I really appreciate that you recognized that BART isn't really a "metro" as it's usually defined but rather suburban rapid transit similar to Crossrail or the RER
That honestly makes a lot of sense, because when I started reading about Bart and realizing that most trains had a 15 minute gap between them I was really confused since that’s not like a subway at all.. most subways (in the US at least) operate around 3 to 5 minute in peak service.
@@JoeyLovesTrains TBF thats partially because several lines share tracks in SF and oakland. In those shared sections it is 3-5 mins between trains. The stations in those areas are also much closer together than the suburban outer system.
Nice, as an SF resident who just got off a BART train about an hour ago I'm a fan, but I really wish they would expand the network, fix connections to other transit, and most importantly have much more frequent service. Coming home tonight the trains were only running with a half hour headway, even on the trunk.
They are expanding, though it would be nice to see it go to Sausalito as well. I think after BART expansion to SJ there needs to be more muni subways and better VTA service. An Oakland and Berkeley light rail or something would also be based.
I love BART. I grew up on it, mostly riding between Berkeley, SF, and Oakland. My favorite part about it is the accessibility. Every single station is accessible with zero help required in the way of a driver putting down ramps or lifts. The train is flush enough with the platform that I roll right in, with a manual or power chair, and there is plenty of room inside a car to move to wherever i want, "disability area" or elsewhere. all this means l I have the freedom to ride public transit'': -without having to talk to anyone - without having to fear that equipment is broken down and I won't be able to ride (elevators do go down sometimes but it's usually very few and there's up-to-date elevator advisories both announced and on the app) -with total freedom to make last-minute changes of plan (bus and light rail drivers usually demand to know what stop you're getting off at) -without being tied down, which has made me very vulnerable to harassment on buses and is a very awkward process -without dealing with irritated passengers about how slow I'm making their transit trip It's great. I can simply get on any train at any door as soon as they open, hang out without having to do wheelchair securements, and leave when I want to, and I am much safer from abuse and assaut because of this good design.
Great video. I worked on the first phase of the BART extensions in the early 1990’s and learned some interesting BART lore at the time. BART was originally designed in the 1960’s. At that time in the United States, optimism about technology was at its peak. The space race was in full swing, the country was going to the moon, and technology would be able to solve any technical problem. BART was envisioned as a fully automated system, and to compete with the growing popularity or the automobile, it would be designed with space age and futuristic trains with spacious cars, comfortable seats, and large and airy stations all to avoid the reputation at the time of the dark, dreary and crowded older subway and transit systems in cities such as New York, Chicago and Boston. Since downtown San Francisco was the economic engine at the time, and the perceived destination of most of the riders, it was designed so that all three branches on the East Bay would be able to take a direct train into San Francisco without switching trains, necessitating a very complicated route path through downtown Oakland and timing synchronization so that they could all go through the transbay team without backing each other up. Teething problems in its first few years, including a fire in 1979 in the transbay tube that killed a firefighter, sullied its reputation, but overall it’s been a great asset to the Bay Area and has really set the area apart from less transit friendly areas on the US West Coast such as Los Angeles and Seattle.
@@hauntedhouse3472 how much was that line to put in? I remember riding it when it first opened and it felt so weird because for ages Concord had been the end of the line.
One note: You said that Caltrain doesn’t yet go downtown SF. I see what you mean as BART goes to the heart of downtown under market street, but I would call Caltrain’s 4th and King station downtown, and as someone who takes Caltrain into the city all the the time it’s much more common for me to go all the way in on Caltrain then transfer to muni as opposed to transferring to BART at Millbrae.
BART is the system I grew up with. It's space-age qualities for the time are why I fell in love with trains and transit systems. The ride under the bay was always my favorite part. FAST! BART platforms have marks where the doors are and people line up at those marks. This is an important BART feature. The unusual thing about this that I haven't seen on other systems is that the flashing destination signs would always tell you if the approaching train was a 10-car or 8-car train so you know where to stand. Now, w the new 3 door cars, the destination signs will also indicate if the approaching train is 2-door or 3-door so you know which marks to line up behind. You can see it in this video on some of the station footage.
@@Zosu22 The marks are only aligned with the older 2-door cars, and even then they only work when the automatic train control is working. When the drivers have to position the trains manually (or when the train control fails to properly locate a train) all bets are off. It's not uncommon for a 10-car train to overshoot the platform by a bit.
I remember the days before the black door markers on the platforms. Even then, regular passengers knew right where to stand - a particular stain or chip on the concrete was all they needed.
A cool topic to cover would BARTS expansion to Vallejo, Fairfield, and Vacaville. It was a movement in the early 2000s but the movement really died when Hercules decided to get a fairy building instead of bart. Cool history and would be greatly needed! I would love to see this idea resurface or at least a shout of in a future bart video!
It would greatly help traffic on Highway 80 one of the most traffic stricken highways and the Bay Area and the United States. It would also provide a link to attractions like Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and Scandia for the whole Bay Area!
@@brentquade7032 Agreed 100%, especially when you enter Berkeley. Whenever I go there, it’s always traffic, drives me nuts. BTW Where’s your source for expansion to Vallejo?
I've travelled to the Bay Area only once in the last 10 years, in 2019, a visit that I oriented around BART. This turned out to be an excellent idea: I flew into Oakland (instead of SFO), took the Coliseum-Airport shuttle, took BART and a short bus ride to a much cheaper stay in Oakland, and then used BART to maximize my exploration of the Bay Area over just a few days. If Bay Area politicians could orient more developments and amenities around it, the potential would be huge. I'm surprised they didn't take a hint from the 1989 earthquake, which I recall also damaged and caused permanent closure of several elevated highways, while BART's elevated guideways came out unscathed! (A good indicator for SkyTrain? 🤔)
1:55 A signaling system problem BART encountered in its early days was "ghost trains". Trains early in the morning would randomly disappear then reappear on the dispatcher's display at the Lake Merritt Control Center. A university professor investigated and found that fog caused a thin layer of rust to form on the track, preventing the signal's electrical voltage from shunting between the rails thru the wheel assembly as usual.
I rode BART for 3 days when visiting San Francisco (I stayed in Oakland) and loved it. I kinda wished trains were more frequent, but they were so spacious, comfortable and fast. The two-level stations under Market street were quite cool, too.
Living in SF, it would be so much harder to get anywhere without Bart. Plus they go up to 80mph very often on their routes and they have a fairly frequent schedule now.
It's funny and insightful how you tie Montreal's REM to the lessons we learned from BART. There's actually a Montreal-Bay Area-Montreal bookend story there: Montreal's metro opened in advance of Expo '67 as the one of North America's first truly "modern" (post-WWII) subways. BART pushed some of this frontier technology farther with its unprecedented reliance on computers for operations, and enlisted some engineers fresh from Montreal in its design and roll-out work in the late 1960s and early 70s. I agree that BART is more like the RER or a commuter rail for the region, but it is truly a commuter-metro hybrid in that the section you highlight at 6:10, with BART's most intensely multi-layered service clear between West Oakland and Daly City. For riders traveling entirely between these two stations - the San Francisco segment - BART is truly a "metro" with close station spacings connected at high frequencies. Oakland-Berkeley-San Leandro get a less-frequent version of wider-spaced metro service between their stations (especially between MacArthur, West Oakland and Bay Fair), and the rest of the region gets a more typical commuter rail service.
Awesome video! As a Concord (pronounced like "conquered") resident I use BART nearly every day to get to the City and the gym. Cool to see a video from an outside expert perspective about something I use so much without even thinking about it
BART is something Bay Area people love to hate but we all know when it does not run, the cities it runs through are greatly impacted! I do wonder what the Bay Area would be like if the original design was actually created, would we be better off or still in the same spot?
Much better it would have effected San Jose development into less sprawl probably. The current connection to Light Rail sucks as until the dirdon station is complete you have to ride the whole system to get to the Bart system.
Yeah that’s the whole problem lol, when it doesn’t run the people who rely on it are greatly impacted. When there’s unchecked crime, delays, dirty stations and trains, etc, people are greatly impacted. People hate on BART because it needs to get better
Nice job. About that "redundant" extension to Santa Clara: For operational reasons (I'd imagine storage of the extra rolling stock they're going to need for serving downtown San Jose) there needs to be a railyard at the end of the line, and the only feasible place to put it would be in Santa Clara where there's room. It's also right by an existing Caltrain/Ace/Amtrak station and beside Santa Clara University, so you might as well put a BART station in there while you're at it. This will enable a single-seat journey between the East Bay and the university. Given the balkanized fare structure of incompatible transit systems in the Bay Area, this would be a significant convenience for riders and will result in more ridership. A BART-Caltrain change at Diridon would be a pain in the neck, inefficient, and likely pretty costly for riders, which would be a deterrent to ridership. A few years ago the VTA added a bike-pedestrian tunnel under the tracks at Santa Clara station, making it accessible from both sides. The area north of the tracks is underdeveloped now, but that is changing, and it's ripe for TOD. Now if they could just get a tunnel under the runways at San Jose Airport to connect the terminals to Santa Clara station, that'd be pretty amazing! In an ideal world the terminals would have been built on the south side of the runways and closer to the railway lines, but we are where we are.
