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In July, BART released the Role in the Region Report, a comprehensive study of BART's impact on the Bay Area illustrated by new analyses, data visualizations, and powerful personal narratives. Over the coming weeks, we'll be sharing some of the key insights from the report in a series of Role in the Region articles here on bart.gov. Read the first article here. We encourage you to read the full report - click here - and visit the project webpage at bart.gov/roleintheregion. 

Today's post examines BART's impact on the regional economy. See the full report for methodology.

Fueled by unparalleled venture capital funding, a resilient technology sector, and a growing cluster of artificial intelligence (AI) companies, the Bay Area economy remains hot. BART provides access to a region at the leading edge of technological innovation and economic investment. Since 2021, the Bay Area has regularly attracted at least 50 percent of the total venture capital investment in innovative sectors such as information technology. 

San Francisco and the Peninsula

San Francisco continues to be a haven for innovative technology-focused businesses, and many firms cluster in BART-adjacent neighborhoods like South of Market and Hayes Valley.

Proximity to BART is a must-have for San Francisco’s downtown office market. Historically, office buildings near BART have outperformed non-BART accessible buildings based on market rents. Downtown San Francisco also has multiple “trophy” office buildings, which are commanding Downtown San Francisco’s highest rents and have the lowest vacancy rates. These buildings are all within a 15-minute walk of a BART station.

Top 15 San Francisco Office Buildings by Monthly Rent

Along the Peninsula, mutual growth in development and BART ridership is expected. At Millbrae Station, the newly opened Gateway Transit Oriented Development has over 157,000 square feet of office space, ground floor retail, a 164-room hotel, and 400 residential units. At San Bruno Station, the Southline project is slated for occupancy by the end of 2024 and is made up of 2.8 million square feet of office and research and development space. The existing Tanforan Mall is also in the process of planning to transform into a transit-oriented mixed-use village with 2 million square feet of life science, 1,014 housing units, and 86,000 square feet of retail space.

The East Bay

The East Bay’s economy continues to uniquely leverage BART. Employment centers in the East Bay, which has the highest concentration of BART stations in the system, represent tremendous regional growth potential.

Emerging industries are choosing to locate in BART-served parts of the East Bay. These emerging industries include creative technology and design— like software publishing, data processing, and advanced manufacturing. In addition, there are emerging industry-specific job hubs for manufacturing in Fremont and wholesale trade in Union City. While most AI investment has gone to companies in San Francisco or the Peninsula, the East Bay has its own innovation industries, including biomedical device manufacturing, computer technology, food innovation, and clean tech. These industries and others have driven demand for almost one million square feet of R&D and manufacturing space in the last ten years and attracted $5.5 billion in venture capital in 2021.

East Bay Office Space Rent per Square Foot

Many East Bay cities are responding to changing economic trends by adding jobs and housing. East Bay cities are leveraging access to BART to help shift market momentum towards their downtowns and prime infill locations. Demand and rents for East Bay commercial and industrial space remain high. Figure 2.9 shows that BART-served cities like Fremont and Walnut Creek continue to see increased rent for office space, and East Bay office rents have increased 59 percent overall since 2013. The East Bay industrial market continues to see high demand for warehouse and manufacturing space, with 11 consecutive quarters of net positive square footage leased as of 2023’s first quarter, with brokers and developers reporting an increased interest in transit accessibility for industrial tenants.

What BART Riders Say

When starting his own business, Raja Singh (pictured below with his son, Tyler) realized that transit would serve his employees’ well-being and morale. It also, as an added bonus, would serve his own interests and priorities as the head honcho. 

"People perceive going into the office as somewhat of a burden, and I thought it was important to make it as easy as possible for folks,” he said. “It’s more relaxing to get on BART and zone out or work than it is to navigate a tunnel and bridge then find parking downtown.” Raja would know – he's been commuting by BART for well over a decade. 

Raja also cited the recruitment benefits of headquartering his company by transit. They can enter the office, at 44 Montgomery Street, directly from the station, without having to step foot outside. Raja said nine of his employees live in the Bay Area and all of them commute by transit – seven take BART and two travel by Muni from their homes in the city. 

“Because we’re located at a transit hub, we can recruit from the East Bay, the South Bay, the Peninsula, and the city all at once, and it’s equally easy to get there,” he said “There's nowhere else in the Bay where you can say that. It gives you the broadest recruiting reach.” 

