, the construction beginning a few years later. The first passenger service began in September 1972, and was hailed as a major step forwards in subway technology.
However there were questions regarding the safety of the system and costs associated with the design of BART; praise for the new transportation system was not unanimous.
Recent history
| 2006 statistics |
| Number of vehicles |
670 |
| Initial system cost |
$1.6 billion |
| Equivalent cost in 2004 dollars (replacement cost) |
$15 billion |
| Hourly passenger capacity |
15,000 |
| Maximum daily capacity |
360,000 |
| Average weekday ridership |
322,965 |
| Annual gross fare income |
$233.65 million |
| Annual expenses |
$581.81 million |
| Annual profits (losses) |
($300 million) |
| Rail cost/passenger mile (excluding capital costs) |
$.323 |
A recent study shows that along with some Bay Area freeways, some of BART's overhead structures could be extensively damaged and could potentially collapse in the event of a major earthquake, which is predicted as highly likely to happen in the Bay Area within the next 30 years. Extensive
seismic retrofitSeismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with our recent experiences with large earthquakes near urban centers,...
will be necessary to address many of these deficiencies, although one in particular, the penetration of the
Hayward Fault ZoneThe Hayward Fault Zone is a geologic fault zone capable of generating significantly destructive earthquakes. About 60 kilometers long, it lies mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay...
by the
Berkeley Hills TunnelThe Berkeley Hills Tunnel is the tunnel that the Pittsburg/Bay Point - SFO Line, of Bay Area Rapid Transit that spans the Rockridge Station from the Orinda station...
, will be left for correction
after any disabling earthquake, with the consequences for in-transit trains, their operators, and their passengers left to
chanceIn probability theory, a stochastic process, or sometimes random process, is the counterpart to a deterministic process...
.
By November 2005, BART had become the first transit system in the nation to offer cellular telephone communication to passengers of all wireless carriers on its trains underground. This is in contrast to other systems in United States, which, while having
some cellular telephone service, do not provide it for passengers of
all the major cell phone carriers. Coverage is eventually planned for the entire system. In the summer 2006, service was made available for customers of
Verizon WirelessCellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, owns and operates the largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, based on a total of 87.7 million U.S. subscribers. Verizon Wireless has the largest revenue of all United States wireless companies reporting $58.6 billion...
,
Sprint/NextelSprint Nextel Corporation is a telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas.The company owns and operates the third-largest wireless telecommunications network in United States, with 49.3 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility.Sprint is a global Internet carrier ...
, AT&T Mobility, and T-Mobile in and between the four San Francisco Market Street stations from Civic Center to Embarcadero. By July 2008, the fifth cellphone network of the Bay Area,
MetroPCSMetroPCS Communications, Inc. is a provider of CDMA wireless communications services in the greater Boston, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Sarasota, Fort Myers, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Daytona, Dallas, Detroit, Orlando,...
, was added. Coverage is also available in the stations between
Balboa ParkBalboa Park Station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station located south of Balboa Park in southern San Francisco, California. It consists of two main tracks and a single island platform...
and 16th St. Mission. In 2009, service is planned to be added to the 12th and 19th street stations in downtown Oakland, as well as the Transbay Tube.
Starting on February 20th 2007 BART entered into an agreement to permit a BETA test of WiFi Internet access for travelers on the BART system. It initially included the four San Francisco downtown stations; Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, and Civic Center. To date over 30,000 patrons have utilized the service. The testing and demonstration also includes above ground testing to trains at BART's Hayward Test Track. The testing and deployment has been extended into the underground interconnecting tubes between the four downtown stations and further. The successful demonstration and testing provided for a 10 year contract with WiFi Rail, Inc. for the services throughout the BART Right Of Way (ROW).
During the months of May 2008 and July 2008 the WiFi service was expanded to include the
Transbay TubeThe Transbay Tube is the part of BART which runs under San Francisco Bay in California. The tube is 3.6 miles long; including approaches from the nearest stations , it totals 6 miles...
and now awaits BART cars which have the necessary WiFi equipment to benefit from the network access.
Since the mid 1990s, BART has been trying to modernize its aging 30-year-old system. The aforementioned fleet rehabilitation is part of this modernization; presently, fire alarms, water-sprinkling systems, yellow tactile platform edge domes, and cemented-mat rubber tiles are being installed. The rough black tiles on the platform edge mark the location of the doorway of approaching trains, allowing passengers to wait at the appropriate locations for the train, instead of waiting until the train arrives to figure out where to board. All faregates and ticket vending machines have also been completely replaced.
In the spring of 2007, BART experimented with a system of placed advertisement panels in the Transbay Tube, and when riders looking at the windows saw what looked to be a moving commercial for what was
ReebokReebok International Limited, a subsidiary of German sportswear giant Adidas, is a producer of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
's "Run Easy" campaign.
On April 10, 2007, BART General Manager Tom Margro, who has been BART chief for eleven years, announced his retirement.
In late May, 2007, BART stated its intention to improve non-peak (night and weekend) headways for each line to only 15 minutes. The current 20-minute headways at these times is viewed as a psychological barrier to ridership. June 2007, BART temporarily reversed its position stating that the shortened wait times would likely not happen due to a $900,000 state revenue budget shortfall. Nevertheless, BART eventually confirmed the implementation of the plan by January 1, 2008.
Furthermore, in June 2007, BART suddenly removed all references to implementation of the
TransLinkTransLink is a new transit fare payment system being implemented in the San Francisco Bay Area. It utilizes a reloadable card with a dual interface, making it capable of both contact and contactless transactions...
payment system from their website. BART spokesperson Marty Moran stated (via email) that TransLink now may be implemented as early as late 2007. Implementation of TransLink on BART was pushed back even further due to disputes regarding the processing of fares between MTC and BART. TransLink was planned to be rolled out simultaneously on BART,
SF MuniThe San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
, and
CaltrainCaltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. It is currently operated under contract by Amtrak and funded jointly by the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County Transit District, and Santa Clara Valley...
in Spring 2008, although as of February 2009, TransLink service is still not supported.
As BART celebrated the 50th anniversary of its creation by the state legislature, it announced its plans for the next 50 years. Its vision includes adding a four-bore transbay tube beneath San Francisco Bay that would run parallel and south of the existing tunnel and emerge at the Transbay Transit Terminal to provide connecting service to Caltrain and the proposed future California High Speed Rail system. The four-bore tunnel would provide two tunnels for BART and two tunnels for conventional/high-speed rail. BART's plan focus is on improving service and reliability in its core system (where density and ridership is highest), rather than extensions into far-flung suburbia. These plans include: a line that would continue from the Transbay Terminal through the South-of-Market, northwards on Van Ness and terminating in western San Francisco along the Geary corridor, the Presidio, or North Beach; a line along the I-680 corridor; a fourth set of tracks through Oakland.
Numerous service changes were implemented beginning on January 1, 2008. Among the changes, the Pittsburg/Bay Point line extended its service to the SFO station (at all hours of operation), but did not continue to Millbrae. (A few night owl Pittsburg/Bay Point trains continued to Millbrae in addition to serving SFO). During weekdays (until 7pm), the Richmond line was extended to the Millbrae station (bypassing the SFO station); during weeknights and weekends, the Dublin/Pleasanton line would serve the extension to Millbrae (also bypassing SFO). This meant that there would no longer be a direct connection between the airport and Millbrae, introducing an inconvenience for Caltrain system passengers wishing to travel to SFO. BART discontinued this citing low ridership between Millbrae and SFO, however they did implement timed transfers at the San Bruno station for passengers connecting from SFO to Millbrae. Additionally, a 5.4% fare increase was put in place, with the minimum fare increasing from $1.40 to $1.50.
With continuing budget constraints, it was necessary for BART to cut back on service beyond Daly City. As of September 14, 2009, the following changes have taken place: The Pittsburg/Bay Point line will still terminate at SFO on weekdays until 7pm. After 7pm & all day on weekends & holidays, service will extend to Millbrae. The Dublin/Pleasanton line will no longer serve the extension, instead terminating at Daly City Station.
In 2008 BART announced that it would install solar power systems on the roofs of its train yards and maintenance facilities in
RichmondRichmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
and
HaywardHayward is a city located in the East Bay in Alameda County. The sixth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is one of the larger suburbs of Oakland. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 140,030. The estimated population in 2007 is 155,312. The former suburbs of Mt...
in addition to car ports with rooftop solar panels at its
Orinda stationOrinda is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station that serves Orinda, California.The station consists of an island platform located in the center median of State Route 24. The station is located on the east side of the Caldecott Tunnel...
. The board lamented not being able to install them at all stations but it stated that Orinda was the only station with enough sun for them to make money from the project.
BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant III
On January 1, 2009, a
BART PoliceThe BART Police Department is the police force of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District .The BART Police Department has more than 296 police personnel, of which 206 are sworn peace officers. BART Police officers derive their powers of arrest from Section 830.33 P.C...
officer, Johannes Mehserle, fatally shot Oscar Grant III.
EyewitnessesA witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about a crime or dramatic event through their senses , and can help certify important considerations to the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event firsthand is known as an "eye-witness"...
gathered
direct evidenceDirect evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly, i.e., without an intervening inference...
of the shooting with video cameras which were later submitted to, and disseminated by media outlets and watched hundreds of thousands of times in the days following the shooting. Peaceful and violent demonstrations occurred protesting the shooting.
Mehserle was arrested and charged with murder, to which he has pled not guilty. Oakland
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....
attorney
John BurrisJohn Leonard Burris is an American civil rights attorney, based in Oakland, California, known for his work in police brutality cases representing plaintiffs....
filed a US $25 million wrongful death claim against the District on behalf of Grant's daughter and girlfriend.