Watching this, I'm teletransported back to the time of taking Hayward Bart to SF to work in 1991. I attended law school after work and rode back on BART to Hayward. So many memories came welling back watching this. I cut high school to take the very first excursion ride on BART back in 71 or 72. - BART handed out lapel buttons to commemorate that first trip whooshing through the tube to SF. wish I still had mine. It was all so space -ageish!
RMT - the bart trains in 1970 had brown cloth seats w/ wooden arm rests and wooden Dividers in the handicap seating near door entrance. the cars also had dim Flourecent lighting.
If they ever made a second trans bay tunnel, I really hope they would build standard tracks as well. It would lead to more direct sfo to sac connections. It could also expand Caltrain on the east bay tracks etc.
I have to commend you on the pronunciation on all the cities listed in your video on BART. I will say Diridon sounded odd but even I probably mispronounce it. I live in Milpitas and have been waiting for BART to come to the South Bay (Silicon Valley) for decades. San Jose area built the light rail system while BART was expanding elsewhere. We finally got our connection to BART and Milpitas is a decent transit hub for BART, busses and light rail. peace!
When San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge was built there was also the Interurban Electric Railway (IER) that ran a long with the Key System until July 26, 1941. BART is in the process of upgrading their rolling stock. The older rolling stock was the same rolling stock that was built when BART first opened on September 11 1973. It didn't help that the builder of that rolling stock went out of business. The fact that BART runs on a wide gage of 5' 6" allows for a larger passenger load and a smoother ride.
Really Well Done. I rode the system back in the mid 80's and I thought it was very good then. Living on the east coast, I frequent the DC metro which is also nice. I have been on MARTA as well. But I do find MARTA not as polished as BART and DC. Back in the 80's I could see what BART was aiming for in the future. Nice to have a System with a thriving economy and tech companies with lots of money to toss to the public. Look at NYC, Philadelphia, Old infrastructure, lack of funds, needing a better tax base to make major improvements. Cheers!
I’d love to see that video on the second transbay tube. There’s been talk of making a new BART line from the Salesforce center down Geary then south on 19th. And I wonder if you could use *that* tunnel to eventually connect the Smart Trains in Marin to San Francisco. That plus HSR and Caltrain makes it a really interesting topic.
I've never forgotten my first ride on BART in 1972 when it was brand new, and the Trans-bay tube wasn't even open yet. Compared to the rapid-transit systems I knew from Boston and New York, BART was impressively futuristic. Later that year, when I first visited Montreal and rode around on their fabulous Metro, I was even more impressed. At 16 years old this looked like the future, and it wouldn't be long before there were systems like these everywhere. My dream was to live close to a rapid-transit station. Fifty years later I am living that dream - alas, it is in Boston where their abysmally neglected system is often a nightmare!
i currently live in the bay (my station is 19th street which i love so much) and ive never taken bart all the way down to the end but its amazing how much land it truly covers and i could reach so many high demand areas using bart if i wanted to
Growing up in the area, BART was my intro to a love of rail transit and the “Cassette Futurism”/late Space Age aesthetic. I find it interesting to compare and contrast BART with the DC Metro; they’re sister systems in many ways, but the architecture of BART seems bright and utopian compared to the more imposing and sober looking DC system. I wonder how much of that has to do with the difference in cultural attitudes when BART was designed in the mid-late 60’s vs DC a few years later. @RMTransit Given the recent opening of the Central Subway in SF, any chance there’s a Muni Metro video in the works?
Video on second transbay tube would rule, also would be interested in hearing about the cancellation of bart to marin and if that could ever happen in the future
It looks like an impressive system. I wish we had something like this in Manchester, England. UK. Unfortunately here all the money gets spent on London. There are some small light rail systems around the UK but were all built decades ago and have never been expanded or modernized. Really enjoyed watching your video. Thanks.
Former Manchester resident here. I can assure you your local rail system is way ahead of anything in the San Francisco Bay Area! Metrolink is far more useful than BART, and your heavy rail network is far more advanced than anything we have. I used to live in Stockport and was well able to live without a car.
This is such a useful video for tourists who want to get around SF and the wider Bay area. When I came to SF BART took me almost everywhere I wanted to go. And by taking the Red Line to Richmond I transferred onto an Amtrak Capitol Corridor train and went to Sacramento for a day trip.
I wish I had your aurora and gusto to go out and visit the different rapid transit lines. You have got it all! I am pleased I watched this show about the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). I learned more about this rapid transit railroad than I would have before.
I think he meant that it has yet to be relocated to the downtown business district at the Transbay Transit Center (relevant since that location would provide a walking-distance connection to BART and the subway section of MUNI). He meant that this is one of the few points where Caltrain can provide a direct transfer to BART I think. But yeah, if you were headed downtown you’d take Caltrain all the way there and than catch a bus or Muni (particularly once the new MUNI section is constructed)
The Caltrain station is in South Beach, not SoMA. Its not close to downtown, probably a 30 minute walk from the Caltrain depot to, say, Powell station on Market Street.
I'm originally from Oakland CA. I reside in Modesto now for almost 6 years. I when I go back U can't wait to get to the Bart station. I grew up on Bart I didn't know the specifications and difficulty they had to go through. Overall nice transportation system 👌
I was surprised by the proposed extension to Marin County to the north of SF that you mention at the beginning, on the 'historical' part, though not later on. I wonder if there were any real projects on that because crossing the Golden Gate is very, very hard. You can't go below, as you do to Oakland, because the GG is a very, very deep cut and with very strong currents, as the whole of the Bay comes in and out twice a day through that gap. You might build another bridge, but who would want to have another bridge obscuring the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. You can't reserve a couple of lanes on the GGB for BART since the bridge is already at capacity and the BART trains, being so wide, it would actually take most of the deck. The central lanes on the GGB are reassigned to either direction depending on traffic, allowing for 4-2, 3-3 or 2-4 splits (and even 2-2-2 with the central 2 left isolated, to avoid frontal collisions at night, when the risk of drunk drivers is higher and there is not much traffic anyway). Eventually, in a far away future, when Americans become less car-dependent, running the BART over the bridge might be possible, perhaps a single track in the middle (I am not sure the structure of the bridge would be able to handle two trains at once anyway), and two lanes on either side. Anyway, just wondering. Thanks.
@@nathankoon7749 That would make sense, thanks. I'm afraid, though that another deck would be using the spare strength that saved it during the 1989 earthquake. Perhaps a light rail, the lightest rail possible, would be better than a full train. Can you imagine something like the Wuppertal monorail hanging below the GGB? Great views! Not good in high winds, which means most of the time anyway.
BART on the GGB will never happen. The only logical way to connect Marin with BART would be a tube from San Rafael to Richmond. Alas, none of us will live to see that.
@@douglasschaden3475 I am pretty sure you are right on both accounts. I kept thinking about the issue and wonder, what about a tram or what Americans call 'light rail'' like the Almston Citadis? Connecting at Fisherman's Wharf with the tracks coming along The Embarcadero along the coast, entering the Presidio around the back of the Palace of Fine Arts, serving the new developments in the Presidio (new, at least for me, since I haven't been there for about 20 years) and entering the future lower deck of the GGB on the west, on the outside and below the last curve before the road aligns with the bridge, exiting and coming down to Sausalito on Alexander Ave, going along the Marina, then to Mill Valley the same way the railroad used to do ages ago. With stops at the Presidio (perhaps several), at the vista points at both ends, plus a couple both in Sausalito and Mill Valley, it would serve plenty of local traffic and tourists alike. Can you imagine the views while crossing the Bridge? (barf bags available upon request). Once past Sausalito it could take several routs, but that is beyond the point, perhaps it could end up in San Rafael at the same BART station of the line you suggest. Anyway, technically, the trams are much lighter and narrow than a BART train and if you provide enough stops in the middle, it might end up attracting more varied passengers than a BART which can't offer enough stops or frequencies. I can't imagine Marin residents have become any less nimby-ist that they were when I lived there but at least with a tram they wouldn't get massive and noisy infrastructure taking so much space in their neighborhood. Anyway, just dreaming.
@@danielbarreiro8228 the problem with the route that you're suggesting is that it would be a very low-speed affair, which isn't conducive to commuting. Also, the population centers that would be best served by a rail connection are San Rafael and points north. Further, southern Marin has excellent bus (I know it's not the same) connections with San Francisco. Not to mention the GGB is a masterpiece of art and engineering; mucking about with it in any way would be a crime against all that is beautiful.
