BART

Regular train speeds have returned to the Oakland core service area! BART riders will benefit from faster train speeds through the downtown Oakland core service area following the repair of an essential power substation. This summer, the substation located near 19th Street Station failed after experiencing a fault, requiring BART to realign power distributions from nearby redundant substations while repairs were being made. This configuration required BART to run trains at slower speeds in the track areas approaching MacArthur, 19th Street, and 12th Street stations. Trains were also metered into these stations, causing frequent but short train holds. This service plan caused delays of about three minutes, but those delays could compound when other incidents occurred in the system. Crews have been diligently working to get the substation back to full operations, and late last week, the substation was successfully brought online. Over the weekend, normal speeds were restored. Trains no longer need to run at 27 mph through the area and are now travelling up to 70 mph. 2025 will be an important year for fortifying and expanding BART’s power substations. Another substation located east of the Transbay Tube is being fully renovated, and two new power substations located near Civic Center and Montgomery stations will also be coming online this year. This work plays a key role in ensuring that BART’s power system infrastructure is robust, reliable, and ready for the future.

HO Scale models of BART’s Legacy Fleet trains are now for sale at Railgoods.com! Head to the site to get yours now: https://lnkd.in/gMdAYwpQ We teamed up with @rapidotrainsinc to create these based on original blueprints, design drawings, and field measurements. Big shout out to the good folks at @gsmrm for inviting us over to see some of these model trains in action. Give them a follow and check out their amazing museum. A Car, B Car, C Car, and 4 car Train Sets (A-B-B-A) are available. See Railgoods for product details. Due to limited inventory, purchases are limited to one of each car type per customer. We recommend selecting “In-Store Pickup” at checkout to receive your product in person at the Lake Merritt BART station Customer Service Center and save on shipping. If you choose USPS delivery, a signature will be required upon delivery.

Enzo Wu is a BART speedrun world recordholder. He’s also a San Ramon teenager working to “spread the gospel of transit.” “A lot of people I know haven’t actually gone out and tried transit, and they form their opinions about it from family or social media,” Wu said. His longstanding question: How can you know you don’t want to ride transit if you’ve never actually ridden it? Wu believes public transportation is an important tool for people his age. You don’t have to have a license, and you don’t have to beg your parents to drop you off and pick you up. You can just go when you want to, where you want to (with your parents’ permission, of course). Wu has been working to get his friends to take transit by inviting them to take BART to an unexplored location. “People my age don’t go out and do stuff in public enough,” he said. “They’re not getting out there and interacting with new people offline." Transit is his foolproof balm for boredom. It’s also provided him with plentiful opportunities to practice independence and social skills. “Going out in public, riding the train, these are activities that build social confidence, which so many kids lack these days,” said Wu. “Knowing how to take a train or a bus or a ferry is a big step in growing up.” Some of his friends have never done anything alone, let alone take the train to San Francisco, he added. “We’ll go to a restaurant, and they’ll get stressed because they don’t know how to pay the bill,” he said. “It’s kind of shocking. They lack social skills. But I think transit can bridge that gap. Some of my friends won’t necessarily take transit everywhere like I do, but just getting the idea in their heads is a big step.” Only two years ago, Wu himself had almost no experience on transit. It was his mom who inadvertently gave him the bug when she signed him up for 511 Contra Costa's Pass2Class, a program that gives students free bus rides to school. When Wu’s mom first gave him the card he replied: “You want me to take the bus??? Ewwwwww.” “Enzo, just try it,” she said. You know what happened next. Wu has many “transit conversion” success stories to share. Once he gets a friend onboard it’s not uncommon for the transit ingenue to become transit oriented. He believes he’s “converted” at least a dozen friends directly and dozens more indirectly, thanks to people who watch his speedrun videos and livestreams. “Building transit skills now will come in handy many years down the line when you need to get to college, to work,” he said. “That’s why I ride transit, and that’s why I’m advocating for kids my age to do the same.” Read Enzo's story here: https://lnkd.in/gNxA6cpJ BART offers a 50% fare discount for youth ages five to 18 years old with a Youth Clipper card. Children four years old and younger ride free. Learn more about Youth Clipper cards and other fare discounts here: https://lnkd.in/gBxPbcUa

Transit’s response to this morning’s Highway 4 fatal car crash that blocked our tracks in both directions was a shining example of regional coordination. Tri Delta Transit and County Connection deployed extra buses to serve East Contra Costa County riders, connecting them to North Concord BART to get them to work, school, and appointments. BART crews quickly repaired the damaged third rail coverboard and barrier fencing and we resumed normal service by 7:35am.

