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Just in time for National Reading Month, BART is thrilled to announce the One Book One BART Spring 2025 book club, this time with a natural history-themed group read and three events for nature lovers of all ages and interests (scroll down to “Events” for more info).  

BART's book club is novel strategy for rider and employee engagement that invites members of the public to read the same book at the same time and participate in themed events in BART trains and stations.  

As BART faces a significant financial crisis, we are experimenting with new and creative ways to engage community members and get people riding – and excited about – BART. One Book One BART encourages people to get on BART and experience the region’s abundance of transit-accessible adventures, all while celebrating the long tradition of reading books onboard. 

"The BART book club's natural history theme is an inspiration to get out and explore the remarkable place in which we live," said BART Board President Mark Foley. “BART can transport you to so many green spaces, from the urban wilds of Lake Merritt to the mudflats of Point Isabel, and it takes you there in earth-friendly style.” 

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This year’s official One Book One BART selection is Bay Area Wildlife: An Irreverent Guide by local conservationist Jeff Miller, with illustrations by Oakland-based artist/author/conservationist Obi Kaufmann. Bay Area Wildlife, which is published by Berkeley-based nonprofit Heyday Books, takes an educational and highly entertaining approach to the region’s local fauna, “revealing why each of these creatures matters, as well as the threats that loom over our region’s incredible biodiversity.”

"How cool that Bay Area Wildlife is the selection for this year’s BART book club, connecting Bay Area residents with our open spaces and wildlife neighbors," said author Jeff Miller. "When you get outdoors to explore, definitely ditch the car and use public transit for your Bay Area wildlife expeditions. Our car-centric culture results in a disturbing toll of road-killed animals, fragmentation of wildlife habitat, and spewed emissions that are altering the climate to the point of impending species extinctions. How we move through the world also affects us and how we perceive our surroundings. Riding BART is a great way to do yourself and the planet a favor while connecting with our amazing bioregion."  

Added Gayle Wattawa, general manager and editorial director at Heyday Books: “Heyday is thrilled to partner with BART on this innovative book club. One of the many reasons we take BART is that we get to read on board! And we get to feel good about the environmental impact. So why not pick up this funny Bay Area nature guide published by a local nonprofit publisher at a BARTable independent bookstore (yay, you!), admire Obi Kaufmann's beautiful artwork, read it—and laugh out loud—onboard, and exit the station more deeply attuned to our beautiful natural setting? All the wins.”  

Bay Area Wildlife will serve as a jumping off point for a series of free outdoor excursions by BART stations and on trains – just pay your fare! The events are intended to encourage the public to take BART to explore and witness the Bay Area’s wealth of natural phenomena. Public transportation is one of the greenest ways to get around, and the many at-risk wildlife populations who call the Bay Area home are yet another reason to prioritize sustainability when you travel. Focusing on nature is also a key theme of Earth Week, which is celebrated globally during the week leading up to April 22. BART is committed to raising awareness about environmental issues and ways that BART riders can do their part to protect our planet.

“This year’s One Book One BART book club emphasizes that our transit network connects us to places and people, flora and fauna,” said BART Communications’ Michelle Robertson, Principal Marketing Rep., who created One Book One BART. “BART provides access to so much more than urban centers – did you know there are 900 parks located within a mile of our stations? It’s true! So pick up a copy of Bay Area Wildlife, hop onboard a train, and explore the majestic natural world that surrounds us – that includes gazing out of the big windows onboard our trains. You never know what natural wonders you’ll discover!” 

Bay Area Wildlife illustrator Obi Kaufmann also created three original paintings that feature wildlife found by BART. The works will soon be displayed in ad spaces across the BART system. 

Get going on your next outdoor adventure, by visiting bartable.bart.gov/outdoors to discover a wealth of hikes, bike rides, and outdoor itineraries by BART stations. And check out the many libraries accessible by BART.  