Read more about Raja here. 

BART’s transformative Next Generation Fare Gates Project is being recognized by two prestigious national organizations. The American Public Works Association named the fare gates as its winner of the 2026 Public Works Project Award and the International Partnering Institute announced the gates as its 2026 Collaborative Project of the Year.  In August 2025, BART completed the replacement of 715 gates in all 50 stations across a system that spans five counties. The project was completed four months ahead of schedule.

“No other transit agency in the world has fare gates quite like these,” said BART Assistant General Manager for Infrastructure Delivery and head of the fare gates project Sylvia Lamb. “This project is a true example of a BART-wide effort with every department contributing to the successful installation of new fare gates at every station.”

There are several examples of how Next Generation Fare Gates have transformed the rider experience:

*The number of riders who tell BART they’ve witnessed fare evasion has dropped more than 50% compared with before the start of installation.

*New gates and BART Police Department’s increased visible presence are critical parts of a comprehensive approach to rider safety that has resulted in a 41% drop in BART’s overall crime rate. 

*Hours spent on corrective maintenance inside BART stations for vandalism, graffiti, and broken items decreased 961 hours in the first six months after all stations had new gates.

*Early indications are the gates are responsible for BART fare revenue growing by about $10 million annually through reduced fare evasion.

The gates feature a unique door locking mechanism that makes their swing barriers very hard to push through, jump over, or maneuver under. The overall fare gate array height (gate, console, integrated barrier) forms a barrier of 72 inches minimum to deter fare evasion. 

Learn more about BART’s Next Generation Fare Gates Project here.

BART General Manager Bob Powers has announced the hiring of Kevin Franklin as Chief of Police and tasked him with marshaling every available resource to bolster the BART Police Department’s visible safety presence in the system and maximizing recruiting efforts to fill vacant officer positions. The selection of Chief Franklin is the result of a thorough, nationwide search process involving a collaboration between BART, the Police Citizen Review Board, and BART’s Independent Police Auditor.  Watch the Chief's introductory news conference.

Franklin was appointed interim BPD Chief in May and quickly established his commitment to ensuring BART is the safest way to travel around the Bay Area. 

“Chief Franklin is a life-long BART rider with an intimate knowledge of the system and its police department,” said General Manager Bob Powers. “Kevin was instrumental in BPD’s new deployment strategy that has significantly increased the presence of uniformed police personnel on trains and in stations. He is not only detail-oriented, but a creative thinker with a deep commitment to our community. I am confident his leadership will help BART continue to improve the safety of our riders.”

Recent BPD accomplishments for rider safety spearheaded by Franklin include:

• 349 felony arrests through July, the highest year-to-date total since the pandemic.
• Average response times to Priority 1 calls at approximately 4 minutes, among the fastest in the Bay Area.
• Working with the BART Board to ensure BPD is offering competitive salaries to attract qualified officer candidates.
• Earned advanced certification from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), ensuring BPD is meeting and exceeding the industry’s highest standards.

Chief Franklin will join General Manager Powers during an upcoming Safe and Clean Plan Listening Tour at BART stations to meet with riders and get feedback about BART’s efforts to regain ridership and provide the best service yet. 

“A clean, safe, rider-focused BART is critical to the Bay Area economy and to the hundreds of thousands in our community who rely on our service every day,” said Franklin. “Ensuring all our riders feel secure will be my first and last priority as Chief. I’m proud of the community-oriented policing strategies we are deploying, and I know we can do even better. The crises of addiction and mental health are bigger than any single agency, but BART PD is already implementing innovative alternative strategies to address these tremendous challenges. I’m going to keep rolling up my sleeves to make sure we are leading the way forward in support of a healthier, safer Bay Area.”

Chief Franklin is a 27-year veteran of the BPD, an Oakland native, and an East Bay resident. He began his law enforcement career at the Oakland Police Department where he served as a Police Cadet and Police Officer before transferring to the BART Police Department in 1996.

Chief Franklin’s BPD career includes serving as interim Chief since May, Deputy Chief of both the Operations and Support Services bureaus, leading BPD’s Internal Affairs division, serving as Manager of Security Programs as well as extensive patrol experience as he worked his way up the chain of command after starting as a Police Officer.

