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Find BART’s earthquake safety tips here. 

When a big earthquake strikes the Bay Area, BART is ready with a series of stringent protocols and a specially trained team that's prepared to dispatch the moment after a quake hits to assess the system and ensure it’s safe to run. 

BART is an industry leader when it comes to preparing and mitigating the impacts of major earthquakes. BART was an early adopter of the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System that gives us an alert before ground shaking happens. Read more about the system here.  

BART also recently completed its Earthquake Safety Program (ESP). The ESP was instigated in the early 2000s and included a major retrofit of the Transbay Tube, which some engineers consider one of the safest places to be during a big earthquake.  

Though the project is complete, BART engineers never let their guards down when it comes to earthquakes, and the recent Great ShakeOut earthquake drill is an example of the lengths BART takes to be prepared. BART knows its importance in the wake of major earthquakes. After the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake, when the Bay Bridge collapsed and BART was up and running within hours, the region witnessed how BART is as a transportation lifeline for the SF Bay Area during major disasters. 

“Re-establishing train services quickly after a major earthquake is essential for regional emergency response and economic recovery. One key element of making this happen is prompt assessment and reporting of structure conditions throughout the system,” said Phoebe Cheng, Engineering Group Manager. 

BART Principal Structural Engineer Alvin Tsui leads the Earthquake Response Team (ERT) with support from Engineer Recy Calma. Their goal is to train employees and continuously improve BART’s post-earthquake inspection procedures.  

The ERT consists of around sixty engineers and thirty maintenance employees that fan out across the system in the advent of a major earthquake, defined as an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 or greater with an epicenter within 50 miles of the BART system. Since its inception, the ERT has never been activated for a real event, but they train throughout the year to prepare for the real possibility of a massive earthquake rattling the Bay Area.  

The Great ShakeOut is the ERT’s big show. Once the international earthquake drill commences at 10:16am, BART staff hit the ground running. The first step is triggering the ShakeAlert early warning earthquake system, which signals trains to automatically slow to 27mph before briefly stopping. During the drill, BART also tests its internal communications systems while the Operations Control Center ensures the train control systems are working properly.  

Meanwhile, ERT members travel to all 50 stations to conduct structural assessments, simulating damage inspections that would occur during a real earthquake. They inspect walkways, support structures, elevators, escalators – anything that could sustain damage in a powerful earthquake.  

The Great ShakeOut simulation is designed to exercise “muscle memory” for BART’s earthquake response as well as identifying areas for improvement.  

Safety is BART’s mission above all, and the practiced ERT is crucial for getting service up and running quickly. 

The team focuses their observations on stations and aerial structures. They’re looking for physical damage – cracks, leaning, displacement, unevenness, and foundation damage – as well as issues like station power outages, falling signage, and water intrusion.  

Members of the ERT can be activated at any time, and staff volunteer to join the team. Every ERT member is issued two big backpacks full of supplies they might need, from batteries and measuring tools to safety vests and protein bars. One backpack stays at their house: the other in their office. See what’s in their bags in the video.  

It’s honorable to be a member of the ERT, who have signed themselves up to prioritize the safety of their community during a major disaster. Calma wanted to be a part of the ERT after witnessing big earthquakes while living in the Philippines.  

“I was hesitant to join at first – it's a lot of responsibility,” she said. “But as an engineer, your goal is to serve the public.” 

Added Tsui: “As an employee at a public agency, we are the heart of regional emergency response. As members of the ERT, we want to serve the community and help keep them safe during emergencies.” 

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.

A Bigge crane brought in for the transformer project is pictured besides the BART tracks.

Read more stories about BART infrastructure and big building projects at bart.gov/railtales. 

A newly energized transformer near the core of the BART system is expected to improve the customer experience by increasing power redundancy and resiliency. This translates to increased reliability in the key passage that connects the East Bay to San Francisco. 