One Book One BART homepage: bart.gov/bookclub

Download the One Book One BART flyer to print and post here [pdf]

A photo from One Book One BART’s 2022 ”train read-in,” a book club on a moving, in-service train.

One Book One BART Events

All events are free to attend. Just pay your BART fare!

Guided Nature Walk with Author Jeff Miller and Pals 

When: Saturday, April 19 

• The first walk will leave the station at 9am. The walk from 19th to Lakeside Park will take approx. 45 - 60 minutes. RSVP for the first walk (9am) on Eventbrite here 

• The second walk will leave the station at 11am. The walk from 19th St. to Lakeside Park will take approx. 45 - 60 minutes. RSVP for the second walk (11am) on Eventbrite here  

Where: 19th St/Oakland Station to the Rotary Nature Center 

Itinerary subject to change. 

Meet Bay Area Wildlife author Jeff Miller as he and some conservationist colleagues and local naturalists take us on a ~1.4-mile guided nature walk of Lake Merritt that will begin at 19th St. Station in Downtown Oakland.  

Expect to see lots of water birds and an assortment of herons and egrets, maybe even some fish! The walk will end in the grassy area adjacent to the Rotary Nature Center on the lake, where participants will have the opportunity to rendezvous with and learn from local environmental organizations.

Wear comfy walking shoes, fill up your water bottle, and bring whatever else you may need for the walk. And don’t forget your copy of Bay Area Wildlife – Jeff will be signing books.  

Bike Ride and Birdwatching 

When: Saturday, April 26

• Early short ride - Departs North Berkeley Station at 7:45am. The ride is approx. 8 miles roundtrip and will end at North Berkeley Station at approx. 9:45am. RSVP for the 7:45am short ride on Eventbrite.
• Long late ride - Departs North Berkeley Station at 10am. The ride is approx. 15 miles roundtrip and will end back at North Berkeley at approx. 1pm. RSVP for the 10am long ride on Eventbrite

Where: North Berkeley Station 

Itinerary subject to change. 

Heath Maddox, BART Manager of Bicycle and Micromobility Access Programs, and local birdwatchers will host two bike rides -- a shorter one for early birds and a later one for those looking for a long ride -- with birdwatching stops along the way. The ride will start and end at North Berkeley Station.

In addition to the expertise of local birdwatchers, we’ll have a digital guide featuring info on birds we might spot on the ride. Find the short 7:45am route here and the long 10am route here.

Bring your bike, helmet, and binoculars – we’ll have extras on hand to lend. You should also bring anything you need to be self-sufficient and keep your bike rolling (spare tube, patch kit, pump, etc.). If you do not have a bike, you can rent one from the Bay Wheels hub at North Berkeley Station.

BART Train Expedition with Obi Kaufmann 

When: Saturday, May 3, noon to approx. 1pm 

Where: Pleasant Hill/City Centre Station to 12th St/Oakland Station 

RSVP on Eventbrite

"Bay Area Wildlife" illustrator and acclaimed poet-naturalist Obi Kaufmann takes the public on a first-of-its-kind BART Train Expedition! The free, family-friendly ride on an in-service passenger train will take us on a journey through the East Bay’s mosaicked, ecological landscape – all through the windows of a Yellow Line train. During the ride, Kaufmann will transport us through “deep time” as he tells stories about the area’s ecosystems, water, fire, infrastructure, volcanic history, trees, and more.  

At the end of the approx. 30-minute ride, we’ll disembark at 12th St./Oakland Station and walk with Obi to Frank Ogawa Plaza, where we’ll pay homage to the Town’s most famous oak tree.  

A photo from BART HQ Book Day 2023, a celebration of books and community held for employees at BART HQ.  

Where to find the book

Bay Area Wildlife is available for purchase at many local bookstores, including our One Book One BART independent bookstore partners, who are offering 20% off the title when customers show their Clipper cards. All of our partners are within a mile of a BART station: 

Banter Bookshop - Fremont Station  

Bird and Beckett – Glen Park Station 

Books on B - Hayward Station 

Mrs. Dalloway’s - Rockridge Station  

Orinda Books - Orinda Station  

Spectator Books - MacArthur Station  

Tally Ho! Books – MacArthur Station 

You can also check the title out from local libraries – find BARTable’s roundup of libraries accessible by BART here – and on the digital app Hoopla.    