BART’s Legacy Trains are running once again! We teamed up with Rapido Trains Inc. to create the definitive, museum-quality model of BART’s iconic Legacy Fleet! These HO scale train models are a must-have for any Bay Area model railroader, BART enthusiast, or transit fanatic. Extra inventory will be made available for sale on railgoods.com next week. Several customers picked up their models last week and preorders are being shipped this week. Stay tuned for more info.

Lunar New Year T-shirts and stickers are now on sale at www.railgoods.com!

🎉January ridership is already up year over year! This week we’ve seen at least 10k-24k extra trips each day. Tuesday ⬆️ 24k (185k trips) Wednesday ⬆️ 14k (183k trips) Thursday ⬆️ 11k (181k trips) Friday ⬆️ 10k (140k trips) New fare gates, Clipper BayPass (employer paid unlimited transit pass), and more people using Clipper START (low income discount), are likely playing a role in these numbers as well. According to data, most riders have returned to BART, they are just taking fewer trips. That’s why we need a new funding model. One that doesn’t rely so heavily on passenger fares. An investment in transit is an investment in the Bay Area economy. There is no downtown recovery without strong regional transit options.

Bay Area transit agencies are now syncing schedules in a whole new way with a focus on improving transfers between systems and making schedule changes at the same time. Transit riders who use more than one system will see a variety of improvements across the Bay Area this month, saving some riders up to 16 minutes on their trips. Many Bay Area transit agencies are rolling out new schedules mid-January in coordination with each other and have now aligned the timing of schedule changes twice each year, once in summer (mid-August) and once in winter (mid-January). Since 2022, the number of transit agencies with full schedule change alignment (changing schedules at the same time in August and January) has increased from four to 20. Advancing schedule change alignment is a key priority for Bay Area transit general managers who meet on a weekly basis to make transit more rider-focused and efficient.  Agencies meet several months in advance of each schedule change to share planned changes and to look for opportunities to improve transfers. Specific service coordination efforts for January include: • BART is timing its late evening Millbrae service that runs every 15 minutes to line up with Caltrain’s service every 30 minutes. In September 2024, Caltrain’s new electric service schedule significantly improved transfer times. Both agencies have coordinated on a helpful transfer timetable to show which trains connect and their transfer wait times.   • VTA is making changes to match both BART’s and Caltrain’s schedule changes to ensure timed transfers are maintained at various locations across the South Bay and Peninsula. • In San Francisco, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Muni is restoring the 30X Marina Express bus for two morning trips at 7:15am and 7:45am, beginning in February. Morning commuters will be able to enjoy a fast, direct connection from the Marina to BART and the Transbay Center connecting to various bus lines. • For transit riders traveling during the morning commute from Napa County’s Redwood Park n Ride on the Napa Valley Transportation Authority - NVTA bus 29 to El Cerrito del Norte Station to catch the Red Line into San Francisco between 5:30am and 8am, their trips will be six minutes faster on average and up to 16 minutes faster. • For transit riders returning home on their evening commute from the San Rafael Transit Center in Marin County to the Richmond Parkway Transit Center in Contra Costa County between 3pm and 6:30pm on the Golden Gate Transit #580 or #580X and the AC Transit #76 (transferring at Cutting Blvd and Harbour), their trips will be 5 minutes and 40 seconds faster on average and up to 16 minutes faster. • Transit riders departing the Salesforce Transit Center between 9pm and midnight on the Golden Gate Transit bus 130 and the Marin Transit bus 35 (transferring at the San Rafael Transit Center), will arrive at the Canal Area of San Rafael (Kerner and Larkspur) 15 minutes faster.

BART Police is offering a $15,000 hiring bonus for new dispatchers! Check out the hiring flyer for more information: https://lnkd.in/g6jKivAR

South Hayward Station is the latest to get Next Generation Fare Gates! This is the 16th BART station to get the taller, tougher gates. Meanwhile, installation work begins next week at Downtown Berkeley Station. On Tuesday, January 21, BART will begin the installation of Next Generation Fare Gates on the concourse level of Downtown Berkeley Station. The installation work will happen in stages so riders can continue to use the remaining current gates while new ones are being installed. The work will not impact train service, but riders may experience a few extra minutes wait to pass through the fare gates during peak travel hours. There will be additional BART staff as well as signage to direct riders to the open gates. The installation of each new array is expected to take up to two weeks to complete. The work to replace all six fare gates arrays at Downtown Berkeley Station is anticipated to continue into February. A temporary barrier will be installed around each array when it is ready to be removed to provide a safe workspace for the installation team as well as to protect riders from construction. All 50 BART stations will have new fare gates by the end of 2025. You can learn more about BART’s Next Generation Fare Gates project here: https://lnkd.in/gGJDUg8V Remember, we offer a variety of discounts. All discounts are set up in advance through Clipper. A little work up front helps you save money. Find more information here: https://lnkd.in/g-P5SAQ7