Background
{{Redirect|BART||Bart}}
Bay Area Rapid Transit (
BART) is a
rapid transitA rapid transit, metro, subway, underground, or elevated railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with high capacity and frequency, and which is grade separated from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically either in underground tunnels or elevated above street level...
system serving the
San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Yay Area, is a metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and...
. The heavy-rail public transit system connects San Francisco with cities in the
East BayThe East Bay is a region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States and comprises both Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. It lies on the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay...
and suburbs in northern
San Mateo CountySan Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
. BART operates five lines on {{convert|104|mi}} of track with
43 stations in four counties. With average weekday ridership of 346,504 passengers, BART is the
fifth busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
BART is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, a special-purpose
transit districtA transit district or transit authority is a special-purpose district organized as either a corporation chartered by statute, or a government agency, created for the purpose of providing public transportation within a specific region....
formed in 1957 covering San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties. The name
BART is an acronym and is pronounced as a word, not as individual letters. In some ways, BART is a successor to the
Key SystemThe Key System was a privately owned company which provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when the system was sold to a newly formed public...
, which ran streetcars across the lower deck of the San Francisco Bay Bridge until 1958.
BART has served as a highly successful rapid transit and commuter rail system, and has provided a valuable alternative transportation route to the
freewayA freeway is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all cross traffic through the use of grade separations and...
s. Due to the success and number of commuters depending upon the system, BART has been undergoing a vast modernization to furthern the quality and its ability to serve the public's transportation needs; including station overhauls, new and refurbished
rolling stockRolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...
, and planned extensions.
Development and origins
{{Main|History of the Bay Area Rapid Transit}}
Much of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)'s current coverage area was once served by the electrified streetcar and suburban train network called the
Key SystemThe Key System was a privately owned company which provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when the system was sold to a newly formed public...
. This early twentieth century system once had regular trans-bay traffic across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. By the 1950s the entire system had been dismantled in favor of automobiles and buses and the explosive growth of highway construction. A new system was proposed to take its place in the late 1940s with formal planning made in the 50s. Funding was secured for the project in 1959, the construction beginning a few years later. The first passenger service began in September 1972, and was hailed as a major step forwards in subway technology.
However there were questions regarding the safety of the system and costs associated with the design of BART; praise for the new transportation system was not unanimous.
Recent history
| 2006 statistics |
| Number of vehicles |
670 |
| Initial system cost |
$1.6 billion |
| Equivalent cost in 2004 dollars (replacement cost) |
$15 billion |
| Hourly passenger capacity |
15,000 |
| Maximum daily capacity |
360,000 |
| Average weekday ridership |
322,965 |
| Annual gross fare income |
$233.65 million |
| Annual expenses |
$581.81 million |
| Annual profits (losses) |
($300 million) |
| Rail cost/passenger mile (excluding capital costs) |
$.323 |
A recent study shows that along with some Bay Area freeways, some of BART's overhead structures could be extensively damaged and could potentially collapse in the event of a major earthquake, which is predicted as highly likely to happen in the Bay Area within the next 30 years. Extensive
seismic retrofitSeismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with our recent experiences with large earthquakes near urban centers,...
will be necessary to address many of these deficiencies, although one in particular, the penetration of the
Hayward Fault ZoneThe Hayward Fault Zone is a geologic fault zone capable of generating significantly destructive earthquakes. About 60 kilometers long, it lies mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay...
by the
Berkeley Hills TunnelThe Berkeley Hills Tunnel is the tunnel that the Pittsburg/Bay Point - SFO Line, of Bay Area Rapid Transit that spans the Rockridge Station from the Orinda station...
, will be left for correction
after any disabling earthquake, with the consequences for in-transit trains, their operators, and their passengers left to
chanceIn probability theory, a stochastic process, or sometimes random process, is the counterpart to a deterministic process...
.
By November 2005, BART had become the first transit system in the nation to offer cellular telephone communication to passengers of all wireless carriers on its trains underground. This is in contrast to other systems in United States, which, while having
some cellular telephone service, do not provide it for passengers of
all the major cell phone carriers. Coverage is eventually planned for the entire system. In the summer 2006, service was made available for customers of
Verizon WirelessCellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, owns and operates the largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, based on a total of 87.7 million U.S. subscribers. Verizon Wireless has the largest revenue of all United States wireless companies reporting $58.6 billion...
,
Sprint/NextelSprint Nextel Corporation is a telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas.The company owns and operates the third-largest wireless telecommunications network in United States, with 49.3 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility.Sprint is a global Internet carrier ...
, AT&T Mobility, and T-Mobile in and between the four San Francisco Market Street stations from Civic Center to Embarcadero. By July 2008, the fifth cellphone network of the Bay Area,
MetroPCSMetroPCS Communications, Inc. is a provider of CDMA wireless communications services in the greater Boston, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Sarasota, Fort Myers, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Daytona, Dallas, Detroit, Orlando,...
, was added. Coverage is also available in the stations between
Balboa ParkBalboa Park Station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station located south of Balboa Park in southern San Francisco, California. It consists of two main tracks and a single island platform...
and 16th St. Mission. In 2009, service is planned to be added to the 12th and 19th street stations in downtown Oakland, as well as the Transbay Tube.
Starting on February 20th 2007 BART entered into an agreement to permit a BETA test of WiFi Internet access for travelers on the BART system. It initially included the four San Francisco downtown stations; Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, and Civic Center. To date over 30,000 patrons have utilized the service. The testing and demonstration also includes above ground testing to trains at BART's Hayward Test Track. The testing and deployment has been extended into the underground interconnecting tubes between the four downtown stations and further. The successful demonstration and testing provided for a 10 year contract with WiFi Rail, Inc. for the services throughout the BART Right Of Way (ROW).
During the months of May 2008 and July 2008 the WiFi service was expanded to include the
Transbay TubeThe Transbay Tube is the part of BART which runs under San Francisco Bay in California. The tube is 3.6 miles long; including approaches from the nearest stations , it totals 6 miles...
and now awaits BART cars which have the necessary WiFi equipment to benefit from the network access.
Since the mid 1990s, BART has been trying to modernize its aging 30-year-old system. The aforementioned fleet rehabilitation is part of this modernization; presently, fire alarms, water-sprinkling systems, yellow tactile platform edge domes, and cemented-mat rubber tiles are being installed. The rough black tiles on the platform edge mark the location of the doorway of approaching trains, allowing passengers to wait at the appropriate locations for the train, instead of waiting until the train arrives to figure out where to board. All faregates and ticket vending machines have also been completely replaced.
In the spring of 2007, BART experimented with a system of placed advertisement panels in the Transbay Tube, and when riders looking at the windows saw what looked to be a moving commercial for what was
ReebokReebok International Limited, a subsidiary of German sportswear giant Adidas, is a producer of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
's "Run Easy" campaign.
On April 10, 2007, BART General Manager Tom Margro, who has been BART chief for eleven years, announced his retirement.
In late May, 2007, BART stated its intention to improve non-peak (night and weekend) headways for each line to only 15 minutes. The current 20-minute headways at these times is viewed as a psychological barrier to ridership. June 2007, BART temporarily reversed its position stating that the shortened wait times would likely not happen due to a $900,000 state revenue budget shortfall. Nevertheless, BART eventually confirmed the implementation of the plan by January 1, 2008.
Furthermore, in June 2007, BART suddenly removed all references to implementation of the
TransLinkTransLink is a new transit fare payment system being implemented in the San Francisco Bay Area. It utilizes a reloadable card with a dual interface, making it capable of both contact and contactless transactions...
payment system from their website. BART spokesperson Marty Moran stated (via email) that TransLink now may be implemented as early as late 2007. Implementation of TransLink on BART was pushed back even further due to disputes regarding the processing of fares between MTC and BART. TransLink was planned to be rolled out simultaneously on BART,
SF MuniThe San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
, and
CaltrainCaltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. It is currently operated under contract by Amtrak and funded jointly by the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County Transit District, and Santa Clara Valley...
in Spring 2008, although as of February 2009, TransLink service is still not supported.
As BART celebrated the 50th anniversary of its creation by the state legislature, it announced its plans for the next 50 years. Its vision includes adding a four-bore transbay tube beneath San Francisco Bay that would run parallel and south of the existing tunnel and emerge at the Transbay Transit Terminal to provide connecting service to Caltrain and the proposed future California High Speed Rail system. The four-bore tunnel would provide two tunnels for BART and two tunnels for conventional/high-speed rail. BART's plan focus is on improving service and reliability in its core system (where density and ridership is highest), rather than extensions into far-flung suburbia. These plans include: a line that would continue from the Transbay Terminal through the South-of-Market, northwards on Van Ness and terminating in western San Francisco along the Geary corridor, the Presidio, or North Beach; a line along the I-680 corridor; a fourth set of tracks through Oakland.
Numerous service changes were implemented beginning on January 1, 2008. Among the changes, the Pittsburg/Bay Point line extended its service to the SFO station (at all hours of operation), but did not continue to Millbrae. (A few night owl Pittsburg/Bay Point trains continued to Millbrae in addition to serving SFO). During weekdays (until 7pm), the Richmond line was extended to the Millbrae station (bypassing the SFO station); during weeknights and weekends, the Dublin/Pleasanton line would serve the extension to Millbrae (also bypassing SFO). This meant that there would no longer be a direct connection between the airport and Millbrae, introducing an inconvenience for Caltrain system passengers wishing to travel to SFO. BART discontinued this citing low ridership between Millbrae and SFO, however they did implement timed transfers at the San Bruno station for passengers connecting from SFO to Millbrae. Additionally, a 5.4% fare increase was put in place, with the minimum fare increasing from $1.40 to $1.50.