Win a copy of Bay Area Wildlife + BART swag 

BARTable will be running a sweepstakes for free copies of "Bay Area Wildlife" and other One Book One BART prizes on the BARTable Contests and Deals page. The sweepstakes will run from March 24 to March 30.  

We'll also be running social media contests on BARTable’s Instagram.   

Keep up with One Book One BART contest announcements by signing up for the book club mailing list (see instructions at the top of this page) and the BARTable This Week newsletter. 

About Jeff Miller 

Jeff Miller is an amateur naturalist, professional conservationist, and passionate advocate for wildlife. Jeff is the founder of the nonprofit Alameda Creek Alliance and has served as its executive director since 1997, working to restore steelhead trout and salmon to Alameda Creek and protect the Bay Area’s largest local watershed. He’s a senior conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, spearheading biodiversity protection campaigns throughout the Bay Area and California, preparing endangered species listing petitions, writing press releases, and doing public outreach and organizing around wildlife protection issues. Over the last quarter century, he has been involved in conservation efforts for dozens of the most iconic imperiled wildlife species in the Bay Area, the most recent being securing state protections for burrowing owls. Jeff says that loving nature is as important as fighting for it and grieving ecological destruction. People tend to care more about animals and places that they have a direct experience with, so he wrote Bay Area Wildlife: An Irreverent Guide to try to connect readers with our regional fauna and inspire them to make a pilgrimage to witness the Bay Area’s spectacular natural phenomena. 

As we wrap up 2023, BART will be running Sunday service on Christmas Day, Monday, December 25, and 2024 New Year's Day, Monday, January 1.

BART service will be the following for the last week of 2023:

Christmas Eve, Sunday, December 24: standard Sunday service (8am-midnight)

Christmas Day, Monday, December 25: Sunday service (8am-midnight) to observe the holiday

New Year's Eve, Sunday, December 31: standard Sunday service (8am-midnight). BART will be providing 1am Extended Service for late night riders coming back from the New Year's Fireworks show in San Francisco or other celebrations. 

New Year's Day, Monday, January 1: Sunday service (8am-midnight) to observe the holiday

Parking

Parking is always free after 3pm and on weekends. Parking will also be free on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. This applies to all BART stations except for Milpitas and Berryessa/North San Jose, as they are operated by VTA.

All other parking rules will be enforced.

For those travelling during the holidays and taking BART to the airport, you can purchase multi-day parking in advance through the BART official app. Check out our guide on how to pay for multi-day parking for airport riders.

Download the BART app to pay for parking and trip planning:

Apple App Store 

Google Play Store 

Join the fun! Click here to download BART-themed holiday cookie templates!

Holiday coloring sheets:

BART Kwanzaa.pdf

BART Pandoru.pdf

BART Hanukkah.pdf

BART Christmas.pdf 

The U.S. Department of Transportation is providing BART $14.1 million to install Level 2 EV charging ports at all BART-managed parking facilities. These charging stations will be available for BART riders as well as community members who live nearby stations and have been hesitant to buy an electric vehicle because of a lack of convenient charging options.

“BART already strongly encourages riders to walk, bike or take other public transit to our stations,” said BART Sustainability Group Manager Monica Meagher. “This grant will allow us to jumpstart our efforts to expand the availability of EV chargers at all of our stations, which will provide our riders another environmentally friendly way to get to BART.”

BART is issuing a request for proposals to find a third-party partner to design, install, own, and operate the chargers. Construction is expected to begin in late 2025.

BART plans to prioritize EV deployment at stations in or near disadvantaged communities. Expanding EV charging at BART will support robust electric vehicle adoption across a wide range of socioeconomic groups. Providing EV charging at stations is consistent with BART’s sustainability goals and commitment to improving the Bay Area environment. Every weekday, BART riders save nearly 31,000 gallons of gas and directly reduce CO2e emissions by more than 600,000 pounds.