A University of California, Berkeley graduate, Chief Franklin also holds a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice from California Coast University and has graduated from the FBI National Academy and the Police Executive Research Forum Senior Management Institute for Police. 

Chief Franklin has had a connection to BART from its very first day of service. As a three-year-old toddler, he and his family attended the opening day of the regional transit system on Sept. 11, 1972, taking the train from Lake Merritt Station to Fremont Station and back.

(November 3, 3:20pm update)

BART Police have arrested the suspect wanted in connection with a stabbing that occurred Saturday morning aboard an Antioch-bound train as it approached 24th Street/Mission Station. 34-year-old Jovany Portades was spotted by an alert Station Agent at Fruitvale Station Sunday at around 2pm. The Station Agent contacted BART Police who arrested the suspect without incident.

(November 3, 11am update)

BART Police investigators have identified the suspect wanted in connection with a stabbing that occured aboard an Antioch-bound train Saturday morning as it approached 24th Street/Mission Station. The suspect is 34-year-old Jovany Portades. One of BART's more than 4,000 surveillance cameras caught an initial iamge of suspect, which helped investigators to identify Portades. 

Anyone with information can call the BART Police Investigations anonymous tip line at (510) 464-7011. For urgent matters, call (510) 464-7000 or 9-1-1. Portades should be considered dangerous and members of the public should not approach him.

BART Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a suspect in an assault on a train this morning.

The suspect is described as a possible Asian male, standing 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 160 pounds, with black braided hair wrapped in a knot on top of his head, a mustache, wearing a plain black jacket with orange liner, a black shirt with a large white logo, gray and black cargo style pants, brown and black boots, and carrying a black duffle bag. Investigators have released photos captured by one of BART’s more than 4,000 surveillance cameras.

The man is suspected of stabbing a 54-year-old woman in an unprovoked attack at about 8:10 a.m. aboard an Antioch-bound train as it approached 24th St./Mission Station.

The victim offboarded the train at 24th St./Mission Station and was assisted by a Station Agent until BART Police Officers arrived on the scene. The victim was transported to the hospital with serious injuries.

BART closed the 24th St/Mission Station from about 8:40 to 9:25 am to collect evidence.

Anyone with information can call the BART Police Investigations anonymous tip line at (510) 464-7011. For urgent matters, call (510) 464-7000 or 9-1-1. 

BART’s new safety initiatives appear to be having an impact on improving the rider experience through a sharp reduction in the number of incidents delaying train service. From May through October the number of trains negatively impacted by BART PD incidents has fallen by nearly 40%. The dramatic drop comes as BPD has boosted train patrols, the BART schedule was changed to emphasize shorter trains to boost safety, and other initiatives outlined in the Safe and Clean Plan have been implemented.

Here are the latest numbers:

*The number of BPD incidents causing delays fell from 374 in May to 295 in October.
*The number of trains impacted by BPD incidents declined from 1,144 in May to 694 in October.
*Total train minutes lost due to BPD incidents dropped from 9,878 in May to 6,380 in October.

“These numbers paint a picture of how our commitment to rider safety is paying off,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “Fewer delays due to BPD incidents not only shows safety is improving but it helps our on-time performance. This is a win-win for riders as we deliver on our commitment to ensure BART is the safest way to travel around the Bay.”

BPD doubled the number of officers on trains in March as part of BART’s Safe and Clean Plan. BART PD is using both traditional sworn officers as well as unarmed Crisis Intervention Specialists and Transit Ambassadors to boost its visible safety presence in the system. Trains were made even safer in September when BART’s reimagined schedule was launched. The new schedule allowed BART to eliminate near-empty train cars by shortening the least-crowded trains.

“The sharp decline in the number of trains being delayed due to BPD incidents is an important indicator that our new safety initiatives are making a difference, “said BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin. “We are aggressively moving forward with our officer recruitment campaign and hope to boost our visible presence even more as we work hard to hire more cops.”

Safety on BART will get another boost in December when the first new fare gate prototypes will be installed at West Oakland Station. These new gates will be taller and stronger than the ones that have been in place for decades. They will deter fare evasion while also improving overall access by relying on high-tech sensors to provide safe access for riders in wheelchairs as well as those who are using strollers or luggage.