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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.