RMT - bart is Unique as its not a Metro system or Streetcar/ LRT like many other systems. it does not Directly interface w/ Street traffic like Muni Metro SF and LA Metro rail. bart is a HEAVY rail system that is Underground or Aboveground on elevated tracks or same grade as traffic in a Protected track. in the Transbay tunnel it can reach 80 mph or MORE. in the 70 - 80's bart would sometimes run 99+ mph , but this was reduced in later years as the system got older.
Hii I really love your videos! I just wandering if u can make videos about cities in Africa like Niamey Niger or Lagos. I know there is not any kind of transit system over there but can u make a video like How these cities will be able to develop their public transport and how they will be able to cope with urban sprawl? Thank you!!
There are comparable systems in places such as Addis Ababa, Mauritius and several cities in South Africa. Also planned openings in cities such Lagos and Abidjan in the coming months and years. They should be covered and I'd like to see this channel do so
Speaking of the eBart train, it reminded me of how identical it looked from the metro trains used in the Dubai Metro fully automated system. Oh. And can you do a video on Dubai Metro? The fully automated system is phenomenal.
Didn't know that the original iconic rolling stock of this system was made by Rohr. No surprise to me, there were very space-age-ish in their train stuff, with ROMAG maglev PRT and the TACV air cushion hovertrain, which both have a dire resemblance to the BART rolling stock. It also explain the airliner type comfort seating, Rohr was an aerospace conglomerate before anything.
If I'm not mistaken, the reason e-BART exists is for one obviouslty, cost, but also due to the fact that they've been trying to run it onto existing rail tracks, which would requires standard guage, and likely prevents the use of overhead wires due to the fun way american railroads operate. This hasn't happened though, and looks like it may not happen for some time so it leaves e-bart as a bit of an oddity.
@@KRYMauL Cost and infrastructure mainly. Having a wider guage means non standard equipment, and the BART trains use a specific kind of signaling which is also more expensive where I expect e-bart uses more traditional systems.
Back in the day, the Fremont (and lesser extent, the U City) BART Stations were my home stations. Back then Fremont was one of the terminus' and there was no Pleasanton or SFO Airport (circa 1990 to 1996).
The section of Interstate 280 it follows in SF is also on top of the original San Jose railway right-of-way, BART more or less follows that OG route up until Millbrae
I wish you would add links or name the titles of your older related videos that you casually mention at times because they are hard to find without knowing the name of the video or having a link to it. For instance you mention you did a video on the 1st generation Washington DC metro cars but I have no idea how to find it lol.
I was SURPRISED when I came to the SF Bay Area and saw how MUCH LARGER and SPACIOUS the Subway trains are compared to those in Los Angeles. The Metro System trains (in LA) are INFERIORLY smaller than BART. The aisles are narrow (you have to turn sideways if you're a little too wide), and everyone is sitting much closer together. We're just PACKED IN THERE! I cannot even cross my legs while sitting in a front-facing seat. The back of the head of the person sitting in front of me, is just RIGHT THERE, no elbow room, no breathing room. (Don't cough) BART really is a step above the rest. Thanks for sharing
6:36 - Where can I find this video on Cross River Rail in Brisbane? I tried searching for both 'Brisbane' and 'Cross River Rail' on your channel, but couldn't find any video like that.
I am too, but the MBTA won't be looking forward to this . . . On the one hand (sad to say), much of the Americas (not just US) are even worse than what the MBTA has; on the other hand, the MBTA always comes up with excuses why good things cannot be done, and now they have had to reduce Red, Orange, and Blue Line service to Saturday schedules by order of the NTSB due to having too many safety problems (including some that got people killed). As part of their coming up with excuses why things cannot be done, they only extended the Green Line to Union Square in Somerville and (opening in a few months) to Medford because they were legally obligated to, and they have fought tooth and nail against electrifying their Commuter Rail network even though the line to Providence is already electrified -- if they do electrify as their own Fiscal Control Board has recommended, it will be because they are dragged into it kicking and screaming. Meanwhile, their idea of electrifying their bus network is to GET RID OF their last electric trolleybuses(*) with the promise of hybrid and battery buses, even when they have not yet demonstrated ability to run battery buses on a large scale, and completely ignoring some spectacular fires that have happened on battery buses on other systems. (*)Cambridge/Watertown/Belmont electric trolleybuses discontinued in Spring 2022, replaced by diesel buses; Silver Line Waterfront dual-mode buses in Boston running to Chelsea, South Boston, and Logan Airport being phased out in favor of diesel-hybrid buses.
I commuted to work on BART (Berkeley to SF) for 20 years. Now I work remotely, and even though there's a station within 10 minutes walking, I pay extra to take one of the two daily transbay AC Transit buses that stop a block away, on the rare occasion when I do go in.
I wanna see a video regarding why CalTrain and BART aren't combined, considering that if they were the same system there would be a complete circular rapid transit network around the bay.
Different track width, different electrification systems (Caltrain is building 25kV overhead electrification), Caltrain is privately owned while BART is publicly owned, etc.
BART! Good times. Its grown a lot even back in my day. I remember it used to END at my location, then they expanded it - riding on the new track FELT WEIRD - its like "I'm on air!" O__O; because well, it was new! Anyway - had a lot of rides on BART.
i love the BART system it has so much potential to expand after the San Jose north connection to Milbrae but also the North and onto a North East loop, that then will really become the true bay area network and would take all those damn cars off the roads. Bart ridership can and should be fully utilised with just some network upgrades, something exciting for the future of San Fransisco and Oakland
6:05 as a Bay Area person, one huge issue with BART is that we don't call lines "the green line" or anything of the sort. The lines are named after their terminal stops, so to take the train out of San Francisco, you take the Richmond train (or whatever your destination is). This has lead to a lot of issues as the lines expand, what used to be the Warm Springs train is now the Berryessa train, etc. and is very confusing for old people, who can spend ages on the platform waiting for a train that no longer exists. With the new cars being rolled out, BART is trying to update wayfinding to reflect this, having the new 3-door trains announced as "Orange line train to Richmond", but so far it's a very slow adoption-the new cars are having a tumultuous rollout. 13:16 Two other benefits: the new cars have a digital map telling passengers which stations they're traveling between and what line they're on, as well as being SIGNIFICANTLY quieter in tunnels and the transbay tube. It's kind of important to note how fucking loud the tunnels are, and how much of an improvement this is. 15:43 I think you'll be excited to know that 7 story housing has been approved at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations-I certainly am! It's exceedingly difficult to get any housing built in Berkeley because the NIMBY spirit is very strong. North & Downtown Berkeley as well as El Cerrito Plaza BART stations all land closely to public schools, which is awesome. They recently finished a redevelopment of the El Cerrito Del Norte station which looks pretty slick, and also reintroduced bathrooms to the system (other than the elevators, of course). One other thing not mentioned in this video is that BART has elevators in every station. Though they're often out of service, out of the way in stations, and pretty much always smell like piss, it's a small win for accessibility. Being able-bodied, I only really appreciated this in full once I had to drag a suitcase 3/4 the size of my body through the NY subway, which seems to have been built by engineers with staircase fetishes. The biggest improvement I'd make to BART if I could wave a magic wand at it is to improve the frequency of trains. BART doesn't have the infrastructure to add express trains, but getting from the east bay into San Francisco on a Sunday shouldn't involve 30 minute train schedules and a mandatory transfer in the middle. 30 minute waits are *common*, not a "sometimes" situation. I'm off at college now, so the transit situation is a weird mashup of school shuttles, public busses, and trains in and out of the nearest major city. I've never lived anywhere other than the Bay Area, so this video made me appreciate (and feel homesick for) some of the quirks of our strange trains. Thanks! :-)
Great video, I love SFs multi layered transit so fascinating. The only thing is the Richmond-SFO line runs to Millbrae and then the airport not vice versa
You neglected to mention one other train system that connects with BART. The Capital Corridor, operated by AMTRAK, offers commuter service between downtown San Jose and Sacramento, with transfers to BART at the Coliseum and Richmond stations.
I feel the connection to SFO was unfortunate as it puts a kink in the line to Millbrae and forever adds inconsistences to service further down the peninsula if it were to ever happen. The BART station at SFO delivers you to the international terminal, but for any other terminal, passengers generally catch the AirTrain people mover system. As I understand it, the local consultants agree that the best way to do things would have been to keep the BART station along the rail line between San Bruno and Millbrae, and just extend AirTrain (which was designed in conjunction with and opened the same time as the BART extension) out to there instead. However, the pitch to voters was that the BART would go to SFO, so the final design ended up the way it is to keep to the letter of that promise.
