BART

Ponte las botas, Bay Area, it’s CARNAVAL time! Take BART to the party! 16th St Mission and 24th St Mission stations are both located directly on the parade route just a few blocks from the Carnaval San Francisco Festival Area!

Alameda County and BART are gathering community input on Goals and Objectives for a future Transit-Oriented Development on the portion of the BART Bay Fair TOD site in Ashland in Unincorporated Alameda County. Take a 5-minute survey to let us know what you think: https://lnkd.in/gV2Z2W44 Background materials from community meetings are available here: https://lnkd.in/gJ-X8_4i

Local artists built the instrument, but BART plays the music.  Transbay Tubes is a sound sculpture created by an intergenerational trio of Bay Area artists that recently debuted at tiat gallery in San Francisco as part of a time.place exhibition.  The sculpture is tuned to the rhythm of the BART system. It listens continuously to live train data from 511.org, and each time a BART train enters the Transbay Tube, the artwork answers: A light flashes the color of the train’s line, and one of three tubes generates a resonant hum. Train by train, the movement of BART is translated into a subtle, unfolding score. The piece is composed of a small light that shifts between red, yellow, and green and three tubes of different lengths. Inside, electronics pull live data from 511.org, cueing the sculpture to activate as a train enters the Transbay Tube. “The Tube has a voice we’ve always heard but never really listened to,” said Shm Garanganao Almeda, who came up with the idea for the piece. “With Transbay Tubes, that voice is no longer background noise; it’s a song beneath the city.” Shm connected these ideas to code, collaborating with local artists Oliver Di Cicco and Sudhu Tewari. Sudhu built the circuitry that translates the 511.org data and activates the sculpture. Oliver designed and constructed the musical tubes, known as Rijke tubes, which produce sound when electricity runs through a coiled wire, heating the air inside. As the hot air rises to the top of the tube, cold air floods the bottom, creating convection currents that vibrate at a certain frequency, generating a tone.    “When I’m on BART, I feel like I’m part of this vast movement of people,” shm said. “With this piece, I wanted to make that movement audible, to show that every journey is a note in a larger composition.” During the time.place exhibition opening at tiat, the effect of the sculpture was visceral. As people clustered around the sculpture, they shifted their behavior, pausing conversations mid-sentence every time a train activated the piece. “Transbay Tubes provides a lesson in anticipation and patience,” said Oliver. “And it made the Transbay Tube feel alive for those of us in its presence.”  By the time you step away from Transbay Tubes, BART feels different. Not just a way to get from one place to another, but a rhythm, a pulse, a shared experience unfolding in real time. “Public transit is about connection,” shm said. “This piece makes that connection sensory.” Tiat gallery’s time.place exhibition concluded in April, but the artists are already imagining a larger iteration of the sculpture – this time with four tubes to incorporate the beloved-though unintentionally omitted Blue Line – and searching for new spaces to exhibit.  Future iterations will stay true to the ethos of the original: infrastructure as art, motion transformed into light and tone and sensation.

Learn about the BART 16th St. Plaza Redesign Thursday, May 21, 6 – 8 pm at Friendship House Association, 56 Julian Ave, San Francisco. The 16th St. Mission BART Plaza Design Concepts is a long-range assessment of possible infrastructure changes to the plaza to facilitate the design goals of safety, access, maintenance, and placekeeping. The scope of this effort is to develop opportunity concepts, engage internal and external stakeholders (city partners, community groups, neighboring businesses and residents, BART riders), and develop high-level cost estimates.  Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/g5m29eZY

Take BART to El Cerrito del Norte Station and transfer to the FREE Vine Route 29 bus from bay C6. Ride to the Soscol Gateway Transit Center and enjoy the festivals! BottleRock Napa Valley is held at the Napa Valley Expo, just a 4-minute walk to the Soscol Gateway Transit Center (625 Burnell Street, Napa). Ride any bus headed for the Transit Center and step out into the action — all while avoiding the parking and traffic hassle! Return service to El Cerrito del Norte BART will be provided immediately BART will be provided immediately following BottleRock. As you leave the festival, exit onto Burnell Street. Return buses will line the road between 6th Street and 8th Street waiting to get you home safely. ALL ROUTES will be in operation! Make sure you board the correct bus - when in doubt, ask transit staff! Please be patient after the festival as buses cannot leave until the road is free of pedestrians and the CHP has opened the roads. This extended Napa Valley Transportation Authority - NVTA service is courtesy of BottleRock Napa Valley and Visit Napa Valley. It is the ninth year Vine Transit has offered free rides to all concert-goers, residents, and visitors in the area, with extended local service hours to accommodate late-night riders leaving the concert.

