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BART’s popular Fleet of the Future project has just completed one milestone, with the final car of the original contract now ready for service. The project is now entering its second phase. The last car of the original contract, car number 775, was officially certified for passenger service on Thursday, July 18th. Without missing a step, BART is now accepting cars from the second Core Capacity contract at the Hayward Test Track.

“It’s remarkable how much the new cars have changed the look and feel of BART for the better,” said BART President Bevan Dufty. “These cars are delivering on the promise of being more reliable, more modern and easier to enter and exit.”

In the six years since the first Fleet of the Future train first went into service, the new trains have gone from a surprising sight for riders to an everyday part of their trip. The legacy fleet was officially retired in April with a fond send off, but the fact is the new trains took over the system by replacing the old cars for all scheduled runs in September 2023. 

The increased pace in production and delivery of the new fleet has been essential to the transition. Car manufacturer Alstom is now delivering 20 cars a month to BART, almost twice as many as the 11 cars a month stipulated in the original delivery schedule.

The quicker tempo of deliveries is one of the reasons the Fleet of the Future project is expected to come $394 million under budget. Another big cost saver was BART’s decision to have its own highly experienced staff do more of the engineering work in house. The project team, led by John Garnham, has included engineers who have successfully completed new rail car projects at other agencies. 

With all 775 of the cars from the original contract now on board, BART is renewing its focus on the delivery and certification of an additional 306 rail cars for the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program (CCP). That’s a package of strategic investments that will allow BART to operate up to 30 ten-car trains per hour in each direction through the Transbay Tube. 

An additional 48 cars, which will follow the 306 CCP cars, will serve Phase II of BART to Silicon Valley (BSVII) in the coming decades. The CCP cars and BSVII cars will bring BART’s total fleet to 1,129 rail cars. 

“Getting to this transition point has been a true team effort,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “We’ve not only worked closely with the car maker to ensure the quality and reliability of the new cars, but we’ve created partnerships to make sure we have the funding to pay for these important investments.”

In addition to BART funds in the 775 Rail Car Project, many funding partners have made the Project possible, including:

• Federal Transit Administration (FTA) 
• Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) 
• High Speed Rail Authority 
• Strategic Growth Council/California Dept of Housing & Community Development 
• California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
• Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)

The Core Capacity (306) Rail Car Project is likewise supported by a coalition of funding partners, including:

• FTA 
• MTC 
• California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA)
• Caltrans 
• San Francisco County Transportation Authority
• Alameda County Transportation Commission

The 48 BSVII rail cars are fully funded by VTA.

BART appreciates the support of all our funding partners in these regionally significant projects.

Friday, Oct. 13 – Last weekend, BART riders set a record for post-pandemic Saturday ridership, taking 116,200 trips. That’s 72% of our average Saturday ridership prior to the pandemic. Fantastic!  

This weekend, big musical acts come to town, including P!nk on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 14 and 15, at the Chase Center, and Maneskin on Friday, Oct. 13, at the Oakland Arena.  

But the events don’t stop there. This weekend, you can ride along with the East Bay Bike Party, BART to Walnut Creek for Oktoberfest, head to Richmond for a Spirit and Soul Festival, and commune with book lovers at San Francisco’s annual literary festival Litquake. Keep reading...

Bus bridge alert: On Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 14 and 15, free buses will replace trains between Pleasant Hill and Concord stations as part of BART’s ongoing safety initiative to remove potentially hazardous trees in advance of severe winter storms. BART riders in the area should anticipate delays of up to 30 minutes on work weekends will have to disembark their train at either Pleasant Hill or Concord and then board a free bus provided by County Connection to the next station in their direction of travel to continue their trip. More info here.  

For an in-depth listing of local events, visit the BARTable website. We publish a weekly event roundup, BARTable This Weekend, that highlights happenings around the region as well as cool contests and sweepstakes from our partners.   

Friday, Oct. 13: East Bay Bike Party 

East Bay Bike Party gets spooky on Friday with its monthly mobile party that invites riders of all ages to hit the streets and ride with each other. The theme this month is “zombie western,” so attire yourself accordingly. The group will gather at 7:30pm outside MacArthur Station for a 10 to 15-mile ride concluding at Downtown Berkeley Station with stops along the way.  

Friday and Saturday, Oct. 13 and 14: Walnut Creek Obktoberfest 

This weekend, Walnut Creek’s celebrates Oktoberfest in Civic Park. Enjoy a drink in the biergarten or hit the dance floor as the city recreates the beloved German fall celebration with live entertainment, gourmet food, vendors, and a Kinder Platz Kids Zone. Take BART to Walnut Creek Station and walk 0.6 miles to Civic Park. 