The transformer was installed on a whirlwind six-month schedule to ensure the area, so crucial to BART’s busy Oakland Wye in the center of the system, had sufficient backup power in case one of the other nearby substations must be taken down for maintenance. The Oakland Wye refers to a triangular junction where BART trains can switch between multiple lines.  

“All five lines run through the Oakland Wye; a train is going through it every two to three minutes during peak commute, so it's important to have massive redundancy here to mitigate delays and keep trains running,” said Gordon Wong, Principal Electrical Engineer who wore many hats for this project. 

A Bigge crane removes the original transformer on May 17, 2025.

The nearby substations operate at the same time, their transformers and rectifiers fulfilling their job of converting 34.5kv voltage fed via sub-transmission cables from the power grid into the 1,000 DC voltage train motors require to run. 

The old transformer, located between Fruitvale and Lake Merritt stations, needed to be replaced after reaching the end of its life after 20 years of service. BART Traction Power engineers made the decision to replace it after regular maintenance testing alerted staff that the equipment was at risk of failing.  

“Myat deemed this year the ‘Year of the Substation,’” said Asst. Chief Infrastructure Delivery Officer Manal Bishr of her colleague Myat San, BART Chief Infrastructure Delivery Office. “We gave him a little bit of a hard time about that, but it’s really motivated the team. This is huge for providing power to the core of our system!" 

Left to right: BART Traction Power Electricians Javier Morales and Robert Flores install high-voltage wiring on May 28, 2025.

By removing a transformer near Dublin/Pleasanton and reinstalling it at this Oakland location, BART saved a significant amount of money and honored the agency’s sustainability values. Only one line runs from Dublin/Pleasanton to Bay Fair, and trains have lower frequencies. This means the area requires less power to operate. 

“We saved at least $500,000 and three years of work by using a pre-existing transformer,” Wong said of the project, which was funded by voter-approved Measure RR. “This project cost half the price of furnishing a new transformer."

Moving a transformer is no simple task, and multiple departments supported the work, including Traction Power Engineering and Maintenance, Structural Engineering and Maintenance, Integration Engineering, Operations Liaisons, and System Access. In addition to Bishr, San, and Wong, the project was led by BART’s Zeeshan Ali, Adam Flynn, Michael Gibson, Andrew Holcomb, Ravi Raj, Andrew Shuck, Thaw Tin, Juan Ulloa, and Damon Williams.  

BART Traction Power Electrician Javier Morales works on high-voltage wiring for the transformer installation on May 28, 2025. 

Transformers are giant pieces of equipment, weighing about 30,000 pounds – about half the weight of one BART car. What goes on inside a transformer? Simply, power comes in from one end, and windings step down the voltage to convert it to the correct voltages. Three megawatts is the full-rated capacity of the transformer in question.  

The most cinematic moment of the process was using a crane to lift the transformer lay it on its concrete foundation. Bringing in a giant crane required months of legwork. A significant amount of vegetation needed clearing, then BART needed to secure permits with the Union Pacific Railroad, with which BART has an easement. 

Left to right: BART Senior Electrical Engineer Henry Nguyen and Junior Engineer Artem Morozov  work on the installation of the transformer on May 28, 2025.

It was a celebratory day when the crane made its triumphant appearance at the work site. After a semi-truck dropped off the crane and its counterweights, the rigging crew had to assemble it – it takes three hours! -- and used a giant forklift to roll it into place. Then the team had to wait for “the blanket,” A.K.A. the small window at night when trains aren’t running for passenger service. When at last the time came for the crane to lift and place the transformer, the team exhaled. In all, the lift took about thirty minutes. Planning out the moment, however, required months of labor.  

After connecting the primary 34.5kV cables, the Traction Power team energized the transformer and listened to the sweet sound of its internal winding heating up as energy surged through and trains zoomed past.  

Contractors on the transformer project included C3M, Clark, Cupertino, Azul, Biggie Crane, Rigging Rail Pros Flagging, CEL Soil Sampling, and Novoa testing.