BART’s latest quarterly performance analysis finds BART achieved its highest quarterly Passenger On-Time Performance (94.4%) since early 2014, a significant milestone reflecting broad-based improvements across the system for several key indicators, including reliability, safety, and cleanliness. The Quarterly Performance Report (QPR) for the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2026 (January 1 to March 31, 2026) underlines BART’s tremendous improvements in service reliability, with March 2026 a standout month for overall performance. The month recorded BART’s lowest monthly delay count since late 2018 as well as the fewest train delays for any March since 2014. These gains come as ridership grew 15% year-over-year to 14.6 million trips this past quarter, demonstrating BART's ongoing efforts are increasing rider confidence and strengthening the system financially. BART’s emphasis on enhancing system cleanliness and the overall customer experience is paying dividends. Passengers scored the experience onboard trains and inside stations 4.2 and 4.1 respectively (out of 5), the highest scores since BART updated its scoring metrics and scale in FY23 Q2. Crime on BART dropped 42% in the past quarter over the previous year. Electronic robberies were down 90% in the past quarter, electronic thefts 68%, and auto burglaries 47%. A decrease in crime leads to fewer delays due to police- and security-related incidents, which dropped to 955, compared to nearly 3,000 in 2023.   These improvements are testament to the hard work of BART PD and the effectiveness of BART's investment in initiatives and infrastructure that both increase safety and enhance the customer experience, including doubling the visible police presence on trains and in stations in 2023.  These improvements are supporting rider confidence and strengthening the system financially. “These big things aren’t just statistics; they are the foundation of our ridership recovery,” said BART Manager of Operations Reliability Ryan Rod, who analyzes and develops BART’s Quarterly Performance Reports and on-time performance data. “Because our riders are seeing a system that is cleaner, safer, and on time, they are coming back, proving that when we deliver on our promises, the region responds.”  At the same time, BART is investing in trackside upgrades, track replacement, and modern train control technology to make the system even more resilient. Despite record post-pandemic ridership, fare revenue still falls short of what is needed to sustain BART operations. Even with continued growth, ridership alone is not enough to close the funding gap, and a new funding source is needed.  Read more: https://lnkd.in/gMAeDvge

BART will provide four trains with limited stops before regular BART service begins for Bay to Breakers on Sunday, May 17. The special service will get race participants to Embarcadero Station around 7am. The special early morning trains will pick up passengers for an Embarcadero arrival with limited service from the following stations: 16th St. Mission, Bay Fair, Daly City, El Cerrito del Norte, Dublin/Pleasanton, MacArthur, Millbrae, Pleasant Hill/City Center, and West Oakland. Stations open shortly before the limited-service trains arrive. These four trains will go out of service once they drop riders off at Embarcadero. Riders cannot board a train at Embarcadero.   Plan your trip using the BART Trip Planner.  Special Service Details   One train will leave Millbrae at 6:29am, Daly City at 6:41am, 16th St./Mission at 6:52am, and then arrive at Embarcadero at 6:57am. No other stops will be made along the line.  A second train will leave Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre at 6:23am, MacArthur at 6:43am, West Oakland at 6:52am, and then arrive at Embarcadero at 6:58am. No other stops will be made along the line.  A third train will leave Dublin/Pleasanton at 6:17am, Bay Fair at 6:34am, West Oakland at 6:54am, and arrive at Embarcadero at 7:01am. No other stops will be made along the line.  A fourth train will leave El Cerrito del Norte at 6:33am, MacArthur at 6:46am, West Oakland at 6:55am, and arrive at Embarcadero at 7:02am. No other stops will be made along the line.  Regular systemwide BART service starts at around 8am.  Tips   BART parking is free on Sundays. People driving to BART to take the train should park at one of these stations being served: Pleasant Hill, El Cerrito del Norte, MacArthur, Bay Fair, West Oakland, Daly City, Dublin/Pleasanton, and Millbrae. 16th Street Mission does not have a BART parking lot.  BART has loaded these event trains as special service into BART Trip Planner. The service is demarcated with "-> Limited Stop to Embarcadero" in the planner.  Once on the platform, these four trains will be labelled as: “Limited Stop to Embarcadero.”  All Bay Area transit, including BART, accepts contactless debit or credit cards and mobile payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay for adult fare payment. No setup is required. Just Tap and Ride. Each person needs their own card or device. Clipper cards are also accepted.  Riders who use more than one transit agency in a single trip (e.g., Caltrain to BART) will only be charged full fare on the first operator. A transfer discount of up to $2.85 will apply on any additional transit agency the rider uses within a two-hour window. Transfer discounts are calculated automatically using Tap and Ride or Clipper.  