Friday, Oct. 13, through Saturday, Oct. 21: Litquake 2023 

San Francisco’s beloved literary festival Litquake is here once again! The festival hosts events across the city, culminating with a giant Lit Crawl (think bar crawl but for literature) on Saturday, Oct. 21. Check out some of the cool programs happening throughout the weekend and beyond, many of which are accessible by BART!  

Saturday, Oct. 14: Richmond Spirit and Soul Festival 

From 11am to 4pm on Saturday, the City of Richmond hosts a free street festival downtown that’s good for one’s mind and body. You’ll find food, workshops, arts and crafts, and short workouts, among other revitalizing activities. Take BART to Richmond Station and walk just under a mile to 190 Macdonald Avenue.  

Weekend Read: BART intern Erik Huizar’s mission to increase accessibility for BART’s blind and low-vision riders 

Nineteen-year-old BART intern Erik Huizar is currently working to write descriptive reports of the tactile guideways around the BART system. These guideways help blind and low-vision riders like Erik navigate BART independently.  

“People rely on these trains, and not just people like me who can’t get around without them, but sighted people, too, who use them to visit friends and family or to get to work,” Erik said. “Without buses, without trains, many people wouldn’t be able to do that.”  

Some of these reports have been uploaded to the BART Low Vision or Blind Accessible Services webpage and more will be added in the coming months.   

Cheers to Erik!  

Sweepstakes Spotlight: Win an individual membership to SFMOMA 

Enter to win an individual membership to SFMOMA and unlock extraordinary access to 7 floors of awe-inspiring art, special exhibitions like "Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Love," and the first retrospective of Pacita Abad. Two winners will be selected on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023, so submit your entry before then. Find more great sweepstakes on BARTable’s Contests and Deals page.  

Happy Riding this Weekend!      

We hope you enjoy your weekend adventures aboard our trains.  

Stay in touch by signing up for the BARTable This Weekend newsletter on the BARTable website – your one-stop shop for all things accessible by BART. You can also keep up with BARTable on Facebook and  Instagram. 

BART intern Erik Huizar poses for a portrait at Union City Station on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. 

For the second quarter in a row, BART riders are experiencing far fewer delays, train breakdowns, and cancelled trips according to the agency’s latest Quarterly Performance Report (QPR) covering July-September 2023. It is the best service delivery performance BART has had all year.

• Customer-On-Time Performance for FY 2024 Q1 (July-Sept 2023) was 92%. September specifically was 93%, the highest performing month in the last 12 months.
• The month of September had the fewest delayed trains of any month in the last five quarters.
• Cancelled trains continue to be very rare, only 1% of trains were not dispatched for the quarter.
• Total ridership was up 11% compared to the same quarter last year.
• Customer Satisfaction increased several percentage points this quarter to 74%.

“We are backing up our commitment to providing a cleaner and safer ride with concrete actions that are producing results,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “It’s especially encouraging that on-time performance is improving at the same time we have boosted night and weekend service to attract more riders. Cancelled trips have been nearly eliminated thanks to our success in hiring Train Operators. We will continue to work to build on these encouraging signs as we ensure BART is the safest way to travel around the Bay Area.”

BART Police Presence at Historic High 

More riders than ever before say they are seeing BART’s safety presence. The percentage of riders in the survey who reported seeing BART PD on their trip the day they were questioned increased to 17%, a whopping 90% jump from the previous quarter. That exceeds BART’s official goal of 12% for the first time in history.

Sexual harassment data shows an encouraging downward trend following the launch of Phase II of the Not One More Girl campaign. The percentage of riders saying they have experience sexual harassment on BART has been declining since FY23 Q3 (Jan.-March), but it wasn’t until this quarter that the decline was statistically significant- dropping from 10% to 8%.   

In addition to the findings in the Quarterly Performance Report, data shows fewer BART trains are being negatively impacted by unwanted behavior. The number of trains delayed by unwanted behavior dropped by nearly 40% from 1,144 in May to 694 in October.

The Quarterly Performance Report will be presented to the Board of Directors at the November 16th Board meeting which begins at 2pm.

Friday, Sept. 15 – We have some huge news to share: This week we’ve seen some of the highest ridership days since the start of the pandemic. On Wednesday, we hit a major milestone – the highest ridership day since spring 2020 with 192,961 rides! Tuesday followed close behind with 192,081 rides. The numbers don’t lie – riders are coming back to BART. 

