Bay Area Rapid Transit widely known by the acronym BART is the main rail transportation system for the San Francisco Bay Area. It was first envisioned as early as 1946 but not seriously endeavored until the construction of the original system in the 1970s.
Contents |
The idea of an underwater electric rail tube was first proposed in the early 1900s by Francis "Borax" Smith. It is no coincidence that much of BART's current coverage area was once served by the electrified streetcar and suburban train network called the Key System. 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.
There were also plans for a third-rail powered subway line (Twin Peaks Tunnel) under Market Street in the 1910s.[1]
Proposals for the modern rapid transit system now in service began in 1946 by Bay Area business leaders concerned with increased post-war migration and growing congestion in the region. An Army-Navy task force concluded that an additional trans-bay crossing would soon be needed and recommended a tunnel; however, actual planning for a rapid transit system did not begin until the 1950s. In 1951, California's legislature created the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Commission to study the Bay Area's long-term transportation needs. The commission's 1957 final report concluded the most cost-effective solution for the Bay Area's traffic woes would be to form a transit district charged with the construction and operation of a high-speed rapid rail system linking the cities and suburbs. Nine Bay Area counties were included in the initial planning commission.[2]
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District was formed by the state legislature in 1957, comprising the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo. Because Santa Clara County opted instead to first concentrate on its Expressway System, that county was not included in the original BART District.
In 1959, a bill was passed in the state legislature that provided for the entire cost of construction of the tube to be paid for with surplus toll revenues from the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. This represented a significant portion of the total cost of the system.[3]
By 1961, a final plan for the new system was sent to the boards of supervisors of each of the five counties. The system's initial plans were for four lines connecting Concord in the east, Richmond in the northeast, Fremont in the southeast, Palo Alto in the southwest, and Novato in the north-west. However, in April 1962 San Mateo County made the decision to opt out, citing high costs, existing service provided by Southern Pacific commuter trains, and concerns over shoppers leaving their county for stores in San Francisco. Marin County followed soon thereafter in May. Marin was forced out of the BART district because of engineering objections from the board of directors of the Golden Gate Bridge. BART officials refused to allow Marin supervisors to stay in the district because they were afraid Marin voters would not approve the bonds, which had to win more than 60% approval.[4] The BART plans were finally approved by the voters of the three remaining participating counties in November 1962.
In the 1980s planning was underway for extension south from San Francisco, the first step being the Daly City Tailtrack Project, upon which turnaround project the San Francisco Airport Extension would later build.[5]
BART has been featured in a number of films including[6]: the unfinished Transbay Tube in THX 1138; The Domino Principle, wherein Gene Hackman's character is on a train at the Fruitvale station; a fight scene in Predator 2; and The Pursuit of Happyness, which showed numerous BART stations including a fictional one in Duboce Park that prompted complaints that the new station only had one entrance, this entrance was in reality a set design for the film. The system has also been showed in other films but has played a less significant role such as being in the background as in The Kite Runner, They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!, Eye for an Eye, and Kuffs. Mission District stations were also used in at least one episode of The Streets of San Francisco. In addition to feature films there is an "underground earthquake simulator" at Universal Studios Hollywood that uses a BART train.[6]
BART construction officially began on June 19, 1964 with President Lyndon Johnson presiding over the ground-breaking ceremonies at the 4.4-mile (7.1 km) test track between Concord and Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County.
The enormous tasks to be undertaken were daunting. System wide projects would include the construction of three underground rail stations in Oakland's populated downtown area, four stations through San Francisco’s downtown beneath Market Street, as well as four other underground stations in other parts of San Francisco, three subterranean stations in Berkeley (which paid more to bury them, in contrast to the stations in neighboring Oakland and El Cerrito), the 3.5 miles (5.6 km) tunnel through the Berkeley Hills; and of course the 3.6 miles (5.8 km) Transbay Tube between Oakland and San Francisco beneath the San Francisco Bay. Constructed in 57 sections, The Tube is the world's longest and deepest immersed tunnel at cost $180 million and was completed in August 1969.