I've been riding, designing, and building transit systems in the Bay Area, including BART, for close to 35 years. Here are some highlights about BART. 1. Based on evidence, one could conclude that BART was originally designed and built as a novelty space-age thing. (The 1st gen rolling stock resembled futuristic rides in Disneyland!) It was never intended as THE key commuter system in the Bay Area. This explains why there are built-in obstacle when it comes to upgrading the system. There is an urgent need to upgrade the system, as current ridership is exploding, and projected ridership will go nuclear. (Spending money to extend itself farther into the outskirts only invite more riders!) 2. The built-in obstacles are: (a) The length of the platform prevents BART from going beyond the current maximum of ten-car trains. (b) The height of the tunnels prevent BART from switching to double-decker trains. (c) The fact that all but one line merge into the Trans Bay Tube makes it nearly impossible to improve headways. (d) The existing right-of-way in certain corridors prevents BART from building parallel tracks as spur or for express service (e.g. separating SF workers living in Fremont, Dublin, Concord, Bay Pointe from SF workers living in Oakland by allowing them to bypass intermediate stations like Lake Merritt, Fruitvale, and Coliseum by using express service). 3. Before plans to extend into the South Bay, BART mainly served ONE center of work place during commute hours; namely, downtown San Francisco. In the morning hours, everyone is getting into SF. In the evening hours, everyone is getting out of SF. Building an extension into the South Bay does not solve the existing capacity problem into SF; it merely creates a second direction to have capacity problem. Looping the Bay wouldn't solve the existing capacity problem; building a second Trans Bay Tube would. 4. So BART management for the past ten years or so has been focusing on (a) improving headways by modernizing the train control system; (b) ensuring rolling stock is better maintained in order to always run ten-car trains by modernizing and expanding its maintenance facility in Hayward; (c) buying new rolling stock with more standing room, which translates to higher capacity. It's a crappy little commuter rail system we have, but we love it all the same.
For years I've wondered why BART didn't expand north up to Santa Rosa. (I know: "It costs too much."). It would be great to run it across the Golden Gate Bridge, but a more doable option might be to run it north from Richmond over the bridge to San Rafael. Another route I'd like to see is something up to Napa and/or Sonoma, because that road (Route 37) can turn into a huge bottle neck. All it takes is money, right?
@@Warriorcats64 True, but there's no connection between BART and SMART. And there's still no rail service (BART or SMART) to Sonoma or Napa. Also, according to SMART's website, they use Diesel engines (the latest low emission) rather than electric power, so you do get some emissions.
@@scottpage6674 In 1962, San Mateo County supervisors voted to leave BART, saying their voters would be paying taxes to carry mainly Santa Clara County residents . The district-wide tax base was weakened by San Mateo's departure, forcing Marin County to withdraw a month later. Despite the fact that Marin had originally voted in favor of BART participation at the 88% level, its marginal tax base could not adequately absorb its share of BART's projected cost. Another important factor in Marin's withdrawal was an engineering controversy over the feasibility of running trains on the lower deck of the Golden Gate Bridge.
@@RaymondHng and @Scott Page I though Marin County was forced out after San Mateo County voluntarily left. In either case, it was economics. Too bad, BART was have had a subway down part of Geary Street in San Francisco and then cross the Bay on a new second, lower deck to the Golden Gate Bridge. When they were planning the Pittsburg/Bay Point and Pleasanton extension in the mid 1990's, on the of the reasons a Marin County line over the Golden Gate was rejected was that the bridge was not structurally sound to bear the weight of the trains. I do not recall why they said all that had changed over the intervening thirty years. Aging infrastructure, or better technology/engineering knowledge?
My wish would be for them to extend the orange line north from Richmond to serve San Pablo, Pinole, Hercules, Rodeo and Crockett, to lighten the burden of the woefully insufficient WestCAT bus service. The yellow line also needs to be extended east to Oakley and Brentwood; there's a lot of people stranded out there, priced out of more nearby housing and poorly served by public transit.
As a native of the north bay (yes Sonoma County is apart of the Bay Area) the politics of SMART and the lost bart expansion is a really juicy story that lead to a mediocre train system in the north bay.
I find it quite funny that after 15 years of proposing and building a BART extension to San Jose, they only reach Milpitas. Average infrastructure project in California
I think BART is ready to be upgraded into a completely automated transit Sky train of the BAY area. Several things to take place, a command center that monitors and operates the trains remotely using cameras and transmitters that communicate with computers to give instructions to each trains through transmitters positioned at the edge of the tracks and to install movable barriers to prevent people from falling into the tracks while they wait for oncoming trains. Take that a combination of technology used in Vancouver to make driverless trains a reality. JFK airport sky trains including one from Tokyo, Japan , it’s automated platform sky train and one from Seattle, Washington.
I didn't see it in the comments when mentioning connections to BART you didn't mention AMTRAK which shares the Richmond station with BART. I use that connection regularly.
So funny to me, I’ve lived in the bay for some time now, bart is pretty awesome. But ppl have complaints. I kinda think it’s just something u gotta deal with so doesn’t bother me to bad. Whether it’s issues with the homeless, timings of the trains sucks compared to most other metro or subways in big cities, for good measure the essential bart experience is someone smoking a wood or crack. So have fun on bart.
BART has two major flaws: 1. Gauge. 5ft 6in. Prevents BART buying "standard passenger railcars.". so everything purchased is bespoke. 2. Single TransBay Tunnel is a limiting factor in the capacity of the whole system. BART needs a second TransBay tunnel via Alameda Island to provide a more resilient service. Allowing either tunnel to be closed for overnight maintenance.. Every year that this project is delayed adds billions to the ultimate cost.
Normally, I would agree with the flaws you mentioned, especially a need for a second "BART TransBay tunnel." But because the system survived a major (a potentially catastrophic) earthquake in 1989, (sounds recently, but was really 33 years ago!) BART has a resiliency that is unmatched in few cities around the world.
I think the reasoning for not using standard gauge probably has to do with residents not wanting freight trains going through the tracks(apparently why many streetcar systems have odd gaudes) .
I rode BART when it was new. It has changed much since, but there are some problems that go back to the original design. I'd be happy to share my observations over 50 years - not enough space here!
In the 90s and early 2000s you could print a pass that would give you discounted tickets for the local transit (at least for SF MUNI and Samtrans). Was sad when they discontinued that.
I really appreciate that you recognized that BART isn't really a "metro" as it's usually defined but rather suburban rapid transit similar to Crossrail or the RER
That honestly makes a lot of sense, because when I started reading about Bart and realizing that most trains had a 15 minute gap between them I was really confused since that’s not like a subway at all.. most subways (in the US at least) operate around 3 to 5 minute in peak service.
@@JoeyLovesTrains TBF thats partially because several lines share tracks in SF and oakland. In those shared sections it is 3-5 mins between trains. The stations in those areas are also much closer together than the suburban outer system.
since it connects different counties every county has its own transit system. the most “metro” like one is prob muni metro in sf
Along with Elizabeth line too.
SF itself is a small place and yes The BART functions like a commuter metro.
Though The Bay Area has full commuter rail such as Caltrain.
Nice, as an SF resident who just got off a BART train about an hour ago I'm a fan, but I really wish they would expand the network, fix connections to other transit, and most importantly have much more frequent service. Coming home tonight the trains were only running with a half hour headway, even on the trunk.
Rush hour services are usually ok but Sunday service especially is pretty awful
Not an SF resident but I've taken Bart and was surprised by the frequency of trains being once every 20-30 minutes
They are expanding, though it would be nice to see it go to Sausalito as well. I think after BART expansion to SJ there needs to be more muni subways and better VTA service. An Oakland and Berkeley light rail or something would also be based.
@@szurketaltos2693 take a look at what the original plans for BART were, it could have been amazing
@@Fang28 yeah unfortunately Marin county people are classist
I love BART. I grew up on it, mostly riding between Berkeley, SF, and Oakland. My favorite part about it is the accessibility. Every single station is accessible with zero help required in the way of a driver putting down ramps or lifts. The train is flush enough with the platform that I roll right in, with a manual or power chair, and there is plenty of room inside a car to move to wherever i want, "disability area" or elsewhere. all this means l I have the freedom to ride public transit'':
-without having to talk to anyone
- without having to fear that equipment is broken down and I won't be able to ride (elevators do go down sometimes but it's usually very few and there's up-to-date elevator advisories both announced and on the app)
-with total freedom to make last-minute changes of plan (bus and light rail drivers usually demand to know what stop you're getting off at)
-without being tied down, which has made me very vulnerable to harassment on buses and is a very awkward process
-without dealing with irritated passengers about how slow I'm making their transit trip
It's great. I can simply get on any train at any door as soon as they open, hang out without having to do wheelchair securements, and leave when I want to, and I am much safer from abuse and assaut because of this good design.