If it’s been a bit since you’ve been aboard, you’ll notice some changes in our system: cleaner trains and stations, additional safety presence walking trains, and a newly reimagined schedule that increases service on weeknights and weekends. Read BART’s new Safe and Clean Plan here.  

On Sunday, we greeted another milestone; we said an informal farewell to our legacy trains as our new, Fleet of the Future trains take up the helm for our base schedule (you may see some legacy trains for extra event trains and emergency contingencies). If you didn’t get to a station on Sunday to wave goodbye to the last scheduled legacy train, don’t fret! We’ll hold a proper retirement ceremony in the future, likely next year. 

Speaking of celebrations, this weekend marks the start of two holidays: Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 to Oct. 15) – a celebration of the contributions, histories, and cultures of Hispanic Americans – and Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 15 to 17), the Jewish New Year and start of the High Holy Days. Read BARTable’s articles on local ways to observe the holidays here and here.  

The regional celebration of public transportation – Transit Month – is still fast underway as well. To learn more about two exciting events this weekend – All Aboard Transit Day and Meet the BART Anime Mascots – keep scrolling.  

We’ve also scheduled special service and event trains for two big events this weekend – the Ed Sheeran concert and the Oakland A’s vs. Padres. Find more info below.  

For an in-depth listing of local events, visit the BARTable website. We publish a weekly event roundup, BARTable This Weekend, that highlights happenings around the region as well as cool contests and sweepstakes from our partners.   

Saturday, Sept. 16: Special late-night service added for Ed Sheeran concert 

BART will run extra trains and offer special limited service after midnight for the Ed Sheeran concert at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023.  

Getting to Levi’s Stadium using transit is easy. Fans will transfer from BART at Milpitas Station to VTA’s Orange Line and ride to VTA’s Great America Station, located on the north side of Levi’s Stadium. 

BART will have extra security and station staff to help people get around. Learn what you need to know to get home and read our traveling tips here. 

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Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Sept. 15, 16, and 17: Special event trains for Oakland Athletics vs. San Diego Padres at Oakland Coliseum  

The Oakland A’s face rivals the San Diego Padres on Friday (6:40pm), Saturday (1:07pm), and Sunday (1:07pm) at the Coliseum. We’re expecting many riders to take BART, so we’ve added special event trains on Friday and Saturday to get fans home from the games.  

The Friday game honors Roberto Clemente Day and will include a Latin Music Fireworks Show. The Saturday game will celebrate Latin and Hispanic Heritage Day, and Sunday will honor Make-A-Wish children and families.  

Saturday, Sept. 16: All Aboard Transit Day and Meet the BART Anime Mascots at Powell Street 

This Saturday, Sept. 16, is All Aboard Transit Day. On this day, we encourage people to take as many trips as their hearts desire to help us beat the September 2022 ridership record, which recorded 500,000 rides across all agencies! We'll total up the ridership numbers and report to the public if we exceed our previous record. Your rides on Saturday can be logged for the Transit Month Ride Contest, too.  

Also on Saturday, Sept. 16, is our "Meet the BART Anime Mascots" event at Powell Street Station from 2pm to 6pm. Take photos with the mascots, make buttons with staff, grab a prize from the BART capsule ball machine, and more! Come in cosplay and get a rare BART anime charm. The Link21 outreach team will also table to talk about the project to build a second train crossing connecting Oakland and San Francisco. 

Weekend Read: BART Board President and General Manager speak with Manny Yekutiel aboard moving train about future of Bay Area transit 

On Friday, Sept. 8, around 65 people gathered in the concourse of 16th Street Mission Station to welcome their weekends aboard a BART train. 

They were there to catch an evening train aboard which Manny Yekutiel, the owner of the San Francisco café Manny’s, would host a conversation with BART Board President Janice Li and General Manager Bob Powers about the future of Bay Area public transit. The gathering was a unique opportunity for BART leaders to hear directly from riders, and riders to hear from them. The ethos of the event: Why not hold such a conversation on the very trains in question? 

Hear more from Manny, Li, and Powers -- as well as the riders who attended -- here. 

Sweepstakes Spotlight: Win Tickets to See Manhattan Transfer at SFJAZZ 

With the SFJAZZ season now upon us, enter to win tickets for you and your guest to see Manhattan Transfer on Friday, Sept. 29 at 7:30pm. The Manhattan Transfer has kept the vocalese flame burning brightly for half a century. They will bring the curtain down on a monumental career with these performances at the SFJAZZ Center on Sep 29 and 30, as part of their final tour.  