Trains aren’t known for stopping street traffic, but one flying BART train car did just that this past Thursday on B Street in Downtown Hayward.  On May 7, a legacy BART car landed (literally) in its final resting place as a Bigge crane deposited the decommissioned car from the back of a flatbed onto a cement platform that will become the centerpiece of Arthur Mac’s Big Snack, a family-friendly pizza-by-the-slice beer garden and neighborhood hangout spot, slated to open in the next few months.  Passersby and drivers stopped on the sidewalk and middle of the road to watch the cinematic process unfold. Resting place isn’t quite the right word for this legacy BART car. That's because its second life, though stationary, has just begun.  “I feel emotions I’ve never felt before,” said Joel DiGiorgio, Arthur Mac’s cofounder and co-owner, as he watched the car fly over the lot by crane. “I’m slowly feeling 65,000 pounds of pressure off my chest.”  In the coming weeks, Arthur Mac’s will shine and spruce their BART car to serve as a dining car.  “Customers will be able to go inside and have a food and beverage experience you can’t have on a normal BART car,” DiGiorgio noted. Want to down wings and a brew on BART? Here's your chance.  An East Bay 90s kid, DiGiorgio and his friends would often ride the 51 AC Transit bus to Rockridge Station then onto the Embarcadero to skateboard at famous spots like Pier 7 and Hubba's Hideout.   “This is in part why we named our family restaurant after a BART station, as it played into Bay Area culture and shared nostalgia,” he said. “We also believe that public transportation is a pillar of the American Dream…Public transportation gives us all a chance while acting as the connective tissue of our extended and disparate communities.” In addition to the excited passersby, Hayward Mayor Mark Salinas and Hayward City Council member Angela Andrews visited the scene.   “This is going to be a gamechanger in Downtown Hayward,” said Salinas. “It’s iconic spaces like these that define the East Bay and bring the community together.” BART gave Arthur Mac’s the car at no cost as part of its legacy car decommissioning program. The restaurant was responsible for the cost of transporting the car. BART officially retired its more than 50-year-old legacy fleet in 2024 and gave the public the opportunity to submit proposals for repurposing retired cars, and eight recipients were selected after describing what they planned to do with the vehicles. The recipients are reusing their cars for a multitude of purposes, including a concession stand for the Oakland Ballers, a short-term rental in the Sierra foothills, and a regional fire training center. An A, B, and C car were awarded to the Western Railway Museum for its Rapid Transit History Center, which opens later this year. 

In celebration of BART Small Business Week, May 18–22, we’re excited to invite you to the BART Small Business Summit as well as a series of virtual outreach events designed to help small businesses connect with public agencies, learn about contracting opportunities, and access valuable resources. BART Small Business Summit- SPACE IS LIMITED! When: Thursday, May 21, 2026, 8:30 AM-12:00 PM (PST) BHQ Headquarters: 2150 Webster Street Oakland, CA 94610 REGISTER TODAY: https://lnkd.in/gkYAGZqF This year’s events also include BART Certification Program Office Hours, offering small businesses an opportunity to ask questions and receive direct support from BART Certification Team. Below are the events scheduled throughout the week. Find more Zoom links for the events here: https://lnkd.in/gkqsTDXM How to Do Business with BART When: Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 11:00 AM- 12:00 PM (PST) Help Small Businesses Access Government Contracting Opportunities When: Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 3:00 PM -4:00 PM (PST) BART Certification Program Drop-In Hours When: Friday, May 22, 2026, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM (PST)

30 days to go! The world is coming to the Bay Area this summer, and transit is one of the best ways to get in on the action. 2026 FIFA World Cup matches at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium (Levi’s Stadium) will bring fans from across the globe to the region, and BART and our regional transit partners are preparing to help get them there. BART will offer special limited-express service after midnight for evening matches and will also run long trains and have extra staff and security on hand to help fans and families travel to matches, watch parties, and related events. Special announcements will be made onboard trains about where to exit, and directional signs will be posted in stations to help visitors and occasional riders navigate the system. BART will also deploy extra lighting at key station parking lots to enhance safety for fans returning from evening matches. Find guidance on taking transit to fan zones, watch parties, and more events by visiting bart.gov/fifa. Get excited, Bay Area Host Committee!