Great video. I worked on the first phase of the BART extensions in the early 1990’s and learned some interesting BART lore at the time. BART was originally designed in the 1960’s. At that time in the United States, optimism about technology was at its peak. The space race was in full swing, the country was going to the moon, and technology would be able to solve any technical problem. BART was envisioned as a fully automated system, and to compete with the growing popularity or the automobile, it would be designed with space age and futuristic trains with spacious cars, comfortable seats, and large and airy stations all to avoid the reputation at the time of the dark, dreary and crowded older subway and transit systems in cities such as New York, Chicago and Boston. Since downtown San Francisco was the economic engine at the time, and the perceived destination of most of the riders, it was designed so that all three branches on the East Bay would be able to take a direct train into San Francisco without switching trains, necessitating a very complicated route path through downtown Oakland and timing synchronization so that they could all go through the transbay team without backing each other up. Teething problems in its first few years, including a fire in 1979 in the transbay tube that killed a firefighter, sullied its reputation, but overall it’s been a great asset to the Bay Area and has really set the area apart from less transit friendly areas on the US West Coast such as Los Angeles and Seattle.
Were you invloved in the anything about the addition that extended from Concord to Pittsburg/Bay Point, 1995 era?
Yes, I worked at BATC (Bay Area Transit Consultants) in the early 90’s.
@@hauntedhouse3472 how much was that line to put in? I remember riding it when it first opened and it felt so weird because for ages Concord had been the end of the line.
One note: You said that Caltrain doesn’t yet go downtown SF. I see what you mean as BART goes to the heart of downtown under market street, but I would call Caltrain’s 4th and King station downtown, and as someone who takes Caltrain into the city all the the time it’s much more common for me to go all the way in on Caltrain then transfer to muni as opposed to transferring to BART at Millbrae.
BART is the system I grew up with. It's space-age qualities for the time are why I fell in love with trains and transit systems. The ride under the bay was always my favorite part. FAST!
BART platforms have marks where the doors are and people line up at those marks. This is an important BART feature. The unusual thing about this that I haven't seen on other systems is that the flashing destination signs would always tell you if the approaching train was a 10-car or 8-car train so you know where to stand. Now, w the new 3 door cars, the destination signs will also indicate if the approaching train is 2-door or 3-door so you know which marks to line up behind. You can see it in this video on some of the station footage.
If door stops are at certain locations it seems like it wouldn't be too difficult to install platform screen doors for the system.
@@Zosu22 The marks are only aligned with the older 2-door cars, and even then they only work when the automatic train control is working. When the drivers have to position the trains manually (or when the train control fails to properly locate a train) all bets are off. It's not uncommon for a 10-car train to overshoot the platform by a bit.
I remember the days before the black door markers on the platforms. Even then, regular passengers knew right where to stand - a particular stain or chip on the concrete was all they needed.
A cool topic to cover would BARTS expansion to Vallejo, Fairfield, and Vacaville. It was a movement in the early 2000s but the movement really died when Hercules decided to get a fairy building instead of bart. Cool history and would be greatly needed! I would love to see this idea resurface or at least a shout of in a future bart video!
It would greatly help traffic on Highway 80 one of the most traffic stricken highways and the Bay Area and the United States. It would also provide a link to attractions like Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and Scandia for the whole Bay Area!
@@brentquade7032 Agreed 100%, especially when you enter Berkeley. Whenever I go there, it’s always traffic, drives me nuts. BTW Where’s your source for expansion to Vallejo?
I hadn't heard about the Hercules Transit Center before, how cool! Can't wait for it to get built!
I've travelled to the Bay Area only once in the last 10 years, in 2019, a visit that I oriented around BART. This turned out to be an excellent idea: I flew into Oakland (instead of SFO), took the Coliseum-Airport shuttle, took BART and a short bus ride to a much cheaper stay in Oakland, and then used BART to maximize my exploration of the Bay Area over just a few days. If Bay Area politicians could orient more developments and amenities around it, the potential would be huge. I'm surprised they didn't take a hint from the 1989 earthquake, which I recall also damaged and caused permanent closure of several elevated highways, while BART's elevated guideways came out unscathed! (A good indicator for SkyTrain? 🤔)
I grew up taking BART didn't have a car until I was 7. It's good the main problem is it didn't connect to the largest city in the area San Jose
@@LawAcieIV dam, my nikka was whippin 580 at the age of 7! Word
1:55 A signaling system problem BART encountered in its early days was "ghost trains". Trains early in the morning would randomly disappear then reappear on the dispatcher's display at the Lake Merritt Control Center. A university professor investigated and found that fog caused a thin layer of rust to form on the track, preventing the signal's electrical voltage from shunting between the rails thru the wheel assembly as usual.
I rode BART for 3 days when visiting San Francisco (I stayed in Oakland) and loved it. I kinda wished trains were more frequent, but they were so spacious, comfortable and fast. The two-level stations under Market street were quite cool, too.
Living in SF, it would be so much harder to get anywhere without Bart. Plus they go up to 80mph very often on their routes and they have a fairly frequent schedule now.
It's funny and insightful how you tie Montreal's REM to the lessons we learned from BART. There's actually a Montreal-Bay Area-Montreal bookend story there: Montreal's metro opened in advance of Expo '67 as the one of North America's first truly "modern" (post-WWII) subways. BART pushed some of this frontier technology farther with its unprecedented reliance on computers for operations, and enlisted some engineers fresh from Montreal in its design and roll-out work in the late 1960s and early 70s.
I agree that BART is more like the RER or a commuter rail for the region, but it is truly a commuter-metro hybrid in that the section you highlight at 6:10, with BART's most intensely multi-layered service clear between West Oakland and Daly City. For riders traveling entirely between these two stations - the San Francisco segment - BART is truly a "metro" with close station spacings connected at high frequencies. Oakland-Berkeley-San Leandro get a less-frequent version of wider-spaced metro service between their stations (especially between MacArthur, West Oakland and Bay Fair), and the rest of the region gets a more typical commuter rail service.
Awesome video! As a Concord (pronounced like "conquered") resident I use BART nearly every day to get to the City and the gym. Cool to see a video from an outside expert perspective about something I use so much without even thinking about it
And I always knew Concord was pronounced "conquered" but I never made the connection. But I've always known that "eastbay" is pig latin for "beast."
The robovoice on the platforms pronounces it “Con-chord.”
@@richardmortenson8525 Yes, and it will forever confuse me why they programmed it that way 😂
BART is something Bay Area people love to hate but we all know when it does not run, the cities it runs through are greatly impacted! I do wonder what the Bay Area would be like if the original design was actually created, would we be better off or still in the same spot?
Much better it would have effected San Jose development into less sprawl probably. The current connection to Light Rail sucks as until the dirdon station is complete you have to ride the whole system to get to the Bart system.
Yeah that’s the whole problem lol, when it doesn’t run the people who rely on it are greatly impacted. When there’s unchecked crime, delays, dirty stations and trains, etc, people are greatly impacted. People hate on BART because it needs to get better
I adore BART, it's clear many of the decision makers really care about creating a good system
But it is still racist
But they didn’t. BART is one of the best examples of extremely poor future planning.
Nice job.
About that "redundant" extension to Santa Clara: For operational reasons (I'd imagine storage of the extra rolling stock they're going to need for serving downtown San Jose) there needs to be a railyard at the end of the line, and the only feasible place to put it would be in Santa Clara where there's room. It's also right by an existing Caltrain/Ace/Amtrak station and beside Santa Clara University, so you might as well put a BART station in there while you're at it. This will enable a single-seat journey between the East Bay and the university. Given the balkanized fare structure of incompatible transit systems in the Bay Area, this would be a significant convenience for riders and will result in more ridership. A BART-Caltrain change at Diridon would be a pain in the neck, inefficient, and likely pretty costly for riders, which would be a deterrent to ridership.
A few years ago the VTA added a bike-pedestrian tunnel under the tracks at Santa Clara station, making it accessible from both sides. The area north of the tracks is underdeveloped now, but that is changing, and it's ripe for TOD.
Now if they could just get a tunnel under the runways at San Jose Airport to connect the terminals to Santa Clara station, that'd be pretty amazing! In an ideal world the terminals would have been built on the south side of the runways and closer to the railway lines, but we are where we are.
I was gonna say, I absolutely don't think that BART going to Santa Clara is in anyway redundant, especially how badly CalTrain can run sometimes
Watching this, I'm teletransported back to the time of taking Hayward Bart to SF to work in 1991. I attended law school after work and rode back on BART to Hayward. So many memories came welling back watching this. I cut high school to take the very first excursion ride on BART back in 71 or 72. - BART handed out lapel buttons to commemorate that first trip whooshing through the tube to SF. wish I still had mine. It was all so space -ageish!
How about a video about the SF Muni light rail system?
RMT - the bart trains in 1970 had brown cloth seats w/ wooden arm rests and wooden Dividers in the handicap seating near door entrance. the cars also had dim Flourecent lighting.