With continuing budget constraints, it was necessary for BART to cut back on service beyond Daly City. As of September 14, 2009, the following changes have taken place: The Pittsburg/Bay Point line will still terminate at SFO on weekdays until 7pm. After 7pm & all day on weekends & holidays, service will extend to Millbrae. The Dublin/Pleasanton line will no longer serve the extension, instead terminating at Daly City Station.
In 2008 BART announced that it would install solar power systems on the roofs of its train yards and maintenance facilities in
RichmondRichmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
and
HaywardHayward is a city located in the East Bay in Alameda County. The sixth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is one of the larger suburbs of Oakland. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 140,030. The estimated population in 2007 is 155,312. The former suburbs of Mt...
in addition to car ports with rooftop solar panels at its
Orinda stationOrinda is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station that serves Orinda, California.The station consists of an island platform located in the center median of State Route 24. The station is located on the east side of the Caldecott Tunnel...
. The board lamented not being able to install them at all stations but it stated that Orinda was the only station with enough sun for them to make money from the project.
BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant III
{{Main|BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant}}
On January 1, 2009, a
BART PoliceThe BART Police Department is the police force of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District .The BART Police Department has more than 296 police personnel, of which 206 are sworn peace officers. BART Police officers derive their powers of arrest from Section 830.33 P.C...
officer, Johannes Mehserle, fatally shot Oscar Grant III.
EyewitnessesA witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about a crime or dramatic event through their senses , and can help certify important considerations to the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event firsthand is known as an "eye-witness"...
gathered
direct evidenceDirect evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly, i.e., without an intervening inference...
of the shooting with video cameras which were later submitted to, and disseminated by media outlets and watched hundreds of thousands of times in the days following the shooting. Peaceful and violent demonstrations occurred protesting the shooting.
Mehserle was arrested and charged with murder, to which he has pled not guilty. Oakland
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....
attorney
John BurrisJohn Leonard Burris is an American civil rights attorney, based in Oakland, California, known for his work in police brutality cases representing plaintiffs....
filed a US $25 million wrongful death claim against the District on behalf of Grant's daughter and girlfriend.
Background
{{BS-header|BART system diagram>
black}}
{{BS-table}}
{{BS3-2 |
|uKBFa |
Pittsburg/Bay Point}}
{{BS3-2 |
|uHST |
North Concord/Martinez}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|Richmond|Concord}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|El Cerrito del Norte|Pleasant Hill}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|El Cerrito Plaza|Walnut Creek}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|North Berkeley|Lafayette}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|Berkeley|Orinda}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|Ashby|Rockridge}}
{{BS3-2 |
uSTRrf}}
{{BS3-2 |
uBHF |
|MacArthur}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST |
|19th Street/Oakland}}
{{BS3-2 |
uBHF |
|Oakland City Center/12th Street}}
{{BS3-2|uSTRrg|uABZrd}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uHST |
Lake Merrit}}
{{BS3-2|uTUNNELa|uHST |
|Fruitvale}}
{{Redirect|BART||Bart}}
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transitA rapid transit, metro, subway, underground, or elevated railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with high capacity and frequency, and which is grade separated from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically either in underground tunnels or elevated above street level...
system serving the San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Yay Area, is a metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and...
. The heavy-rail public transit system connects San Francisco with cities in the East BayThe East Bay is a region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States and comprises both Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. It lies on the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay...
and suburbs in northern San Mateo CountySan Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
. BART operates five lines on {{convert|104|mi}} of track with 43 stations in four counties. With average weekday ridership of 346,504 passengers, BART is the fifth busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
BART is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, a special-purpose transit districtA transit district or transit authority is a special-purpose district organized as either a corporation chartered by statute, or a government agency, created for the purpose of providing public transportation within a specific region....
formed in 1957 covering San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties. The name BART is an acronym and is pronounced as a word, not as individual letters. In some ways, BART is a successor to the Key SystemThe Key System was a privately owned company which provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when the system was sold to a newly formed public...
, which ran streetcars across the lower deck of the San Francisco Bay Bridge until 1958.
BART has served as a highly successful rapid transit and commuter rail system, and has provided a valuable alternative transportation route to the freewayA freeway is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all cross traffic through the use of grade separations and...
s. Due to the success and number of commuters depending upon the system, BART has been undergoing a vast modernization to furthern the quality and its ability to serve the public's transportation needs; including station overhauls, new and refurbished rolling stockRolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...
, and planned extensions.
Development and origins
{{Main|History of the Bay Area Rapid Transit}}
Much of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)'s current coverage area was once served by the electrified streetcar and suburban train network called the Key SystemThe Key System was a privately owned company which provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when the system was sold to a newly formed public...
. This early twentieth century system once had regular trans-bay traffic across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. By the 1950s the entire system had been dismantled in favor of automobiles and buses and the explosive growth of highway construction. A new system was proposed to take its place in the late 1940s with formal planning made in the 50s. Funding was secured for the project in 1959, the construction beginning a few years later. The first passenger service began in September 1972, and was hailed as a major step forwards in subway technology.
However there were questions regarding the safety of the system and costs associated with the design of BART; praise for the new transportation system was not unanimous.
Recent history
| 2006 statistics |
| Number of vehicles |
670 |
| Initial system cost |
$1.6 billion |
| Equivalent cost in 2004 dollars (replacement cost) |
$15 billion |
| Hourly passenger capacity |
15,000 |
| Maximum daily capacity |
360,000 |
| Average weekday ridership |
322,965 |
| Annual gross fare income |
$233.65 million |
| Annual expenses |
$581.81 million |
| Annual profits (losses) |
($300 million) |
| Rail cost/passenger mile (excluding capital costs) |
$.323 |
A recent study shows that along with some Bay Area freeways, some of BART's overhead structures could be extensively damaged and could potentially collapse in the event of a major earthquake, which is predicted as highly likely to happen in the Bay Area within the next 30 years. Extensive seismic retrofitSeismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with our recent experiences with large earthquakes near urban centers,...
will be necessary to address many of these deficiencies, although one in particular, the penetration of the Hayward Fault ZoneThe Hayward Fault Zone is a geologic fault zone capable of generating significantly destructive earthquakes. About 60 kilometers long, it lies mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay...
by the Berkeley Hills TunnelThe Berkeley Hills Tunnel is the tunnel that the Pittsburg/Bay Point - SFO Line, of Bay Area Rapid Transit that spans the Rockridge Station from the Orinda station...
, will be left for correction after any disabling earthquake, with the consequences for in-transit trains, their operators, and their passengers left to chanceIn probability theory, a stochastic process, or sometimes random process, is the counterpart to a deterministic process...
.
By November 2005, BART had become the first transit system in the nation to offer cellular telephone communication to passengers of all wireless carriers on its trains underground. This is in contrast to other systems in United States, which, while having some cellular telephone service, do not provide it for passengers of all the major cell phone carriers. Coverage is eventually planned for the entire system. In the summer 2006, service was made available for customers of Verizon WirelessCellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, owns and operates the largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, based on a total of 87.7 million U.S. subscribers. Verizon Wireless has the largest revenue of all United States wireless companies reporting $58.6 billion...
, Sprint/NextelSprint Nextel Corporation is a telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas.The company owns and operates the third-largest wireless telecommunications network in United States, with 49.3 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility.Sprint is a global Internet carrier ...
, AT&T Mobility, and T-Mobile in and between the four San Francisco Market Street stations from Civic Center to Embarcadero. By July 2008, the fifth cellphone network of the Bay Area, MetroPCSMetroPCS Communications, Inc. is a provider of CDMA wireless communications services in the greater Boston, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Sarasota, Fort Myers, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Daytona, Dallas, Detroit, Orlando,...
, was added. Coverage is also available in the stations between Balboa ParkBalboa Park Station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station located south of Balboa Park in southern San Francisco, California. It consists of two main tracks and a single island platform...
and 16th St. Mission. In 2009, service is planned to be added to the 12th and 19th street stations in downtown Oakland, as well as the Transbay Tube.
Starting on February 20th 2007 BART entered into an agreement to permit a BETA test of WiFi Internet access for travelers on the BART system. It initially included the four San Francisco downtown stations; Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, and Civic Center. To date over 30,000 patrons have utilized the service. The testing and demonstration also includes above ground testing to trains at BART's Hayward Test Track. The testing and deployment has been extended into the underground interconnecting tubes between the four downtown stations and further. The successful demonstration and testing provided for a 10 year contract with WiFi Rail, Inc. for the services throughout the BART Right Of Way (ROW).
During the months of May 2008 and July 2008 the WiFi service was expanded to include the Transbay TubeThe Transbay Tube is the part of BART which runs under San Francisco Bay in California. The tube is 3.6 miles long; including approaches from the nearest stations , it totals 6 miles...
and now awaits BART cars which have the necessary WiFi equipment to benefit from the network access.
Since the mid 1990s, BART has been trying to modernize its aging 30-year-old system. The aforementioned fleet rehabilitation is part of this modernization; presently, fire alarms, water-sprinkling systems, yellow tactile platform edge domes, and cemented-mat rubber tiles are being installed. The rough black tiles on the platform edge mark the location of the doorway of approaching trains, allowing passengers to wait at the appropriate locations for the train, instead of waiting until the train arrives to figure out where to board. All faregates and ticket vending machines have also been completely replaced.