Peter Hall, author of the book Great Planning Disasters, describes BART as one of the sensational planning disasters of the 20th century, alongside the Anglo-French Concorde and the Sydney Opera House.[7]
BART's initial cost was $1.6 billion, which included both the initial system and the Transbay Tube. Adjusted for inflation, this cost would be valued at $15 billion in 2004.
BART began regular passenger service on September 11, 1972, reporting more than 100,000 passengers in its first five days of operations. The Market Street Subway opened on September 16, 1974.[8] The Transbay Tube finally opened on September 16, 1974, thus linking each of four branches extending to Daly City, Concord, Richmond, and Fremont. During the first five years of operation, BART operated on a weekday-only schedule.
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake seriously affected transportation between San Francisco and Oakland, with the breakage of a section of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and the near-total destruction of the Cypress Street Viaduct. With some of the Bay Area's major freeways heavily damaged or destroyed, BART trains, within six hours of the original earthquake, were again operational, effectively becoming the sole mode of transportation throughout the area. Even with routine service interruptions following aftershocks for inspection of tracks, over- and under-crossings, and tunnels, BART remained operational.
Expansion to the original system was made possible by a region-wide agreement under which San Mateo County was to contribute $200 million to East Bay extensions as a “buy-in” to the system without actually joining the BART district. Funds also came from many east county residents who paid into the system for many years. The North-of-Concord extension opened in two phases: service to North Concord/Martinez beginning on December 16, 1995, and service to Pittsburg/Bay Point beginning a year later on December 7, 1996. The first service south of Daly City began on February 24, 1996, to Colma. A year later on May 10, 1997, service began from Bay Fair to Castro Valley and Dublin/Pleasanton.[9] Although the Dublin/Pleasanton extension is now a main trunk line, it was not originally conceived as such, but rather a shuttle service between the Dublin/Pleasanton and Bay Fair stations.[10]
BART has a unionized work force that went on strike for two weeks in 1976 in solidarity with the BART Police Officers Association. During the 1970s, BART union workers received quarterly cost of living increases. In 1979, there was a 90 day lockout by management, or a strike by union workers, depending on which view one adheres to. Trains were able to run during this period because one of the unions, AFSCME, was then only an informal association known as BARTSPA, and management and BARTSPA had enough staff to keep the trains running. One result of this strike is that the cost-of-living increases were greatly reduced to an amount far below the Consumer Price Index, and that such raises are only received if no other raise occurs in a particular year.
For six days in 1997, a BART strike caused a complete system-wide shutdown. This resulted in a four-year contract offering a 7% raise, and a one-time payment of $3,000 to all employees in lieu of a raise the first year. Such one-time payments are becoming more common as a way to prevent the effects of compounding on wages and salaries.
Unionized BART employees, particularly professionals, saw their wages and standard of living erode during the Silicon Valley economic boom that drove up real estate prices and salaries in the Bay Area in the 1990s. In addition, BART began large scale layoffs of rank and file workers, increasing the workload on those remaining. In its 2001 negotiations, the BART unions fought for, and won, a 24 percent wage increase over four years with continuing benefits for employees and retirees.[11] Another threatened strike on July 6, 2005 was averted by a last-minute agreement between management and the unions. In this agreement, Union workers received a 7% raise over four years, and paid an increase in the cost of medical insurance. The net increase (3%) is well below the current rate of inflation, which is about 4% per year (or 16 percent over the four-year contract); and also below the average private sector raise, which was 4.6% for 2006.