If they ever made a second trans bay tunnel, I really hope they would build standard tracks as well. It would lead to more direct sfo to sac connections. It could also expand Caltrain on the east bay tracks etc.
that's the plan - to have both gauges
Don’t forget HSR to Oakland. You could eventually get a more direct route from SF to Sac on HSR.
I have to commend you on the pronunciation on all the cities listed in your video on BART. I will say Diridon sounded odd but even I probably mispronounce it. I live in Milpitas and have been waiting for BART to come to the South Bay (Silicon Valley) for decades. San Jose area built the light rail system while BART was expanding elsewhere. We finally got our connection to BART and Milpitas is a decent transit hub for BART, busses and light rail. peace!
When San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge was built there was also the Interurban Electric Railway (IER) that ran a long with the Key System until July 26, 1941.
BART is in the process of upgrading their rolling stock. The older rolling stock was the same rolling stock that was built when BART first opened on September 11 1973. It didn't help that the builder of that rolling stock went out of business. The fact that BART runs on a wide gage of 5' 6" allows for a larger passenger load and a smoother ride.
Really Well Done. I rode the system back in the mid 80's and I thought it was very good then. Living on the east coast, I frequent the DC metro which is also nice. I have been on MARTA as well. But I do find MARTA not as polished as BART and DC. Back in the 80's I could see what BART was aiming for in the future. Nice to have a System with a thriving economy and tech companies with lots of money to toss to the public. Look at NYC, Philadelphia, Old infrastructure, lack of funds, needing a better tax base to make major improvements. Cheers!
I’d love to see that video on the second transbay tube. There’s been talk of making a new BART line from the Salesforce center down Geary then south on 19th. And I wonder if you could use *that* tunnel to eventually connect the Smart Trains in Marin to San Francisco. That plus HSR and Caltrain makes it a really interesting topic.
I've never forgotten my first ride on BART in 1972 when it was brand new, and the Trans-bay tube wasn't even open yet. Compared to the rapid-transit systems I knew from Boston and New York, BART was impressively futuristic. Later that year, when I first visited Montreal and rode around on their fabulous Metro, I was even more impressed. At 16 years old this looked like the future, and it wouldn't be long before there were systems like these everywhere. My dream was to live close to a rapid-transit station. Fifty years later I am living that dream - alas, it is in Boston where their abysmally neglected system is often a nightmare!
i currently live in the bay (my station is 19th street which i love so much) and ive never taken bart all the way down to the end but its amazing how much land it truly covers and i could reach so many high demand areas using bart if i wanted to
Growing up in the area, BART was my intro to a love of rail transit and the “Cassette Futurism”/late Space Age aesthetic. I find it interesting to compare and contrast BART with the DC Metro; they’re sister systems in many ways, but the architecture of BART seems bright and utopian compared to the more imposing and sober looking DC system. I wonder how much of that has to do with the difference in cultural attitudes when BART was designed in the mid-late 60’s vs DC a few years later. @RMTransit Given the recent opening of the Central Subway in SF, any chance there’s a Muni Metro video in the works?
Video on second transbay tube would rule, also would be interested in hearing about the cancellation of bart to marin and if that could ever happen in the future
It looks like an impressive system. I wish we had something like this in Manchester, England. UK.
Unfortunately here all the money gets spent on London.
There are some small light rail systems around the UK but were all built decades ago and have never been expanded or modernized. Really enjoyed watching your video. Thanks.
Any northerner that votes Tory is a mug. A southerner.
Former Manchester resident here. I can assure you your local rail system is way ahead of anything in the San Francisco Bay Area! Metrolink is far more useful than BART, and your heavy rail network is far more advanced than anything we have. I used to live in Stockport and was well able to live without a car.
many light rail systems are getting upgrades/modernised trains (for ex: glasgow metro, merseyside rail, tyne and wear..)
@@eamonnca1 I think there's been plans to get Stockport on the Metrolink system. I hope they do 😉
@@NotReallySan yes I see Glasgow subway has undergone some new redecorating program but it's never been expanded. Which was one of my points.
This is such a useful video for tourists who want to get around SF and the wider Bay area. When I came to SF BART took me almost everywhere I wanted to go. And by taking the Red Line to Richmond I transferred onto an Amtrak Capitol Corridor train and went to Sacramento for a day trip.
I wish I had your aurora and gusto to go out and visit the different rapid transit lines. You have got it all! I am pleased I watched this show about the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). I learned more about this rapid transit railroad than I would have before.
8:33 Actually, there's a Caltrain station in SoMa (South of Market street district) and it's very close to downtown SF.
I think he meant that it has yet to be relocated to the downtown business district at the Transbay Transit Center (relevant since that location would provide a walking-distance connection to BART and the subway section of MUNI). He meant that this is one of the few points where Caltrain can provide a direct transfer to BART I think. But yeah, if you were headed downtown you’d take Caltrain all the way there and than catch a bus or Muni (particularly once the new MUNI section is constructed)
@@tylerkochman1007 Ah, I see. Thanks.
The Caltrain station is in South Beach, not SoMA. Its not close to downtown, probably a 30 minute walk from the Caltrain depot to, say, Powell station on Market Street.
I'm originally from Oakland CA. I reside in Modesto now for almost 6 years. I when I go back U can't wait to get to the Bart station. I grew up on Bart I didn't know the specifications and difficulty they had to go through. Overall nice transportation system 👌
Currently living in the Bay Area and riding BART great vid
Super interesting! I love the Bay so much. Can’t wait to make the move over. ❤️
I was surprised by the proposed extension to Marin County to the north of SF that you mention at the beginning, on the 'historical' part, though not later on. I wonder if there were any real projects on that because crossing the Golden Gate is very, very hard. You can't go below, as you do to Oakland, because the GG is a very, very deep cut and with very strong currents, as the whole of the Bay comes in and out twice a day through that gap. You might build another bridge, but who would want to have another bridge obscuring the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. You can't reserve a couple of lanes on the GGB for BART since the bridge is already at capacity and the BART trains, being so wide, it would actually take most of the deck. The central lanes on the GGB are reassigned to either direction depending on traffic, allowing for 4-2, 3-3 or 2-4 splits (and even 2-2-2 with the central 2 left isolated, to avoid frontal collisions at night, when the risk of drunk drivers is higher and there is not much traffic anyway). Eventually, in a far away future, when Americans become less car-dependent, running the BART over the bridge might be possible, perhaps a single track in the middle (I am not sure the structure of the bridge would be able to handle two trains at once anyway), and two lanes on either side. Anyway, just wondering. Thanks.
i believe the plan would have been to build a lower deck onto the golden gate bridge
@@nathankoon7749 That would make sense, thanks. I'm afraid, though that another deck would be using the spare strength that saved it during the 1989 earthquake. Perhaps a light rail, the lightest rail possible, would be better than a full train. Can you imagine something like the Wuppertal monorail hanging below the GGB? Great views! Not good in high winds, which means most of the time anyway.
BART on the GGB will never happen. The only logical way to connect Marin with BART would be a tube from San Rafael to Richmond. Alas, none of us will live to see that.
@@douglasschaden3475 I am pretty sure you are right on both accounts. I kept thinking about the issue and wonder, what about a tram or what Americans call 'light rail'' like the Almston Citadis? Connecting at Fisherman's Wharf with the tracks coming along The Embarcadero along the coast, entering the Presidio around the back of the Palace of Fine Arts, serving the new developments in the Presidio (new, at least for me, since I haven't been there for about 20 years) and entering the future lower deck of the GGB on the west, on the outside and below the last curve before the road aligns with the bridge, exiting and coming down to Sausalito on Alexander Ave, going along the Marina, then to Mill Valley the same way the railroad used to do ages ago. With stops at the Presidio (perhaps several), at the vista points at both ends, plus a couple both in Sausalito and Mill Valley, it would serve plenty of local traffic and tourists alike. Can you imagine the views while crossing the Bridge? (barf bags available upon request). Once past Sausalito it could take several routs, but that is beyond the point, perhaps it could end up in San Rafael at the same BART station of the line you suggest. Anyway, technically, the trams are much lighter and narrow than a BART train and if you provide enough stops in the middle, it might end up attracting more varied passengers than a BART which can't offer enough stops or frequencies. I can't imagine Marin residents have become any less nimby-ist that they were when I lived there but at least with a tram they wouldn't get massive and noisy infrastructure taking so much space in their neighborhood. Anyway, just dreaming.
@@danielbarreiro8228 the problem with the route that you're suggesting is that it would be a very low-speed affair, which isn't conducive to commuting. Also, the population centers that would be best served by a rail connection are San Rafael and points north. Further, southern Marin has excellent bus (I know it's not the same) connections with San Francisco. Not to mention the GGB is a masterpiece of art and engineering; mucking about with it in any way would be a crime against all that is beautiful.