In the spring of 2007, BART experimented with a system of placed advertisement panels in the Transbay Tube, and when riders looking at the windows saw what looked to be a moving commercial for what was ReebokReebok International Limited, a subsidiary of German sportswear giant Adidas, is a producer of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
's "Run Easy" campaign.
On April 10, 2007, BART General Manager Tom Margro, who has been BART chief for eleven years, announced his retirement.
In late May, 2007, BART stated its intention to improve non-peak (night and weekend) headways for each line to only 15 minutes. The current 20-minute headways at these times is viewed as a psychological barrier to ridership. June 2007, BART temporarily reversed its position stating that the shortened wait times would likely not happen due to a $900,000 state revenue budget shortfall. Nevertheless, BART eventually confirmed the implementation of the plan by January 1, 2008.
Furthermore, in June 2007, BART suddenly removed all references to implementation of the TransLinkTransLink is a new transit fare payment system being implemented in the San Francisco Bay Area. It utilizes a reloadable card with a dual interface, making it capable of both contact and contactless transactions...
payment system from their website. BART spokesperson Marty Moran stated (via email) that TransLink now may be implemented as early as late 2007. Implementation of TransLink on BART was pushed back even further due to disputes regarding the processing of fares between MTC and BART. TransLink was planned to be rolled out simultaneously on BART, SF MuniThe San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
, and CaltrainCaltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. It is currently operated under contract by Amtrak and funded jointly by the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County Transit District, and Santa Clara Valley...
in Spring 2008, although as of February 2009, TransLink service is still not supported.
As BART celebrated the 50th anniversary of its creation by the state legislature, it announced its plans for the next 50 years. Its vision includes adding a four-bore transbay tube beneath San Francisco Bay that would run parallel and south of the existing tunnel and emerge at the Transbay Transit Terminal to provide connecting service to Caltrain and the proposed future California High Speed Rail system. The four-bore tunnel would provide two tunnels for BART and two tunnels for conventional/high-speed rail. BART's plan focus is on improving service and reliability in its core system (where density and ridership is highest), rather than extensions into far-flung suburbia. These plans include: a line that would continue from the Transbay Terminal through the South-of-Market, northwards on Van Ness and terminating in western San Francisco along the Geary corridor, the Presidio, or North Beach; a line along the I-680 corridor; a fourth set of tracks through Oakland.
Numerous service changes were implemented beginning on January 1, 2008. Among the changes, the Pittsburg/Bay Point line extended its service to the SFO station (at all hours of operation), but did not continue to Millbrae. (A few night owl Pittsburg/Bay Point trains continued to Millbrae in addition to serving SFO). During weekdays (until 7pm), the Richmond line was extended to the Millbrae station (bypassing the SFO station); during weeknights and weekends, the Dublin/Pleasanton line would serve the extension to Millbrae (also bypassing SFO). This meant that there would no longer be a direct connection between the airport and Millbrae, introducing an inconvenience for Caltrain system passengers wishing to travel to SFO. BART discontinued this citing low ridership between Millbrae and SFO, however they did implement timed transfers at the San Bruno station for passengers connecting from SFO to Millbrae. Additionally, a 5.4% fare increase was put in place, with the minimum fare increasing from $1.40 to $1.50.
With continuing budget constraints, it was necessary for BART to cut back on service beyond Daly City. As of September 14, 2009, the following changes have taken place: The Pittsburg/Bay Point line will still terminate at SFO on weekdays until 7pm. After 7pm & all day on weekends & holidays, service will extend to Millbrae. The Dublin/Pleasanton line will no longer serve the extension, instead terminating at Daly City Station.
In 2008 BART announced that it would install solar power systems on the roofs of its train yards and maintenance facilities in RichmondRichmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
and HaywardHayward is a city located in the East Bay in Alameda County. The sixth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is one of the larger suburbs of Oakland. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 140,030. The estimated population in 2007 is 155,312. The former suburbs of Mt...
in addition to car ports with rooftop solar panels at its Orinda stationOrinda is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station that serves Orinda, California.The station consists of an island platform located in the center median of State Route 24. The station is located on the east side of the Caldecott Tunnel...
. The board lamented not being able to install them at all stations but it stated that Orinda was the only station with enough sun for them to make money from the project.
BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant III
{{Main|BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant}}
On January 1, 2009, a BART PoliceThe BART Police Department is the police force of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District .The BART Police Department has more than 296 police personnel, of which 206 are sworn peace officers. BART Police officers derive their powers of arrest from Section 830.33 P.C...
officer, Johannes Mehserle, fatally shot Oscar Grant III.
EyewitnessesA witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about a crime or dramatic event through their senses , and can help certify important considerations to the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event firsthand is known as an "eye-witness"...
gathered direct evidenceDirect evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly, i.e., without an intervening inference...
of the shooting with video cameras which were later submitted to, and disseminated by media outlets and watched hundreds of thousands of times in the days following the shooting. Peaceful and violent demonstrations occurred protesting the shooting.
Mehserle was arrested and charged with murder, to which he has pled not guilty. Oakland civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....
attorney John BurrisJohn Leonard Burris is an American civil rights attorney, based in Oakland, California, known for his work in police brutality cases representing plaintiffs....
filed a US $25 million wrongful death claim against the District on behalf of Grant's daughter and girlfriend.
Background
{{BS-header|BART system diagram>
| black}}
{{BS-table}}
{{BS3-2 |
|uKBFa |
Pittsburg/Bay Point}}
{{BS3-2 |
|uHST |
North Concord/Martinez}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|Richmond|Concord}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|El Cerrito del Norte|Pleasant Hill}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|El Cerrito Plaza|Walnut Creek}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|North Berkeley|Lafayette}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|Berkeley|Orinda}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST|Ashby|Rockridge}}
{{BS3-2 |
uSTRrf}}
{{BS3-2 |
uBHF |
|MacArthur}}
{{BS3-2 |
uHST |
|19th Street/Oakland}}
{{BS3-2 |
uBHF |
|Oakland City Center/12th Street}}
{{BS3-2|uSTRrg|uABZrd}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uHST |
Lake Merrit}}
{{BS3-2|uTUNNELa|uHST |
|Fruitvale}}
{{BS3-2|utWSTR|uSTR |
|
}
{{BS3-2|uTUNNELe|uHST|FLUG||Coliseum/Oakland Airport}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uHST||Embarcadero|San Leandro}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uBHF||Montgomery St.|Bay Fair}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uABZlf|uSTRlg|Powell St.}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uSTR|uHST|Civic Center|Castro Valley}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uHST|uSTR|16th Street Mission|Hayward}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uHST|uSTR|24th Street Mission|South Hayward}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uSTR|uSTR|Glen Park|}}
{{BS3-2|uBHF|uHST|uSTR|Balboa Park Station|Union City}}
{{BS3-2|uHST|uKBFe|uSTR|Daly City|Fremont}}
{{BS3-2|uHST||ueHST|Colma|West Dublin/Pleasanton||(under construction)}}
{{BS3-2|uHST||uKBFe|South San Francisco|Dublin/Pleasanton}}
{{BS3-2|uBHF|||San Bruno}}
{{BS3-2|uABZlfeABZrg|uBHFl|FLUG|San Francisco International Airport}}
{{BS3-2|uKBFe|||Millbrae}}
|}
|}
BART comprises {{convert|104|mi}} of track and 43 stations. The system uses a {{convert|5|ft|6|in|mm|0|abbr=on}}
broad rail gaugeBroad gauge railways use a rail gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For a list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...
, as opposed to the {{RailGauge|ussg}}
standard gaugeThe standard gauge is a widely-used rail gauge. Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
predominantly found in railroad systems in the United States. Trains can achieve a centrally-controlled maximum speed of {{convert|80|mph|abbr=on}} and provide a system-wide average speed of {{convert|33|mph|abbr=on}} with twenty-second station stopping times. Trains operate at a minimum length of three cars per California Public Utilities Commission guidelines to a maximum length of 10 cars, spanning the entire {{convert|700|ft|m|0}} length of a platform. At its maximum length of {{convert|710|ft|m|0}}, BART has the longest train length of any metrorail system in the United States. The system also features car widths of {{convert|10.5|ft|m|1}}, a maximum gradient of four percent, and a minimum curve radius of {{convert|394|ft|m|0}}.
Electric currentElectric current can mean, depending on the context, a flow of electric charge or the rate of flow of electric charge ....
is delivered to the trains over a
third railA third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost fully...
, the position of which alternates relative to the context of the train. Inside stations, the third rail is always on the side furthest away from the passenger platforms. This design feature eliminates the danger of a passenger either falling directly on the third rail, or stepping onto it to climb back to the platform should they fall off. On ground-level trackways, the third rail alternates from one side of the track to the other, providing breaks in the third rail to allow for emergency evacuations across trackways.
Underground tunnels, aerial structures and the
Transbay TubeThe Transbay Tube is the part of BART which runs under San Francisco Bay in California. The tube is 3.6 miles long; including approaches from the nearest stations , it totals 6 miles...
have evacuation walkways and passageways to allow for train evacuation without exposing passengers to easy, inadvertent contact with the third rail, which is located as far away from these walkways as possible. The voltage on the third rail is 1000 V
DCDirect current is the undirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also be through...
, so there are notices throughout the system warning passengers of its danger. In addition, BART posts notices inside each train car warning of the third rail and the four paddle-like rail contact shoes protruding from the underside of each car by the rail wheel trucks.