In October 2004, BART received the American Public Transportation Association's Outstanding Public Transportation System Award for 2004 in the category of transit systems with 30 million or more annual passenger trips.[12] BART issued announcements and began a promotional campaign declaring that it had been named Number One Transit System in America.[13] In 2006, the same industry trade group presented BART with the token AdWheel award for 'creative approaches to marketing transit' in recognition for BART's development of an iPod-based trip planner.[14]
BART has experienced some accidents during its nearly four decades of operation. There have been no accidents attributed to brake failure. The following incidents are known to have occurred on the BART system:
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”).[24] Each line is generally identified on maps and schedules by the names of its termini (e.g.., “Richmond – Millbrae Line”). Although terminal stations have seldom changed over the years, referring to routes by termini has contributed to rider confusion, as each incremental onward extension changes the line name.
Trains are merely referred to by their destination(s) by train operators and BART personnel (for example, “Richmond train” or “Richmond-bound train”). Electronic destination signs add “San Francisco” to the destination of any westbound transbay train or eastbound train west of San Francisco to make it clear that it will be passing through the city, and “SFO Airport” (or just “SFO”) is added to any train going to the airport. This can cause quite cumbersome destination descriptions, such as “San Francisco/Daly City train”, “San Francisco/SFO Airport/Millbrae train”, and “San Francisco/Pittsburg/Bay Point train.” Perhaps the longest such description is for trains leaving Millbrae, which say “SFO Airport/San Francisco/Dublin/Pleasanton," though this name is not currently being used. However, on evenings or the weekends, the longest name is “SFO Airport/San Francisco/Pittsburg/Bay Point," With the exception of the front car electronically flashing the destination, the rest of the exterior of the fleet does not provide obvious indication regarding the line to which the car belongs. Cars from various rail yards throughout the system are intermingled to form a train. However, newer legacy cars that have not undergone refurbishment may have a diminutive color decal that indicates its car number and its historical line membership. Since all station platforms are equipped with displays indicating the destination of each train, as well as voice announcements as trains approach the station and begin boarding, this usually does not pose a big problem.[25]
BART makes aggressive use of interlining, where multiple lines merge and share the same stations and tracks. Four lines share the Transbay Tube, all San Francisco stations, the Daly City Station and West Oakland Station. As a result, there are times of significant congestion during peak hours as multiple lines vie for shared resources. Only a maximum frequency of 4½ trains per hour per line can be achieved after headways and dwell times are accounted for. The lack of passing tracks or sidings throughout this quadruple-interlining section makes for very challenging recoveries from traffic delays. San Francisco- and Peninsula-bound trains from the East Bay must ensure that proper sequencing is maintained prior to entering the merged section for operations to remain smooth and without significant delays.
In 1996 when the I-680/State Route 24 interchange in Walnut Creek was overhauled for construction, BART added temporary commuter train service during rush hours, which ran between South Hayward and Concord stations. The service ceased when the interchange was finished.
At the time when the BART-SFO Extension opened on June 22, 2003, there was a Millbrae - SFO Line, a shuttle line that operated every 20 minutes between Millbrae and San Francisco Airport, formerly depicted as a purple line. This line has been defunct as of February 2004. It was replaced by the Dublin/Pleasanton - Millbrae line that stopped at SFO Station on its way to Millbrae. On January 1, 2008, this service was completely eliminated; passengers traveling from points south to the airport have to board a train at Millbrae, travel to San Bruno, and then take a different train back to the airport.[26] Direct service to SFO from Millbrae has since been restored on Monday to Friday after 7 p.m. and all day Saturday and Sunday.
BART was one of the first U.S. systems of any size to have substantial automated operations. The trains are computer-controlled via BART's Operations Control Center (OCC) and headquarters at Lake Merritt and generally arrive with regular punctuality. Train operators are present to make announcements, close doors, and operate the train in case of unforeseen difficulties.