RMT - bart is Unique as its not a Metro system or Streetcar/ LRT like many other systems.
it does not Directly interface w/ Street traffic like Muni Metro SF and LA Metro rail.
bart is a HEAVY rail system that is Underground or Aboveground on elevated tracks or same grade as traffic in a Protected track.
in the Transbay tunnel it can reach 80 mph or MORE.
in the 70 - 80's bart would sometimes run 99+ mph , but this was reduced in later years as the system got older.
Hii I really love your videos!
I just wandering if u can make videos about cities in Africa like Niamey Niger or Lagos. I know there is not any kind of transit system over there but can u make a video like How these cities will be able to develop their public transport and how they will be able to cope with urban sprawl?
Thank you!!
There are comparable systems in places such as Addis Ababa, Mauritius and several cities in South Africa. Also planned openings in cities such Lagos and Abidjan in the coming months and years. They should be covered and I'd like to see this channel do so
Speaking of the eBart train, it reminded me of how identical it looked from the metro trains used in the Dubai Metro fully automated system.
Oh. And can you do a video on Dubai Metro? The fully automated system is phenomenal.
Didn't know that the original iconic rolling stock of this system was made by Rohr. No surprise to me, there were very space-age-ish in their train stuff, with ROMAG maglev PRT and the TACV air cushion hovertrain, which both have a dire resemblance to the BART rolling stock. It also explain the airliner type comfort seating, Rohr was an aerospace conglomerate before anything.
If I'm not mistaken, the reason e-BART exists is for one obviouslty, cost, but also due to the fact that they've been trying to run it onto existing rail tracks, which would requires standard guage, and likely prevents the use of overhead wires due to the fun way american railroads operate.
This hasn't happened though, and looks like it may not happen for some time so it leaves e-bart as a bit of an oddity.
Why don’t they change the gauge, then.
@@KRYMauL Cost and infrastructure mainly.
Having a wider guage means non standard equipment, and the BART trains use a specific kind of signaling which is also more expensive where I expect e-bart uses more traditional systems.
Would still love to see that track work in Oakland/ second trans bay tube video
Thanks for taking about the Bart! 🎉 would love to see more
Back in the day, the Fremont (and lesser extent, the U City) BART Stations were my home stations. Back then Fremont was one of the terminus' and there was no Pleasanton or SFO Airport (circa 1990 to 1996).
The section of Interstate 280 it follows in SF is also on top of the original San Jose railway right-of-way, BART more or less follows that OG route up until Millbrae
I wish you would add links or name the titles of your older related videos that you casually mention at times because they are hard to find without knowing the name of the video or having a link to it. For instance you mention you did a video on the 1st generation Washington DC metro cars but I have no idea how to find it lol.
I was SURPRISED when I came to the SF Bay Area and saw
how MUCH LARGER and SPACIOUS the Subway trains are
compared to those in Los Angeles.
The Metro System trains (in LA) are INFERIORLY smaller than BART.
The aisles are narrow (you have to turn sideways if you're a little
too wide), and everyone is sitting much closer together. We're just
PACKED IN THERE!
I cannot even cross my legs while sitting in a front-facing seat.
The back of the head of the person sitting in front of me, is just
RIGHT THERE, no elbow room, no breathing room.
(Don't cough)
BART really is a step above the rest.
Thanks for sharing
I'd like to see more videos about BART!
I'd love if you had a look at the Adelaide O-Bahn and guided bus ways in general. Doesn't get enough attention.
I live in the area and I enjoy the eBart extension as I don't live far from this station.
6:36 - Where can I find this video on Cross River Rail in Brisbane? I tried searching for both 'Brisbane' and 'Cross River Rail' on your channel, but couldn't find any video like that.
Looking forward to when you do the MBTA!
I am too, but the MBTA won't be looking forward to this . . . On the one hand (sad to say), much of the Americas (not just US) are even worse than what the MBTA has; on the other hand, the MBTA always comes up with excuses why good things cannot be done, and now they have had to reduce Red, Orange, and Blue Line service to Saturday schedules by order of the NTSB due to having too many safety problems (including some that got people killed). As part of their coming up with excuses why things cannot be done, they only extended the Green Line to Union Square in Somerville and (opening in a few months) to Medford because they were legally obligated to, and they have fought tooth and nail against electrifying their Commuter Rail network even though the line to Providence is already electrified -- if they do electrify as their own Fiscal Control Board has recommended, it will be because they are dragged into it kicking and screaming. Meanwhile, their idea of electrifying their bus network is to GET RID OF their last electric trolleybuses(*) with the promise of hybrid and battery buses, even when they have not yet demonstrated ability to run battery buses on a large scale, and completely ignoring some spectacular fires that have happened on battery buses on other systems.
(*)Cambridge/Watertown/Belmont electric trolleybuses discontinued in Spring 2022, replaced by diesel buses; Silver Line Waterfront dual-mode buses in Boston running to Chelsea, South Boston, and Logan Airport being phased out in favor of diesel-hybrid buses.
I commuted to work on BART (Berkeley to SF) for 20 years. Now I work remotely, and even though there's a station within 10 minutes walking, I pay extra to take one of the two daily transbay AC Transit buses that stop a block away, on the rare occasion when I do go in.
I wanna see a video regarding why CalTrain and BART aren't combined, considering that if they were the same system there would be a complete circular rapid transit network around the bay.
Different track width, different electrification systems (Caltrain is building 25kV overhead electrification), Caltrain is privately owned while BART is publicly owned, etc.
Would love to see a video on the potential new transbay line!
BART! Good times. Its grown a lot even back in my day. I remember it used to END at my location, then they expanded it - riding on the new track FELT WEIRD - its like "I'm on air!" O__O; because well, it was new! Anyway - had a lot of rides on BART.
13:28 -- BART also connects to Amtrak at Oakland Coliseum and Richmond.
i love the BART system it has so much potential to expand after the San Jose north connection to Milbrae but also the North and onto a North East loop, that then will really become the true bay area network and would take all those damn cars off the roads. Bart ridership can and should be fully utilised with just some network upgrades, something exciting for the future of San Fransisco and Oakland
When will there be BART to Marin County?
6:05 as a Bay Area person, one huge issue with BART is that we don't call lines "the green line" or anything of the sort. The lines are named after their terminal stops, so to take the train out of San Francisco, you take the Richmond train (or whatever your destination is). This has lead to a lot of issues as the lines expand, what used to be the Warm Springs train is now the Berryessa train, etc. and is very confusing for old people, who can spend ages on the platform waiting for a train that no longer exists. With the new cars being rolled out, BART is trying to update wayfinding to reflect this, having the new 3-door trains announced as "Orange line train to Richmond", but so far it's a very slow adoption-the new cars are having a tumultuous rollout.
13:16 Two other benefits: the new cars have a digital map telling passengers which stations they're traveling between and what line they're on, as well as being SIGNIFICANTLY quieter in tunnels and the transbay tube. It's kind of important to note how fucking loud the tunnels are, and how much of an improvement this is.
15:43 I think you'll be excited to know that 7 story housing has been approved at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations-I certainly am! It's exceedingly difficult to get any housing built in Berkeley because the NIMBY spirit is very strong. North & Downtown Berkeley as well as El Cerrito Plaza BART stations all land closely to public schools, which is awesome.
They recently finished a redevelopment of the El Cerrito Del Norte station which looks pretty slick, and also reintroduced bathrooms to the system (other than the elevators, of course). One other thing not mentioned in this video is that BART has elevators in every station. Though they're often out of service, out of the way in stations, and pretty much always smell like piss, it's a small win for accessibility. Being able-bodied, I only really appreciated this in full once I had to drag a suitcase 3/4 the size of my body through the NY subway, which seems to have been built by engineers with staircase fetishes.
The biggest improvement I'd make to BART if I could wave a magic wand at it is to improve the frequency of trains. BART doesn't have the infrastructure to add express trains, but getting from the east bay into San Francisco on a Sunday shouldn't involve 30 minute train schedules and a mandatory transfer in the middle. 30 minute waits are *common*, not a "sometimes" situation.
I'm off at college now, so the transit situation is a weird mashup of school shuttles, public busses, and trains in and out of the nearest major city. I've never lived anywhere other than the Bay Area, so this video made me appreciate (and feel homesick for) some of the quirks of our strange trains. Thanks! :-)
Great video, I love SFs multi layered transit so fascinating. The only thing is the Richmond-SFO line runs to Millbrae and then the airport not vice versa
When are we gonna see a video on the MBTA
You neglected to mention one other train system that connects with BART. The Capital Corridor, operated by AMTRAK, offers commuter service between downtown San Jose and Sacramento, with transfers to BART at the Coliseum and Richmond stations.
I’m curious. Despite the low frequency on BART, how well do other transit modes make up for it? Like Caltrain and Muni?
I feel the connection to SFO was unfortunate as it puts a kink in the line to Millbrae and forever adds inconsistences to service further down the peninsula if it were to ever happen.