Many of the original system 1970s-era BART stations, especially the aerial stations, feature simple,
Brutalist architectureBrutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement...
.
Ridership records have been set during large scale regional-in-scope events such as the
San Francisco Gay Pride ParadeThe San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a parade and festival held in June each year in San Francisco to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people and their allies. It is one of the most famous and...
. The records included a Sunday record of 224,500 that coincided with an
Oakland A'sThe Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the Oakland Coliseum....
baseball game and a weekday record of 405,400 set on September 8, 2008, when both the
San Francisco GiantsThe San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California who currently play in the National League West Division. One of the oldest baseball teams, the Giants hold the honor of having won the most games of any team in the history of baseball...
and
Oakland RaidersThe Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team in the NFL based in the city of Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
had home games. The one week record for ridership was 2,317,800 between June 23 and June 29, 2008. this broke the previous all time high of 2,301,800 achieved during a closure of the Bay Bridge.
After several high-profile incidents involving
SegwayThe Segway PT is a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle invented by Dean Kamen. It is produced by Segway Inc. of New Hampshire, USA. The name "Segway" is a homophone of "segue"...
s, including an incident where a Segway was run over by a train after falling onto the tracks, BART banned them for 45 days until they could regroup and set up a plan to mediate the issue. The consensus reached was the institution of rules similar to bicycles where the Segways would be disallowed during commute hours, except for disabled persons and that the devices could not be on or ridden past the fare gates similar to the rules for all wheeled devices such as skateboards and scooters. Furthermore a permitting system has been established requiring registration for them to be used on the system.
Routes
All routes pass through the city of Oakland, and all but the Richmond – Fremont route pass through the
Transbay TubeThe Transbay Tube is the part of BART which runs under San Francisco Bay in California. The tube is 3.6 miles long; including approaches from the nearest stations , it totals 6 miles...
into San Francisco and beyond to Daly City. Most segments of the BART system carry trains of more than one route.
Trains regularly operate on five routes. Unlike most other rapid transit and rail systems around the world, BART lines are generally not referred to by shorthand designations. Although the lines have been colored consistently on BART system maps for more than a decade, they are only occasionally referred to officially by color names, and only rarely referred to in this way by members of the public (
e.g., the "
Red Line").
Instead, the five BART lines are generally identified on maps and schedules by the names of their termini:
- Fremont – Daly City, following a former Western Pacific Railroad
Western Pacific may refer to:*Western Pacific Railroad *Western Pacific Railroad *Western Pacific Airlines*Western Pacific Ocean...
right-of-way from Fremont to Oakland, operates Mondays through Saturdays.
- Dublin/Pleasanton – Daly City, following Interstate-580 via Castro Valley to San Leandro, where it meets the Fremont-Richmond line, and extending beyond Daly City to Millbrae on weeknights and weekends.
- Pittsburg/Bay Point – SFO/Millbrae, following SR 4, a former Sacramento Northern Railway
The Sacramento Northern Railway was originally a electric interurban railway linking Chico in northern California to the state capitol of Sacramento. By combining with an interurban that ran south, it expanded from Sacramento to the city of Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco, operating...
right-of way, and SR 24 from Bay Point to Oakland, and extending beyond Daly City to San Francisco International AirportSan Francisco International Airport is a major international airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States, adjacent to the cities of Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is often referred to as SFO...
(on a branch from the line to Millbrae) at all times.
- Richmond – Daly City/Millbrae, following a former Sante Fe Railroad
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...
right-of-way from Richmond to Berkeley, and extending beyond Daly City to Millbrae on weekdays daytime to early evening. On Saturdays, this line operates to Daly City only.
- Richmond – Fremont, coinciding with the Richmond – Millbrae line and the Fremont – Daly City line between their termini and Oakland, and operates daily.
The line from San Francisco through Daly City to Millbrae follows a former Southern Pacific railroad right-of-way, which is also served by a
CaltrainCaltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. It is currently operated under contract by Amtrak and funded jointly by the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County Transit District, and Santa Clara Valley...
beyond San Bruno.
Hours of operation
The BART system consists of five lines, but most of the network consists of more than one line on the same track. Trains on each line historically ran every fifteen minutes on weekdays and twenty minutes during the evenings, weekends and holidays; however, since a given station might be served by as many as four lines, it could have service as frequently as every three to four minutes. However the system is closed for four hours every night for maintainence, reopening at 4:00 AM each morning.
As of January 1, 2008, service on every line is at 15-minute intervals except for Saturdays between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., when service is at 20-minute intervals. Also, as of January 1, 2008, BART service begins around 4:00 a.m. on weekdays, 6:00 a.m. on Saturdays, and 8:00 a.m. on Sundays. Service ends every day near midnight with station closings timed to the last train at station. Two of the five lines, the Millbrae—Richmond and
SF/Daly City—FremontThe Fremont – Daly City line of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in the San Francisco Bay Area consists of 19 metro stations from Fremont to Daly City. It passes through Union City, California, Hayward, San Leandro, Oakland, and San Francisco....
lines, do not have night (after 7 p.m.) or Sunday service, but all stations remain accessible by transfer from the other lines.
All-Nighter Network service is available when BART is closed. All but six BART stations are served (as well as eight
CaltrainCaltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. It is currently operated under contract by Amtrak and funded jointly by the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County Transit District, and Santa Clara Valley...
stations). BART tickets are not accepted on these buses, and each of the four bus systems charge their own fare, which can be up to
$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
3.50; a four-system ride can cost as much as $9.50 as of 2007.
Fares
Fares on BART are comparable to those of commuter rail systems and are higher than those of most
metroA rapid transit, metro, subway, underground, or elevated railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with high capacity and frequency, and which is grade separated from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically either in underground tunnels or elevated above street level...
s, especially for long trips. The fare is based on a formula that takes into account both the length and speed of the trip. A surcharge is added for trips traveling through the
Transbay TubeThe Transbay Tube is the part of BART which runs under San Francisco Bay in California. The tube is 3.6 miles long; including approaches from the nearest stations , it totals 6 miles...
, to
San Francisco International AirportSan Francisco International Airport is a major international airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States, adjacent to the cities of Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is often referred to as SFO...
, or through
San Mateo CountySan Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
, which is not a BART member. Historically and up until only recently, passengers have used refillable paper-plastic-composite tickets, on which fares are stored via a magnetic strip, to enter and exit the system (a similar magnetic strip ticketing system is used on the
Washington MetroMetrorail, commonly called Metro, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C. and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
in Washington, D.C). The exit faregate prints the remaining balance on the ticket each time the passenger exits the station. A paper ticket can be refilled at a ticket machine, the remaining balance on any ticket can be applied towards the purchase of a new one, or a card is simply captured by the exit gate when the balance reaches zero; multiple low value cards can be combined to create a larger value card, but only at specific ticket exchange locations which are located at some BART stations. BART relies on unused ticket values, particularly of patrons discarding low-value cards, as a source of revenue, approximated by some to be as high as $9.9 million.
A stored-value
smart cardA smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process data. This implies that it can receive input which is processed — by way of the ICC applications — and delivered as an output. There are two broad...
fare system, called the TransLink
smart cardA smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process data. This implies that it can receive input which is processed — by way of the ICC applications — and delivered as an output. There are two broad...
, was to be rolled out as valid fare in the Fall of 2008 but has been delayed.
This program was launched to the public in fall 2006 with rollout on
AC TransitAC Transit is a regional bus agency serving parts of Alameda County and Contra Costa County in the western coastal area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, headquartered in Oakland...
,
Dumbarton ExpressThe Dumbarton Express is a California bus service operating between Union City BART station and Palo Alto Caltrain station via the Dumbarton Bridge. It is operated by a group of operators including BART, VTA, Union City Transit and AC Transit...
, and
Golden Gate TransitGolden Gate Transit is a public transportation system in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States. It mainly serves Marin and Sonoma Counties, and also provides limited service to San Francisco and Contra Costa County.-Description:...
lines. BART participated in the Translink pilot program, installing readers at nine stations, but removed them once the pilot was completed. In the interim, BART has introduced the EZ Rider card, a pilot program using technology similar in design to the TransLink cards. Both are contactless smart cards, and contain stored value that can be used for fare payments. BART contracted with Cubic Transportation Systems to replace all the faregates with ones that have smart card readers inherently installed. The reader technology used for the EZ Rider system may not be compatible with the technology used for the Translink system, which might be a factor delaying the rollout of the system. The EZ Rider program is expected to last until the TransLink cards are accepted on BART, which was scheduled for Fall 2008 but has been delayed.
The BART minimum fare of $1.75 is charged for trips under {{convert|6|mi|km}}, such as a trip between two adjacent Berkeley stations. The maximum one-way fare including all possible surcharges is $10.90, the {{convert|51|mi|km}} journey between Pittsburg/Bay Point and
San Francisco International AirportSan Francisco International Airport is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station on the Pittsburg/Bay Point – SFO Line located inside San Francisco International Airport.The station is located on level 3 of the International Terminal, next to Parking Garage G...
. The farthest possible trip, from Pittsburg/Bay Point to Millbrae, costs less because of the additional charge added to airport trips.
Passengers without sufficient fare to complete their journey must use an AddFare machine to pay the remaining balance in order to exit the station. Because of the amount of the base fare, traveling between BART stations in downtown San Francisco on BART costs 25 cents less than it does to ride the city's own light rail system, the
MUNI MetroMuni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway , a division of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency...