As a first-generation system, BART's automation system was plagued with numerous operational problems during its first years of service. Shortly after revenue service began, an on-board electronics failure caused one two-car test train (with car 143 as the lead car) to run off the end of the elevated track at the Fremont station and into a parking lot. This incident was dubbed the Fremont Flyer, and there were no serious injuries.[15][27] When revenue service began, "ghost trains" (or false occupancies), trains that show up on the computer system as being in a specific place but don't physically exist, were common, and real trains could at times disappear from the system, as a result of dew on the tracks and too low of a voltage (at 0.6 volts rather than the industry standard 15 volts) being passed through the rails for train detection.[27] Under such circumstances, trains had to be operated manually and were restricted to a speed of 25 mph (40 km/h). Enhancements were made to the train control system to address these "ghost trains" (or false occupancies). However, manual blocking that kept trains in stations until the train ahead had left its station were mandated for several years.
The original signaling technology and subsequent enhancements used to control the trains was developed by Westinghouse.
During this initial shakedown period, there were several episodes where trains had to be manually run and signaled via station agents communicating by telephone. This caused a great outcry in the press and led to a flurry of litigation among Westinghouse, the original controls contractor, and BART, as well as public battles between the state government (advised by University of California professor Dr. Bill Wattenburg), the federal government, and the district, but in time these problems were resolved and BART became a reliable service.[27] Ghost trains apparently still persist on the system to this day and are usually cleared quickly enough to avoid significant delay, but occasionally some can cause an extended backup of manually operated trains in the system.[28] In addition, the fare card system was easily hackable with equipment commonly found in universities, although most of these flaws have been fixed.[29]
The $1.5 billion extension of BART southward to San Francisco International Airport's (SFO) Garage G, adjacent to the International Terminal, was opened to the public on June 22, 2003. Ground was broken on the project in November 1997, adding four new stations including the SFO station, South San Francisco, San Bruno, and Millbrae. The Millbrae station has a cross-platform connection to Caltrain, the first of its kind west of the Mississippi.[30] The airport extension used to run from SFO to Millbrae station, and operated with two motormen (train operators)—one on each end of the train—between the San Bruno and Millbrae stations to reduce dwell time at SFO during peak hours; the train entered the SFO stub-end station under the control of the primary motorman and exited in the opposite direction towards Millbrae controlled by the secondary. Since SFO is now the terminus of the line that serves it, this practice was discontinued as it would not reduce the in-transit time for any trips.
The airport extension project added 8.7 miles (14.0 km) of new railway; 6.1 miles (9.8 km) of subway, 1.2 miles (1.9 km) of aerial, and 1.4 miles (2.3 km) of at-grade track. The launch point was the Daly City Tailtrack project, which extended the tracks further south of the existing terminus in San Francisco and was completed in the 1980s.[31][32]
The project has not been without problems, however. The SFO extension currently draws 35,107 daily riders, significantly less than its target of 50,000 average weekday riders.[33] Another significant problem of note had been the rocky relationship between BART and San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) which was not a part of the BART district, but by agreement was responsible for the extension's operating costs. Fueled by the reality that the extension was not paying for itself, the acrimony between BART and SamTrans over changes and reductions in bus and train service reached a high.[34][35][36] BART wanted to increase service to attract ridership, while SamTrans wanted to reduce service to trim costs. Thus, service along the extension was changed several times.[37][38] Eventually SamTrans and BART worked out a deal in which SamTrans paid BART $32 million, plus approximately $2 million a year, and BART assumed all costs and control of operating the extension.[39][40] The latest revision to the SFO service has Pittsburg-Bay Point trains running to SFO at all times. During peak times, Richmond trains will run to Millbrae, with Dublin-Pleasanton trains terminating at Daly City, and during off-peak hours (nights and weekends), Dublin-Pleasanton trains will run to Millbrae (replacing Richmond service on the extension).[41] Consequently, the new routing requires passengers connecting between San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport to make an additional transfer. In addition, the cessation of direct BART service between Millbrae and SFO requires Caltrain passengers wanting to travel to the airport to make an additional transfer at San Bruno Station.[26]
Many critics of the SFO Extension contend the project was merely a cover for BART's ultimate goal of ringing the bay, eliminating Caltrain altogether.[42]
The most use the new line has gotten on any single day was 37,200; the SFO Station receives an average of 10,700 passengers daily.[43]