BART

On the latest episode of “Hidden Tracks: Stories from BART” we welcome Ameen DaCosta, Enzo Wu, and Adam, who runs the YouTube page, “Adam Does Not Exist. All three have set records speedrunning BART. They break down the planning, the rules, the snacks, the layering, and more. Listen to the episode here: https://lnkd.in/g3rw68vq For those that don't know, a speedrun is the total time it takes to travel through all BART stations. It's a race against the clock to ride every BART line as fast as possible. BART is the only transit agency to officially recognize and encourage speedruns through the BART speedrun webpage at BART.gov/speedrun. The page has a couple new additions complete with links to their speed run videos: In September 2024, a team of transit-enthused editors from San Francisco State University's student-led newspaper Golden Gate Xpress (GGX) were inspired by Adam's August speedrun and completed their own speedrun in 6 hours, 2 minutes and 18 seconds. In November 2024, 16 year old Henry did a speedrun beginning in Millbrae and ending in Antioch. Due to missed connections from minor BART delays, his time was 6 hours, 37 minutes and 51 minutes. Henry hopes to keep trying to break the record in 2025 and when communicating with BART staff about his trips he noted, "I love BART’s commitment to support this community and I hope it motivates more people to ride BART and attempt these sort of things." In December 2024, big sister Katie took nine-year-old Ben on a BART speedrun, which was his Christmas wish. Ben planned the entire trip, which started at Milpitas and ended in Antioch. Their time was 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 40 seconds. We love their outfits, Ben's dances, and the impressive fun facts he drops while riding. Ben is the youngest person to complete a BART speedrun (that we know of!). The future is bright.

On January 13, 2025, BART will make schedule changes to accommodate the launch of construction to replace BART’s aged train control system with a modern Communications Based Train Control System. The schedule change is happening in coordination with the region’s other transit systems as part of a collective effort to sync schedules, reduce impacts, and improve transfers for transit riders in the Bay Area. Overall, some departure times will shift by a few minutes, and we encourage riders to check the schedule before January 13, 2025, to see if their trip is impacted. The BART Trip Planner has been updated with the new schedule so riders can start planning their trips using the date January 13, 2025, and beyond. Crews will be working on the track between Colma and Millbrae nightly after 9pm to upgrade our train control system. To reduce delays from this work, the Yellow Line will terminate at SFO instead of Millbrae to provide the resiliency our system needs to keep trains running on time and as optimally as possible in this section of track during the construction. After 9pm, Millbrae station will be served by a train that will run every 15 minutes between Millbrae and SFO only and riders will have an easy cross platform transfer at SFO to board a Yellow Line train to finish their trip. At Millbrae, two of the four trains each hour will be timed with Caltrain’s 30-minute service schedule to provide a good transfer between Caltrain and BART. This nightly service plan for Millbrae riders is expected to last several years as BART has prioritized this section of track to be the first area to bring on Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) in the BART system. The state-of-the-art CBTC system will transform BART service by enabling trains to run closer together and by updating aged equipment. A modernized train control system will enable BART to increase projected Transbay capacity to 30-trains per hour per direction in the core system area, from the current limitation of 24-trains per hour per direction.

Which station is your favorite? FYI: BART will be running special service on Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. Plan your trip using BART’s Trip Planner @ bart.gov/planner Holiday Schedule details ⬇️ Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24: Regular weekday service (5am-midnight) Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25: Sunday service (8am-midnight) New Year’s Eve, Tuesday, December 31: Regular weekday service (5am opening) with extended late-night service, extra staffing, and additional event trains as needed. BART will be providing extended service until 1am for late-night riders coming back from fireworks shows and celebrations. Get more info here: https://lnkd.in/gaQg6YMR

🚨Our new Next Generation Fare Gates are now up and running in 15 stations!🚨 Montgomery, Hayward and Dublin/Pleasanton stations are now fully outfitted with the new tougher, taller gates. All 50 BART stations will get the new gates in 2025. Funding for the new gates comes from local, state, and federal sources. Thanks to Alameda County Transportation Commission and San Francisco County Transportation Authority for helping to provide funding! 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