The award to BART is part of nearly $150 million the U.S. Department of Transportation is providing to five California projects to build zero-emission vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure. The funding comes through the Federal Highway Administration’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program.

Photos of the completed substation at Civic Center Station.

To read more stories about BART infrastructure, visit bart.gov/railtales.

For the first time since the original BART system was built in the 1960s, BART has completed construction on a brand-new substation facility in the system’s core that is already providing benefits to riders.  

Energized in late April, the state-of-the-art traction power substation at Civic Center Station increases the energy available to power BART trains in San Francisco by nearly 18%. (Note: 86% of BART’s contracted energy as of 2024 is greenhouse gas-free.) 

“We haven’t done anything like this in the fifty-plus years since BART was constructed,” said Myat San, Chief Infrastructure Delivery Officer, who has been involved in the yearslong project from start to finish. “We’ve replaced substations but never built a facility at an already-constructed station. This is a great feat.” 

The energization of the substation provides immediate, tangible benefits to BART riders in the substation’s operating area of Downtown San Francisco, the busiest section of the BART system. 

“The substation increases reliability, redundancy, and operational flexibility, which are important for a system as large and complex as BART,” said Javed Khan, Group Manager, Capital Projects. “It also has modern features, including advanced monitoring and diagnostic capabilities.” 

This means improved substation performance. If a problem does arise, BART and the Operations Control Center can quickly identify and pinpoint it and dispatch technicians to repair and restore the substation. BART can also source power from the new substation to keep trains running and mitigate system impacts, such as service delays. 

“BART’s improvements to station lighting and fare gates are very visible, but with substations, you don’t see the benefits with your own eyes,” said San. “But even if you don’t see these substations, you experience them. They are the unspoken heroes of the system." 

The increase in available power from the new substation will also give BART the future capability to run additional trains through the Transbay Tube as part of BART’s Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program (TCCCP). 

What exactly is a traction power substation? It's the equipment that converts energy from PG&E to the electrified third rail that provides the motive power for BART trains to run.  

The Civic Center substation has two transformers, each pumping 5 megawatts and running in tandem. The project is one part of TCCCP, a series of strategic investments that will enable BART to increase the number of trains it operates at any given time. TCCCP will see the construction of five new substations, as well as an additional substation at BART’s Hayward Maintenance Complex. These will provide the energy needed to power additional trains, with the objective of running up to thirty ten-car trains per hour in both directions of the Transbay Tube. The project is funded by voter-approved Measure RR and Federal Transit Administration grants. 

The project team chose to construct the first of the five new substations at Civic Center because Downtown San Francisco is the busiest part of the BART system with the highest train frequencies. But building a huge substation facility beneath Market Street during the few hours each night that the BART system is closed is as difficult as it sounds. 

“We had to get huge components – switch gears, cabinetry, breakers, transformers – into a hole in the ground in the middle of one of the busiest streets in the Bay Area using a 106-foot crane,” said Khan. That’s a tall task.  

Some of the equipment weighed 37,000 pounds, and all of it had to be carefully maneuvered into a 15-by-15-foot access hatch cut from Market St. into the station one 3,000-pound section at a time. In some instances, there was less than a foot of clearance between the equipment and the surrounding walls. 

A stretch of Eighth St. intersecting Market St. was closed just for this day. Though the process of lowering the equipment took about 12 hours to complete, the project team had been preparing for the moment for more than a year. BART Communications chronicled the crane process in this 2022 article.  

The planning and design phases began long before the crane rolled onto Market St. After an initial TCCCP study was conducted in 2015, a consulting firm was brought in to help assess and develop the engineering designs, with inputs, reviews, support, and coordination from BART. The design phase was completed in about 1.5 years, after which the construction contract was put out to bid (also known as the procurement phase). Then came material delivery and construction. 