, which is generally slower in covering the same distance. However, MUNI permits around two full hours of riding, including transfers to other MUNI vehicles, whereas BART charges $1.75 for a single journey. There are various quirks in the fare system due to a subsidy being provided to riders traveling between some outlying stations. For example, for a trip from Dublin/Pleasanton to Fremont, it is less expensive to exit the station at the transfer point, Bay Fair, and re-enter the station, instead of staying on the platform, because you would get charged two $1.75 base fares instead of a $4.35 fare from end to end.
BART uses a system of five different color-coded tickets for regular fare, special fare, and discount fare to select groups as follows:
- Blue tickets – General: the most common type, includes high-value discount tickets
- Red tickets – Disabled Persons
Disability is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities."...
and children aged 4 to 12: 62.5% discount, special ID required (children under the age of 4 ride free)
- Green tickets – Seniors
Senior citizen is a common polite designation for an elderly person in both UK and US English, and it implies or means that the person is retired. This in turn implies or in fact means that the person is over the retirement age, which of course varies according to country. Synonyms include...
age 65 or over: 62.5% discount, proof of age required for purchase
- Orange tickets – Student: special, restricted-use 50% discount ticket for students age 13-18 currently enrolled in high
High school is the name used in some parts of the world, particularly in Scotland, Northern America and Oceania, to describe an institution that provides all or part of secondary education...
or middle schoolMiddle school or junior high school serves as a "bridge" between elementary school and high school. The terms can be used in different ways in different countries, sometimes interchangeably...
- BART Plus – special high-value ticket with 'flash-pass' privileges with regional transit agencies, including MUNI
"Muni" is a common abbreviation for "municipal", and sometimes becomes a frequently-used name for a city-related service or organization:*The Muny, an outdoor musical theatre in St...
's buses.
- EZ Rider – A new plastic smart card
A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process data. This implies that it can receive input which is processed — by way of the ICC applications — and delivered as an output. There are two broad...
fare program that will eventually be replaced by the TransLink Phase II Program
Unlike most transit systems in the United States, BART does not have an unlimited ride pass available and riders must pay for each ride they take. The only discount provided to the public is a 6.25% discount when "high value tickets" are purchased with fare values of $48 and $64, for prices of $45 and $60 respectively.
AmtrakThe National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971 to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a blend of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union Station...
's
Capitol CorridorThe Capitol Corridor is a 172-mile passenger train route operated by Amtrak in California. Because it is fully supported by the state, the Capitol Corridor operates under Amtrak California. It runs daily from the San Francisco Bay Area to Sacramento, roughly parallel to Interstate 80...
&
San JoaquinsThe San Joaquin is a passenger train operated by Amtrak in California's Central Valley. The train's southern terminus is at Bakersfield and is operated twelve times each day with a destination/origin of either Oakland or Sacramento...
trains sell $10 BART tickets on-board in the café cars for only $8, resulting in a 20% discount. A 62.5% discount is provided to seniors, the disabled, and children age 5 to 12. Middle and high school students 13 to 18 may obtain a 50% discount if their school participates in the BART program; however, these tickets are intended to be used only between the students' home station and the school's station and for transportation to and from school events. However, these
intended limitations are not enforced in any way and students are expected to behave on the honor system. The tickets are only usable on weekdays, a restriction that
is enforced by the fare gates.
BART Plus tickets enjoy a last-ride bonus where if the remaining value is greater than $.05, the ticket can be used one last time for a trip of any distance. Most special discounted tickets must be purchased at selected vendors and not at ticket machines. The Bart Plus tickets can be purchased at the ticket machines. In particular, the middle and high school tickets are usually sold at the schools themselves.
Family members of BART employees receive special BART passes and can ride free-of-charge upon showing their pass and photo identification to the BART station attendant. Employees of airlines that take BART to work at
San Francisco International AirportSan Francisco International Airport is a major international airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States, adjacent to the cities of Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is often referred to as SFO...
receive a fare discount of 25%, but non-airline employees who do the same receive no discount.
Fares are enforced by the station agent, who monitors activity at the fare gates adjacent to the window and at other fare gates through closed circuit television and faregate status screens located in the agent's booth. All stations are staffed with at least one agent at all times. Despite this, fare fraud occasionally occurs, usually as a result of people entering and exiting through the emergency exit gate, which are permitted for non-emergency use by passengers with bikes, in wheelchairs, and carrying luggage. It also occurs using elevators, which in some stations lead from the ticketed area to the unticketed area.
There is little fare coordination between BART and surrounding agencies. Some agencies accept the BART Plus pass, which at a fee of between $38 and $71 per month, permits pass holders to use BART and connecting buses. Most notably,
AC TransitAC Transit is a regional bus agency serving parts of Alameda County and Contra Costa County in the western coastal area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, headquartered in Oakland...
dropped out of the program due to the small amount of reimbursement they received from BART. Another fare coordination program permits adult monthly pass holders of the
San Francisco Municipal RailwayThe San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
to ride BART trains within the city of San Francisco for free (with no credit applied to trips outside the city). The city of San Francisco pays BART $.87 for each trip taken under this arrangement. For riders who do not hold such passes, there is generally only a token discount ($.25 to $.50) provided to passengers transferring to and from trains to other transit modes. The
Santa Clara Valley Transportation AuthoritySanta Clara Valley Transportation Authority is a special-purpose district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County, California, United States.-Founding of Santa Clara County...
does honor BART transfers for a local fare credit ($.50 to $1.75) towards the 120, 140, 180 and 181 trans-county express lines departing the Fremont BART station, but all riders are required to disembark in Santa Clara County. There is no credit applied when traveling towards the Fremont BART Station.
Proposals to simplify the fare structure abound. At one extreme, a flat fare that disregards distance has been proposed by BART director Joel Keller. The lesser extreme involves the implementation of a simplified structure that would create fare bands or zones. The implementation of either scheme would demote the use of distance-based fares and shift the fare-box recovery burden to the urban riders in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley and away from the suburban riders of East Contra Costa, Southern Alameda, and San Mateo Counties, where density is lowest, and consequently, operational cost is highest.
Connecting services
BART has direct connections to two
regional railSuburban commuter railroad or commuter railway a passenger rail transport service between a city center, and outer suburbs and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters—people who travel on a daily basis. Trains operate following a schedule, at speeds varying from 50 to...
services –
CaltrainCaltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. It is currently operated under contract by Amtrak and funded jointly by the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County Transit District, and Santa Clara Valley...
, which provides service between San Francisco,
San JoseSan Jose or San José is the third-largest city in California and the tenth-largest in the United States. The county seat of Santa Clara County, it is located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region commonly referred to as Silicon Valley...
, and
GilroyGilroy is the southernmost city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, and in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 41,464 at the 2000 census. Gilroy is well known for its garlic crop; the Gilroy Garlic Festival which occurs annually, featuring various garlicky foods...
, at the
Millbrae StationMillbrae Station is an at-grade Bay Area Rapid Transit and Caltrain station located in suburban Millbrae, California, in northern San Mateo County.-Description:...
, and
AmtrakThe National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971 to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a blend of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union Station...
's
Capitol CorridorThe Capitol Corridor is a 172-mile passenger train route operated by Amtrak in California. Because it is fully supported by the state, the Capitol Corridor operates under Amtrak California. It runs daily from the San Francisco Bay Area to Sacramento, roughly parallel to Interstate 80...
, which runs from
SacramentoSacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2007 estimated population of 460,242, it is the seventh-largest...
to San Jose, at the
RichmondRichmond Station is an at-grade Bay Area Rapid Transit and Amtrak station located in Richmond, California. Each system is served by an island platform. The Capitol Corridor stops here, providing connections to BART. The San Joaquins, another Amtrak route, also has a stop at this station. The...
and
Coliseum/Oakland AirportThe Oakland Coliseum Amtrak/BART Station is actually a reference to two separate stations of two public transit providers that are within 600ft of each other: Amtrak Capitol Corridor
's Oakland Coliseum station and Bay Area Rapid Transit 's Coliseum/Oakland Airport station...
stations. A third Capitol Corridor connection at the
Union CityUnion City is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station located near the Decoto district of Union City. Service at this station began on September 11, 1972. The station sits near Decoto Road east of Alvarado-Niles Road, directly behind James Logan High School's campus. This station is one of the few that...
station is planned as part of a larger Dumbarton Rail Corridor Project to connect Union City,
FremontFremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs. The city is named after John Charles Frémont, "the Great Pathfinder."Fremont is located in the...
, and
NewarkNewark is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in September 1955. Newark is an enclave, completely surrounded by the city of Fremont. Its population was 42,471 at the 2000 census...
to various
peninsulaThe San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in California that separates the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is in Santa Clara County, including the cities of Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Mountain View...
destinations via the
Dumbarton rail bridgeThe Dumbarton Bridge is the southernmost of the highway bridges that span the San Francisco Bay in California. Carrying over 81,000 vehicles daily, it is also the shortest bridge across San Francisco Bay at 1.63 miles...
. BART is the managing agency for the Capitol Corridor until 2010.
BART connects to San Francisco's local
light railLight rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
system, the
Muni MetroMuni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway , a division of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency...
. The upper track level of BART's Market Street subway, originally designed for the lines to Marin County,{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} was turned over to Muni and both agencies share the
EmbarcaderoEmbarcadero Station is a Muni Metro and Bay Area Rapid Transit station near the Embarcadero in the Financial District of San Francisco, California. It is located at the north-eastern end of the Market Street Subway below Market Street between Spear Street and Beale Street...
,
Montgomery StreetMontgomery Street Station is a Muni Metro and Bay Area Rapid Transit station in the Financial District of San Francisco, California. It is located on the Market Street Subway beneath Market Street, between Montgomery Street and Sansome Street...