BART's Holiday Toy Drive collects more than 1,100 toys and $3,600 for Mission Food Hub families More than 500 families attended the organization's recent toy giveaway, and each child was invited to select not just one toy, but two! Each winter, BART hosts a holiday toy drive to give back to the diverse communities we serve. This year, we are honored to donate the toys to Mission Food Hub (MFH), a food bank that serves more than 300 families a week in San Francisco’s Mission District. Mission Food Hub was founded in 2020 to provide nutritious, culturally appropriate groceries to families affected by the pandemic. Though the lockdown is over and most of the hub’s clients have returned to work, the need for groceries in the Mission’s Latino community remains, especially as the price of food continues to climb nationally. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g5G-wAfN

The BART Board of Directors unanimously elected Mark Foley to serve as its president for the 2025 term during its meeting today, December 19, 2024. Foley served as vice president for the 2024 board term. The Board of Directors also unanimously elected District 5 Director Melissa Hernandez as Board Vice President. She is the first Latina to serve on the BART Board of Directors.

BART will be running special service on Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day. Find more info below and at the link in bio Holiday Schedule Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24: Regular weekday service (5am-midnight) Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25: Sunday service (8am-midnight) New Year's Eve, Tuesday, December 31: Regular weekday service (5am opening) with extended late-night service, extra staffing, and additional event trains as needed. BART will be providing extended service until 1am for late-night riders coming back from fireworks shows and celebrations. More on this below. New Year's Day, Wednesday, January 1: Sunday service (8am-midnight) BART’s Trip Planner has been updated to include the extended service trains. Our 1am extended service will be as follows: Three-line special service (Yellow, Blue and Orange only in both directions, for total of six trains for 1am extended service). Yellow Line will be the only line running in San Francisco and Peninsula. Blue Line will run between Bay Fair and Dublin/Pleasanton. Trains will be waiting at MacArthur and Bay Fair to complete timed transfers. Yellow Line and Orange Line trains in all directions will be timed to meet at MacArthur Station at 1:47am in a "grand meet." This is the transfer point for riders coming from San Francisco heading toward Richmond or Berryessa or riders coming from the East Bay heading toward San Francisco. Orange Line and Blue Line trains will be timed to meet at Bay Fair Station at 2:16am. Dublin-bound riders can take the Berryessa-bound Orange Line train and transfer at Bay Fair Station. SFO and OAK airport stations will NOT be served. Last East Bay-bound train running through downtown San Francisco will be at around 1:30am. Last southbound train heading toward Millbrae will run through downtown San Francisco at 2:10am. The regular last trains of the evening (Yellow, Blue, and Orange lines) will be dispatched from the end of their lines at midnight and then at 1:00am, we will run another set of last trains of the evening to serve 48 out of our 50 stations. The 1am trains will not serve SFO and OAK airport stations.

2024 was a big year for BART as we continued to enhance the customer experience, improve safety and cleanliness, and invest in the future. These are some of the 24 things we're proud of this year. https://lnkd.in/g2jkrztr

BART, in coordination with Alliance for Girls, is doubling down on its commitment to empower girls and gender-expansive youth to help BART enhance safety, increase ridership, and prevent sexual harassment and gender-based violence. A newly released report prepared by Alliance for Girls centers the ideas of local girls and gender-expansive youth by outlining steps BART can take to advance gender equity, create a welcoming environment, and measure the effectiveness of strategies. The “Youth-Informed Radical Vision of Safety Evaluation Framework” documents research and outreach conducted for BART in early 2024. Nearly 100 participants, primarily girls and gender-expansive youth who identify as people of color, provided ideas for preventative and interventional safety on BART, focusing on themes of physical and environmental safety, emotional and mental safety, and the safety of others. Read the report and learn more about BART's Not One More Girl initiative at https://lnkd.in/dAFygCbZ

We invited SweaterFest '24 attendees to write wintery poems all about BART, and nearly 100 poets stepped up to pen BART odes that would make the Bard proud (had he stuck around long enough to see the invention of mass rail transit). Here are some of our favorites 🖋️📜 Reading through the works, we were struck by the profound professions of love for transit, which rivaled Shakespeare's finest romances. BARTy is to the Bay as Juliet is to Romeo. Some of the poems even brought tears to BART employees' eyes! Read them all here https://lnkd.in/eB9ZTnmx