In project management terminology, the space selected for the substation is known as a brownfield, meaning the site was already developed. Brownfield projects pose unique and sometimes unexpected obstacles as engineers must retroactively design and construct within the constraints of the space. A greenspace is like a blank piece of paper; a brownfield space is a paint by numbers. 

The age of the BART system adds extra challenges. Building codes and standards have changed considerably since the 1960s and 1970s. 

Avineet Garg, the BART project manager, said the team had to secure numerous permits and coordinate with multiple organizations, including the City of San Francisco, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, PG&E, and local businesses. 

An added obstacle: Many construction activities took place during what’s known as “the blanket,” or the three hours each night that BART trains aren’t running for passenger service.  

“And once you build a new traction power facility, you can’t just start running it until it’s fully tested and confirmed ready to interconnect to the BART electrical grid,” said Juan Ulloa, Acting Superintendent of Power & Mechanical Maintenance.  

Thus came the final phase of testing and commissioning. This took about six months, primarily to ensure the newly built systems and equipment were performing as per design and safely integrated with the existing systems and equipment. This culminated in the CPUC-administered, three-day confidence runs during passenger service.  

Once the CPUC greenlighted energizing the substation, it started a job that it will hold for many, many years: powering BART trains that carry thousands of people where they need to go each day.  

“The coolest part of this process is seeing the thing go from paper to constructed,” said Khan, reflecting on the project. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of this project from start to finish.”  

More opportunities lay ahead for Khan and his colleagues. Next up: a brand-new substation at Montgomery St. Station. The project is moving swiftly towards completion and energization. 

The latest numbers from the BART Police Department show as enforcement activity has increased, the number of trains impacted by unwanted behavior has declined. In the first six months of this year, BART PD reported 10,359 enforcement contacts, which is nearly double from the 5,490 enforcement contacts reported for the first half of 2023. The increase in activity comes as BART continues to implement its Safe and Clean Plan. A focal point of the plan has been a major boost in BART PD’s visible safety presence on trains and in stations supported by devoting additional resources to hire and retain more officers.

As enforcement contacts have increased, the number of trains impacted by unwanted activity has been trending downward since mid-2023. The number of BART PD incidents causing delays has dropped from a high of 374 in May 2023 to 255 in August (see chart below).

“Our presence deters crime and allows us to address problems before they turn into incidents that cause train delays,” said BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin. “I think this is very encouraging because it shows that our presence is a positive thing for on-time service and the safe and clean customer experience.”

More riders have been telling BART they notice the difference in safety since implementation of the new deployment strategy that emphasizes presence on trains and in stations. The last four consecutive quarters have been the first in BART’s history where the percentage of riders who reported seeing BART PD on their trips exceeded the department’s official goal of 12%. In the most recent quarter (Q4 2024), more than 19% of riders reported seeing BART PD’s safety presence.

BART PD is continuing to recruit more officers to boost its visible safety presence to bring more safety gains to our riders. The department currently has 17 openings for sworn officers. BART PD offers competitive pay including a hiring bonus of $15,000 for lateral transfers and academy graduates. To learn more, go to JoinBARTPD.com.

The call for artists is now closed.

BART is seeking artists to sell their work at BART’s upcoming anime festival, Let’s Glow! The festival will be held at Warm Springs/South Fremont Station on Saturday, September 6, from 4:30pm to 8pm.  

We are looking for 15 to 20 artists of all skills, styles, and mediums to table at this first-of-its-kind celebration of BART, art, and anime. Tabling is free! 

Artists must apply to sell at the event, and BART’s anime team will select the roster of vendors from the applicant pool. While art need not feature transit, strong preference will be given to work that does. We encourage artists to make BART-themed artwork to sell, but we ask that the fan art does not contain the BART logo to distinguish it from official communications. Art must be appropriate for an all-ages audience.  