,
PowellPowell Street Station is a Muni Metro and Bay Area Rapid Transit station near the intersection of Market Street and Powell Street in downtown San Francisco, California. The station is located along the Market Street Subway and extends underground from Fourth Street to Fifth Street. Hallidie Plaza...
and
Civic CenterCivic Center/UN Plaza Station is a Muni Metro and Bay Area Rapid Transit station near the Civic Center in downtown San Francisco, California. It is along the Market Street Subway below Market Street between Seventh Street and Eighth Street...
stations. Some Muni Metro lines connect with (or pass nearby) the BART system at the Balboa Park and Glen Park stations.
Other services connect to BART including the
Emery Go RoundEmery Go Round is a zero-fare bus service in Emeryville, California, near Oakland, California. It has six lines that run seven days a week, with more limited service on weekends, and no or reduced service on holidays. It provides a crucial link between the Amtrak station, where some trains...
(
EmeryvilleEmeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, extending to the shore of San Francisco Bay. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and...
),
WestCATWestCAT is a public transportation service in western Contra Costa County . It is a service of the Western Contra Costa Transit Authority....
(north-western Contra Costa County), Benicia Transit (
BeniciaBenicia is a waterside city in Solano County, California, United States. It was the first city in California to be founded by Anglo-Americans, and served as the state capital for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. The population was 26,865 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the San...
),
Union City TransitUnion City Transit is a public transit service in Union City, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It began operations in 1974 with the opening of the Union City BART station.The service was formerly known as "the Flea."...
(
Union CityUnion City is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. As of the 2008 census, the current population is about 73,402. Union City was incorporated in 1959, bringing together the communities of Alvarado, Decoto, and New Haven...
), and the
Santa Clara Valley Transportation AuthoritySanta Clara Valley Transportation Authority is a special-purpose district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County, California, United States.-Founding of Santa Clara County...
(VTA, in
Silicon ValleySilicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California, United States. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the high-tech businesses in the area; it is now...
).
BART hosts
carsharingCarsharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. They are attractive to customers who make only occasional use of a vehicle, as well as others who would like occasional access to a vehicle of a different type than they use day-to-day...
locations at many stations, a program pioneered by
City CarShareCity CarShare is a nonprofit car sharing organization that launched car sharing in the San Francisco Bay area in 2001. It was started by transportation activists in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco. City CarShare has cars available for hourly use at all times of day...
. Riders can transfer from BART and complete their journeys by car. BART has started to offer long-term airport parking through a third-party vendor at most East Bay stations. Travelers must make an on-line reservation in advance and pay the daily fee of $5 before they can leave their cars at the BART parking lot.
Casual carpools have formed at North Berkeley station and the area around El Cerrito Del Norte station. The lots are convenient since most carpoolers use public transit back to their final destination. However, because of how BART charges for parking, passengers cannot park at most BART lots without paying a fare.
Connecting services via bus
A number of bus transit services connect to BART, which, while managed by separate agencies, are integral to the successful functioning of the system. The primary providers include the
San Francisco Municipal RailwayThe San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
(Muni), Alameda-Contra Costa Transit (AC Transit), San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans),
Central Contra Costa Transit AuthorityThe County Connection is a Concord-based public transit agency operating fixed-route bus and ADA paratransit service in and around central Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area...
(County Connection), and the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District (
Golden Gate TransitGolden Gate Transit is a public transportation system in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States. It mainly serves Marin and Sonoma Counties, and also provides limited service to San Francisco and Contra Costa County.-Description:...
). Until 1997, BART ran its own "BART Express" connector buses, which ran to eastern Alameda County and far eastern and western areas of Contra Costa County; these routes were later devolved to sub-regional transit agencies such as
Tri-Delta TransitTri Delta Transit, also known as the East Contra Costa Transit Authority, is the local public transportation provider for the eastern area of Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, U.S.A.. It provides local bus service in the communities of Bay Point, Pittsburg, Antioch,...
and the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (
WHEELSWHEELS is a bus service that provides public transportation in Livermore, Pleasanton, and Dublin, California ....
) or, in the case of Dublin/Pleasanton service, replaced by a full BART extension.
BART is connected to
Oakland International AirportOakland International Airport , also known as Metropolitan Oakland International Airport, is a public airport located south of the central business district of Oakland, a city in Alameda County, California, United States...
via
AirBARTAirBART is a shuttle bus service that connects the Bay Area Rapid Transit District's Coliseum/Oakland Airport station with Oakland International Airport . Buses stop at street level just outside the BART station and serve both airport terminals with one stop at the airport along the third curb....
shuttle buses, which bring travelers to and from the Coliseum/Oakland Airport BART station. These buses are operated by BART and accept exact-change BART fare cards in addition to exact change. BART also connects to the
San Francisco International AirportSan Francisco International Airport is a major international airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States, adjacent to the cities of Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is often referred to as SFO...
, though in this case the train actually enters the airport directly and no shuttle is necessary, although connections are available to
AirTrainAirTrain is a fully automated people mover at San Francisco International Airport . The system was built by Bombardier at a cost of US $430 million, and opened on February 24, 2003. The trains operate 24 hours a day on two separate lines, covering a total of six miles .The entire AirTrain fleet is...
for those not departing or arriving from the international terminal.
The bus service connecting the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
to the
BerkeleyBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
BART station was once called
Humphrey Go-BARTHumphrey Go-Bart was the name of a zero-fare shuttle bus service that once connected the campus of UC Berkeley with the nearby Berkeley BART station, the university's primary link to San Francisco....
, a
spoonerismA spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner , Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency...
of the famous actor and director
Humphrey BogartHumphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor.After trying various jobs, Bogart began acting in 1921 and became a regular in Broadway productions in the 1920s and 1930s. When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogart turned to film...
. It has since been replaced by a number of regular AC Transit bus routes and shuttle bus routes operated by the university.
Governance
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District is a special governmental agency created by the State of California consisting of
Alameda CountyAlameda County is a county in the U.S. state of California. It occupies most of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2000 census it had a population of 1,443,741, making it the 7th largest county in the state, and by 2006 it was estimated 1,457,426...
,
Contra Costa CountyContra Costa County is a primarily suburban county in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2006, the US Census Bureau estimated it had a population of 1,024,319...
, and the
City and County of San FranciscoSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
.
San Mateo CountySan Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
, which hosts six BART stations, is not part of the BART District. It is governed by an elected Board of Directors with each of the nine directors representing a specific geographic area within the BART district. BART has its own
policeThe BART Police Department is the police force of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District .The BART Police Department has more than 296 police personnel, of which 206 are sworn peace officers. BART Police officers derive their powers of arrest from Section 830.33 P.C...
force.
While the district includes all of the cities and communities in its jurisdiction, some of these cities do not have stations on the BART system. This has caused tensions among property owners in cities like
LivermoreLivermore is a city in Alameda County. The population was 73,345 at the 2000 census, but estimated by city officials to be presently in 100,000 + . Livermore is located in the Bay Area...
who pay BART taxes but must travel outside the city to receive BART service. In areas like Fremont, the majority of commuters do not commute in the direction that BART would take them (many Fremonters commute to San Jose, where there is currently no BART service). This would be alleviated with the completion of a BART-to-
San JoseSan Jose or San José is the third-largest city in California and the tenth-largest in the United States. The county seat of Santa Clara County, it is located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region commonly referred to as Silicon Valley...
extension project.
However, some cities and towns are near enough to cities with BART stations that residents commute via a bus or car to the nearest BART station.
EmeryvilleEmeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, extending to the shore of San Francisco Bay. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and...
, for instance, has no BART service, but has a free shuttle service, the Emery-Go-Round, that takes passengers to the nearby
MacArthurMacArthur is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station near MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland. The station's platforms are located in the center median of State Route 24 while the concourse mezzanine is located underneath the freeway's eastbound lanes. It is just north of the MacArthur Freeway/SR 24/I-980...
station in Oakland. Similarly,
AlbanyAlbany is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 16,447 at the 2000 census.-History:...
does not have a BART station of its own. The city's residents can go to either
North BerkeleyNorth Berkeley is an underground Bay Area Rapid Transit station located on Sacramento Street between Virginia and Delaware Streets in Berkeley, California.-Station:...
(in Alameda County) or
El Cerrito PlazaEl Cerrito Plaza is one of two elevated BART stations located in El Cerrito, California. It primarily serves southern El Cerrito, northern Albany, and Kensington, along with nearby areas of Berkeley and Richmond...
(in Contra Costa County) stations for services. For those wishing to drive their cars to the stations instead, many BART stations offer many kinds of parking options.
Budget
In 2005, BART required nearly $300 million in funds after fares. About 37% of the costs went to maintenance, 29% to actual transportation operations, 24% to general administration, 8% to police services, and 4% to construction and engineering. In 2005, 53% of the budget was derived from fares, 32% from taxes, and 15% from other sources, including advertising, station retail space leasing, and parking fees. BART's
farebox recovery ratioThe farebox recovery ratio of a passenger transportation system is the proportion of the amount of revenue generated through fares by its paying customers as a fraction of the cost of its total operating expenses. Most systems aren't self-supporting, so advertising revenue and government subsidies...
of 53% is relatively high for a U.S. public transit agency operating over such long distances with high frequency (for comparison, see the article on farebox recovery).