The BART station at SFO delivers you to the international terminal, but for any other terminal, passengers generally catch the AirTrain people mover system. As I understand it, the local consultants agree that the best way to do things would have been to keep the BART station along the rail line between San Bruno and Millbrae, and just extend AirTrain (which was designed in conjunction with and opened the same time as the BART extension) out to there instead. However, the pitch to voters was that the BART would go to SFO, so the final design ended up the way it is to keep to the letter of that promise.
I've been riding, designing, and building transit systems in the Bay Area, including BART, for close to 35 years. Here are some highlights about BART.
1. Based on evidence, one could conclude that BART was originally designed and built as a novelty space-age thing. (The 1st gen rolling stock resembled futuristic rides in Disneyland!) It was never intended as THE key commuter system in the Bay Area. This explains why there are built-in obstacle when it comes to upgrading the system. There is an urgent need to upgrade the system, as current ridership is exploding, and projected ridership will go nuclear. (Spending money to extend itself farther into the outskirts only invite more riders!)
2. The built-in obstacles are: (a) The length of the platform prevents BART from going beyond the current maximum of ten-car trains. (b) The height of the tunnels prevent BART from switching to double-decker trains. (c) The fact that all but one line merge into the Trans Bay Tube makes it nearly impossible to improve headways. (d) The existing right-of-way in certain corridors prevents BART from building parallel tracks as spur or for express service (e.g. separating SF workers living in Fremont, Dublin, Concord, Bay Pointe from SF workers living in Oakland by allowing them to bypass intermediate stations like Lake Merritt, Fruitvale, and Coliseum by using express service).
3. Before plans to extend into the South Bay, BART mainly served ONE center of work place during commute hours; namely, downtown San Francisco. In the morning hours, everyone is getting into SF. In the evening hours, everyone is getting out of SF. Building an extension into the South Bay does not solve the existing capacity problem into SF; it merely creates a second direction to have capacity problem. Looping the Bay wouldn't solve the existing capacity problem; building a second Trans Bay Tube would.
4. So BART management for the past ten years or so has been focusing on (a) improving headways by modernizing the train control system; (b) ensuring rolling stock is better maintained in order to always run ten-car trains by modernizing and expanding its maintenance facility in Hayward; (c) buying new rolling stock with more standing room, which translates to higher capacity.
It's a crappy little commuter rail system we have, but we love it all the same.
Make caltrain Bart. Put them under the same agency. Also build a dunbarton corridor Bart line with conventional rail like caltrain.
Yes on more videos about Bart!!
For years I've wondered why BART didn't expand north up to Santa Rosa. (I know: "It costs too much."). It would be great to run it across the Golden Gate Bridge, but a more doable option might be to run it north from Richmond over the bridge to San Rafael. Another route I'd like to see is something up to Napa and/or Sonoma, because that road (Route 37) can turn into a huge bottle neck. All it takes is money, right?
Because SMART exists and already covers that.
My understanding is that it was proposed and Marin shot it down, and I think it had something to do with not wanting tourists or something
@@Warriorcats64 True, but there's no connection between BART and SMART. And there's still no rail service (BART or SMART) to Sonoma or Napa. Also, according to SMART's website, they use Diesel engines (the latest low emission) rather than electric power, so you do get some emissions.
@@scottpage6674 In 1962, San Mateo County supervisors voted to leave BART, saying their voters would be paying taxes to carry mainly Santa Clara County residents . The district-wide tax base was weakened by San Mateo's departure, forcing Marin County to withdraw a month later. Despite the fact that Marin had originally voted in favor of BART participation at the 88% level, its marginal tax base could not adequately absorb its share of BART's projected cost. Another important factor in Marin's withdrawal was an engineering controversy over the feasibility of running trains on the lower deck of the Golden Gate Bridge.
@@RaymondHng and @Scott Page I though Marin County was forced out after San Mateo County voluntarily left. In either case, it was economics. Too bad, BART was have had a subway down part of Geary Street in San Francisco and then cross the Bay on a new second, lower deck to the Golden Gate Bridge. When they were planning the Pittsburg/Bay Point and Pleasanton extension in the mid 1990's, on the of the reasons a Marin County line over the Golden Gate was rejected was that the bridge was not structurally sound to bear the weight of the trains. I do not recall why they said all that had changed over the intervening thirty years. Aging infrastructure, or better technology/engineering knowledge?
What about Amtrak connections in the east bay? Used those a lot growing up as someone from the Sac valley
I'd love a video on the larger US light rail systems (Dallas, Houston, St Louis, etc)
My wish would be for them to extend the orange line north from Richmond to serve San Pablo, Pinole, Hercules, Rodeo and Crockett, to lighten the burden of the woefully insufficient WestCAT bus service. The yellow line also needs to be extended east to Oakley and Brentwood; there's a lot of people stranded out there, priced out of more nearby housing and poorly served by public transit.
Also it would be interesting if you could talk of a possible new proyect of a binational Monterrey/San Antonio and Train maya in the Yucatan peninsula
Question : Is BART's slogan, "Ay! Caramba!"
Always felt the face of the A and B series rolling stock resembled Blofeld's submersible from Diamonds Are Forever 😂
I really like the triangular head deisgn
Could you do a video on Rodalies in Barcelona, please?
As a native of the north bay (yes Sonoma County is apart of the Bay Area) the politics of SMART and the lost bart expansion is a really juicy story that lead to a mediocre train system in the north bay.
Why, oh why, is a jazz-fusion-y Happy Birthday running as background music for the last few minutes of the video?
A BART range metro-type thing for the GTHA (Or GGH?) would have been cool.
GO-ALRT would’ve been pretty much that.
8:00“this is the better route” RM tunnel says as he tunnels underneath the Runways, and no where near the terminals.
i would love to see a video about the planned transbay tube and ca hsr
I find it quite funny that after 15 years of proposing and building a BART extension to San Jose, they only reach Milpitas. Average infrastructure project in California
I think BART is ready to be upgraded into a completely automated transit Sky train of the BAY area. Several things to take place, a command center that monitors and operates the trains remotely using cameras and transmitters that communicate with computers to give instructions to each trains through transmitters positioned at the edge of the tracks and to install movable barriers to prevent people from falling into the tracks while they wait for oncoming trains. Take that a combination of technology used in Vancouver to make driverless trains a reality. JFK airport sky trains including one from Tokyo, Japan , it’s automated platform sky train and one from Seattle, Washington.
Thank you
More BART, NY/CT Metro-North, and DC Metro videos please!😅
I didn't see it in the comments when mentioning connections to BART you didn't mention AMTRAK which shares the Richmond station with BART. I use that connection regularly.
Yes, there is. And you may also transfer with a short walk at the Oakland Coliseum Station, and in the future at San Jose Diridon.
So funny to me, I’ve lived in the bay for some time now, bart is pretty awesome. But ppl have complaints. I kinda think it’s just something u gotta deal with so doesn’t bother me to bad. Whether it’s issues with the homeless, timings of the trains sucks compared to most other metro or subways in big cities, for good measure the essential bart experience is someone smoking a wood or crack. So have fun on bart.
Bart is more like ICE trains in Germany connecting suburban cities to major ones like San Jose and San Francisco. It’s very unique and cool.
15:04 happy birthday
can u make on about the Muni?
BART has two major flaws: 1. Gauge. 5ft 6in. Prevents BART buying "standard passenger railcars.". so everything purchased is bespoke. 2. Single TransBay Tunnel is a limiting factor in the capacity of the whole system. BART needs a second TransBay tunnel via Alameda Island to provide a more resilient service. Allowing either tunnel to be closed for overnight maintenance.. Every year that this project is delayed adds billions to the ultimate cost.
Normally, I would agree with the flaws you mentioned, especially a need for a second "BART TransBay tunnel." But because the system survived a major (a potentially catastrophic) earthquake in 1989, (sounds recently, but was really 33 years ago!) BART has a resiliency that is unmatched in few cities around the world.
I think the reasoning for not using standard gauge probably has to do with residents not wanting freight trains going through the tracks(apparently why many streetcar systems have odd gaudes) .
Torontonian and current Bay Area resident. The bay could do so much good if they looked north the transit projects in Toronto would fit so well In SF.
Take Bart from Daly city to Embarcadero. Nearly burst your ear drums when the train wheels screech on the tracks for 5 minutes at 110 decibels.
I rode BART when it was new. It has changed much since, but there are some problems that go back to the original design. I'd be happy to share my observations over 50 years - not enough space here!
That would be lovely! I’ll leave my comment here for when you post more.
In the 90s and early 2000s you could print a pass that would give you discounted tickets for the local transit (at least for SF MUNI and Samtrans). Was sad when they discontinued that.
Space age!!! This person that did this article lives in a cocoon! I can bet this guy haven’t been out of this country.
Bart also connects to Capital Corridor at Richmond Station
you forgot the Amtrak connection at Richmond station