Click here to enter the sweepstakes by Monday, Sept. 18. 

Happy Riding this Weekend!    

We hope you enjoy your weekend adventures aboard our trains.

Stay in touch by signing up for the BARTable This Weekend newsletter on the BARTable website – your one-stop shop for all things accessible by BART. You can also keep up with BARTable on Facebook and  Instagram. 

BART General Manager Bob Powers pictured through a train window at West Oakland Station as the train made its way back to the East Bay following a conversation with Manny Yekutiel, BART Board President Janice Li, and Powers on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. Photo by Evan Dorsky.  

BART will run extra trains and offer special limited service after midnight for the Beyoncé Renaissance World Tour at Levi’s Stadium on Wednesday, August 30, 2023. 

Getting to Levi’s Stadium using transit is easy. Fans will transfer from BART at Milpitas Station to VTA’s Orange Line and ride to VTA’s Great America Station, located on the North side of Levi’s Stadium.

BART will have extra security and station staff to help people get around. 

What You Need to Know About the Ride Home

BART will run its normal last train of the evening leaving Milpitas at 11:51pm, making all regular stops. This is the last train that will get you to all BART stations in the system. 

BART will run two special event service limited-stop trains that will depart Milpitas Station at around 12:30am serving limited stops after regular BART service ends.

The late-night limited service will pick up riders at Milpitas Station with stops only at the following East Bay stations, the train will skip all other stations without stopping:

• Bay Fair
• MacArthur
• Pleasant Hill
• El Cerrito del Norte

These four East Bay stations have large parking lots located near the freeway. Riders who know they want to stay until the very end of the show, should park their cars or arrange pick-up at one of these four stations. Use the timetable above to share your pick-up time.

These special limited stop trains will be labeled “Limited Stop to El Cerrito” and “Limited Stop to Pleasant Hill.”

Other Transit Options

Riders coming from San Francisco should take Caltrain home or ensure they take the 11:51pm BART train home. Caltrain is providing one extra local train from Mountain View to San Francisco 75 minutes after the show ends or when the train is full.  BART is not keeping any San Francisco stations open beyond normal closing hours due to the lack of parking lots at SF stations and because Caltrain is providing this special service. 

Capitol Corridor is also offering special train service that departs at 11:59pm from their Great America (GAC) station. Capitol Corridor has stops next to BART's Coliseum and Richmond stations.  

Other Tips

Parking is free after 3pm at BART stations. 

Before you leave home put a Clipper card on your cellphone through either Apple Pay or Google Pay. Clipper is waiving the $3 new-card fee for riders who add either of the mobile options. Please ensure you have sufficient funds for a round trip. Plan at the cost of your trip in advance.

August 14, 2024 Update

Starting September 16, 2024, our exciting project to develop the land around Lake Merritt Station to include affordable and market-rate housing, offices, and retail space will officially begin. To accommodate this Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) project, the parking lot will be permanently closed starting September 16, 2024. Partial closures will start September 1, and the last day to use the Lake Merritt parking lot is September 15, 2024.

The lot is available for Daily Fee parking on a first-come, first-served basis until September 15. Daily Fee parking payment is required Monday-Friday, 4am-3pm, except on BART holidays. Pay for Daily Fee parking with the BART Official App or remember your stall number and pay inside the station via cash, credit, or debit. 

Reserved parking is available at Fruitvale Station, MacArthur Station and many other BART locations with parking.

Starting in 2024, the area around the Lake Merritt BART station will begin to be developed. New affordable and market-rate housing, office, and retail space will be developed over several phases. Phase 1.1 (Bldg. B on the illustration) is currently scheduled to break ground in mid-2024, with the construction of a 97-unit senior affordable housing building on BART’s existing surface parking lot. 

To accommodate this Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) project, BART will no longer offer Reserved Parking starting June 1. Daily Fee parking will still be available on a first-come, first-served basis until construction formally begins, when the parking lot will be permanently closed. Customers can check bart.gov/parking for updates on Daily Fee parking availability, as well as signage at the two entrances to the Lake Merritt parking lot.  

Lake Merritt Station is easily accessible by bicycle and transit. Reserved parking, including Monthly, is available at Fruitvale Station, MacArthur Station, and many other BART locations with parking. 

For more information about the TOD project, visit: bart.gov/about/business/tod/lakemerritt 

*This article was originally posted on March 21, 2024