General Manager
| 196? - 1975 |
Billy Stokes |
| 1975 - 1978 |
Frank C. Herringer |
| 1979 - 1988 |
Keith Bernard |
| 1989 - 1994 |
Frank Wilson |
| 1994 - 1996 |
Richard A. White Richard A. White is an American public transportation official who served as the CEO and General Manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, from 1996-2006. Prior to joining WMATA as CEO, he served as the general manager at Bay Area Rapid Transit in the San Francisco area...
|
| 1996 - 2007 |
Tom Margro |
| 2007 - Present |
Dorothy Dugger |
Rolling stock
BART operates four types of cars, built from three separate orders, totaling 669 cars.
To run a typical peak morning commute, BART requires 579 cars. Of those, 541 are scheduled to be in active service; the other 38 are used to build up four spare trains (essential for maintaining on-time service). At any one time, the remaining 90 cars are in for repair, maintenance, or some type of planned modification work.
The
A cars and the
B cars were built from 1968 to 1971 by
Rohr IndustriesGoodrich Aerostructures Group, formerly Rohr, Inc., is an aerospace manufacturing company based in Chula Vista, California, south of San Diego...
, an aerospace manufacturing company which had only recently made its foray into mass-transit equipment manufacturing, touting yet untested space-age design techniques. The A cars were designed as leading or trailing cars only, with a fiberglass operator's cab housing train control equipment and BART's two-way communication system. The A cars are distinguished by their aerodynamic leading edge extending {{convert|5|ft}} longer than their B- and C-car siblings. A cars can comfortably seat 72 passengers, and under crush load, 150 passengers. B cars have no operator's cab and are used in the middle of trains to carry passengers only; B cars have the same passenger capacity as A cars. Currently, BART operates 59 A cars and 380 B cars. BART's livery has remained effectively unchanged throughout its history.
The
C cars were built by
AlstomAlstom is a large French multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2007-'08 Alstom had annual sales of over €16.9 billion, and employed more than 81,500 people in 70 countries. Alstom's...
between 1987 and 1989. The C cars have a similar fiberglass operator's cab and control and communications equipment as the A cars, but unlike A cars, do not have the aerodynamic nose design, thus allowing them to be used as middle cars as well. The dual purpose of the C cars allows faster train-size changes without having to move the train to a switching yard. C cars can comfortably seat 64 (4 seats were lost compared to the A/B cars by eliminating one row of seats to accommodate the operator’s cab and 4 additional seats were lost by eliminating one pair of seats next to the left-side forward door on each side to provide space for wheelchairs) and under crush load accommodate 150 passengers. The latest order, from Morrison-Knudsen (now
Washington Group InternationalWashington Group International was an American corporation which provided integrated engineering, construction and management services to businesses and governments around the world. Based in Boise, Idaho, it had approximately 25,000 employees working in over 40 states and more than 30 countries...
), was for
C2 cars, which are essentially the same as C cars, but feature an updated, third-generation interior with a blue/gray motif, in contrast to the previous blue and brown colors. The CCTV cameras on C2 cars are also triangular in shape when compared to the rectangular shape of the camera on a C1 car. C2 cars have flip-up seats near the left-side forward door to accommodate passengers in wheelchairs, and red lights on posts near the door to warn the hearing-impaired when the doors are about to close. C2 cars can comfortably seat 68 passengers (including the flip-up seats), and under crush load can carry 150 passengers. Since the purchase of C2s, the original C cars are also referred to as
C1 cars. Currently, BART operates 150 C1 cars and 80 C2 cars.
In 1995, BART contracted with
ADtranzADtranz was a German-Swedish rail rolling stock equipment manufacturer which designed rail cars and engines....
(acquired by
Bombardier TransportationBombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Bombardier Inc.. Bombardier Transportation is the world’s largest company in the rail equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters is in Berlin, Germany....
in 2001) to refurbish and overhaul the 439 original Rohr A- and B-cars, updating the old vintage brown fabric seats to the less-toxic and easier-to-clean, light-blue polyurethane seats in use today and bringing the cars in general to the same level of interior amenities as the C2 fleet. The Rohr cars were also rebuilt with ADtranz 3-phase Alternating Current (AC) traction motors with IGBT inverters, model 1507C. The seven-year project was completed in 2002. All BART cars have upholstered seats and nearly all cars have carpeting except for some C1 and/or C2 cars. Because one of the original design goals was for all BART riders to be seated, the older cars have fewer provisions such as grab bars for standing passengers. Flip-up seats (found in C2 cars) were excluded from the refurbishment (reducing seating capacity from 72 to 68), in order to provide designated areas for luggage, wheelchairs and bicycles. Consequently, the original C (or C1) cars have the oldest interior design, as they have not been refurbished and were not purchased recently enough to have the "newer" convenience features; for example, they lack vertical grab bars in the middle of the car and do not have the in-post red lights to warn of closing doors. However, the carpeted flooring in most of the C1 cars was replaced with an experimental spray-on composite flooring after passengers complained that the cars were unclean.
The A, B, and C cars were all given 3-digit numbers originally, but when refurbished 1000 was added to the number of each individual A/B car (e.g. car 633 would become 1633). The C2 cars are numbered in the 2500 series; the C/C1 cars still have 3-digit numbers.
Prior to rebuilding, the Direct Current (DC) traction motors used on the 439 Rohr BART cars were built by Westinghouse, the same company that also built the automatic train control system for BART. The Westinghouse traction motors are model 1463 with chopper controls. The Westinghouse DC motors are still in use on the Alstom C (C1) and Morrison-Knudsen C2 cars. The motors that were pulled from the Rohr cars during rehabilitation were retained as spare motors for use on the C1 and C2 cars. Other undercar systems also built by Westinghouse on the 439 Rohr BART cars before rehabilitation were the auxiliary power box, the hydraulic pumps for the brakes, the air suspension, and the brake control systems (which were part of the propulsion logic cradle that was mounted in the chopper control semiconductor box). The HVAC system on the Rohr BART cars before rehabilitation were built by Thermo King, when it was a subsidiary of Westinghouse (Thermo King is now a subsidiary of Ingersoll-Rand). The current HVAC systems on the rehabbed Rohr-built Gen 1 cars were built by Westcode Incorporated.
Comparison with other rail transit systems
{{Main|Rapid Transit}}
BART, like other transit systems of the same era, endeavored to connect outlying suburbs with job centers in Oakland and San Francisco by building out lines that paralleled established commute routes of the region's
freewayA freeway is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all cross traffic through the use of grade separations and...
system. The majority of BART's service area, as measured by percentage of system length, consists of low-density suburbs. Unlike the
New York City SubwayThe New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
or the
London UndergroundThe London Underground, Underground or Tube is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the UK. The first section opened in 1863, and was the first underground railway system in the world, and, starting in...
, individual BART lines were not designed to provide frequent local service, as evidenced by the system's current maximum achievable
headwayHeadway is a measurement of the distance between vehicles in a transit system. The precise definition varies depending on the application, but it is most commonly measured as the distance from the tip of one vehicle to the tip of the next one behind it, expressed as the time it will take for the...
of 13.33 minutes per line through the quadruple interlined section.
MuniThe San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
provides local light-rail and subway service within San Francisco city limits and runs with smaller headways than does BART. BART could in many ways be characterized as a "commuter subway," since it has many characteristics of a commuter rail system, including lengthy lines that extend to the far reaches of suburbia with significant distances between most adjacent stations. However, in the urban areas of San Francisco and downtown Oakland, multiple lines converge, and BART takes on the characteristics of an urban subway, including short headways and transfer opportunities to other lines.
BART could be considered to be more similar to a regional commuter rail service, such as the Berlin
S-BahnS-Bahn refers to suburban metro railways in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and also in the Danish capital Copenhagen . The name is an abbreviation for the German 'Stadtschnellbahn' and was introduced in December 1930 in Berlin, after 'SS-Bahn' had been unofficially in use already...
or the Paris
RERThe RER is a rapid transit system in France serving Paris and its suburbs. The RER is an integration of a modern city-centre subway and a pre-existing set of regional rail lines. Within the city of Paris, the RER is as an express network with multiple connections with the Paris Métro...
. However, BART also possesses all the qualities and services of a
metroA rapid transit, metro, subway, underground, or elevated railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with high capacity and frequency, and which is grade separated from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically either in underground tunnels or elevated above street level...
system, including electrified third-rail propulsion, exclusive grade-separated right-of-way, frequent headways in its urban service areas, and pre-paid fare card access. Urban stations are as close as one-half mile (800 m) apart and have combined two and one-half to five-minute service intervals at peak times. These factors contribute to the consideration of BART as a hybrid metro-commuter system, functioning as a metrorail system in the central business districts of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, and as commuter rail in the region's suburban areas.
Future stock
To speed up service, BART is preparing to introduce new, three-door cars. BART plans to start purchasing new cars in 2010, when it will have paid off other capital debt for track and car work, with the first 10 pilot cars arriving for testing in 2014. The order will consist of 200 base cars with two additional option orders of 250 cars each for a total of 700 cars to completely replace the original fleet. All 700 cars are to arrive by 2024. There are also two additional options, one for general fleet expansion, and the other for the San Jose extension, with 150 cars each. If all options are exercised, the total number of new BART cars will be 1000 cars.
Future expansion and extension
{{Main|Bay Area Rapid Transit expansion}}
Expansion projects for the Bay Area Rapid Transit have existed ever since the opening of the project. These projects include the Warm Springs extension, the San Jose extension, the Oakland Airport Connector, eBART, 'tBART': I-580/Tri-Valley Corridor, 'wBART': I-80/West Contra Costa Corridor, and numerous infill stations along the route.
See also
External links
{{Commons category|BART}}
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{{Bay Area Rapid Transit}}
{{San Francisco Bay Area Public Transit}}
{{USSubway}}
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