Some examples of the type of work we’re looking for: 

• A print, postcard, or bookmark depicting a BART station in the artist’s preferred style
• T-shirts, tote bags, keychains featuring a train operator character
• A download code to an album of train departure melodies  

Surprise us! We are looking for originality and creativity.  

Submit your work at https://bart-anime.notion.site/216b53326cb280dd8549e02d7d3d615e  

Deadline: Sunday, August 17, 2025, 11:59pm  

More on Let’s Glow! 

This is a first-of-its-kind celebration of BART, art, and anime that will feature food and boba stands, lantern decoration, live DJ group AniClover, wotagei lessons from SanFlare, itasha decorated cars, and more. We will release additional details soon. This is a free, un-ticketed event. 

Let us know you're coming - RSVP here: https://bartletsglow.eventbrite.com 

Read about the BART Anime Project at bart.gov/anime 

BART riders reached their destinations on time 95% of the time in the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2026, a new high for Customer On-Time Performance, outperforming the previous quarter’s peak. Overall, train delays were down 13% this quarter. 

Customer Satisfaction also achieved a new record, reaching 91.4% in the fourth quarter, the highest level BART has recorded since it began using the metric. 

The gains extend to safety: In the fourth quarter, BART hit every one of its six safety targets, the first time that's happened since late 2018, and the number of crimes against riders per million trips fell 67% since the end of 2024. 

These gains come as ridership grew 13.9% year over year to 16 million trips during the quarter, demonstrating BART's ongoing efforts are increasing rider confidence and strengthening the system financially. Average weekday ridership hit 205,000 in the fourth quarter, up 6% from the previous quarter, while weekend ridership grew 15% year over year. On Tuesday, September 15, BART recorded its highest ridership day since the pandemic – 242,090 trips. 

“Years of deliberate work have changed the baseline for what riders can expect from the BART system,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “This is not a single strong quarter but a continuation of a multi-year effort to make the system demonstrably safer and more reliable. A safe and clean BART is no longer an aspiration – it's what the data demonstrates, quarter after quarter." 

BART's FY26 Q4 Quarterly Performance Report (QPR) covers April 1 through June 30, 2026. View the latest report here. QPRs are posted quarterly and track a number of performance indicators, such as operational metrics, passenger environment indicators, customer feedback, and crime. 

Customers give BART high marks 

Overall customer satisfaction increased to 91.4% in the fourth quarter, up from 88.9% the previous quarter. The number of customer complaints moved in the opposite direction, down 29% compared to the third quarter. 

Customer ratings for BART in the following categories all exceeded targets: 

• Onboard Train: 4.2 out of 5  
• Rider Information and Support: 4.2 out of 5  
• Inside Station: 4.1 out of 5  
• Outside Station: 4.0 out of 5  

Safety and security continue to improve 

The gains in ridership, reliability, and customer confidence coincide with a steady retreat in crime. Crimes against riders per million trips have fallen 67% since the end of 2024. Safety-related delays were down 47% over the same period, with fewer incidents meaning fewer trains were held up waiting for police response. 

Fare evasion is following the same trajectory. The share of riders who reported seeing it dropped to 9% this quarter, down from 10% the quarter before, and a fraction of the 25% high recorded in FY24. The drop comes as BART celebrated in September one year since the installation of its new fare gates. 

Meanwhile, all six of BART's safety KPIs met their goals this quarter, a 100% safety index BART hasn't hit since late 2018. 

Upgrading the system

Amidst these major wins, BART continues to invest in trackside upgrades, track replacement, and modern train control technology to make the system even more resilient.   

During FY26, BART completed 98 miles of track grinding and surfacing, added three new substations and four portable substations, increasing power capacity from Colma to Downtown Oakland by 30%, upgraded eight stations with new LED lighting, and completed three station glow-ups.  

Future improvements, like the currently underway Communications-Based Train Control project, will contribute further reductions to the customer impact of disruptions, even when incidents occur. 

On Thursday, July 31, from 5pm to 7pm, BART’s Sustainability Department invites the public to join a virtual community meeting for updates on BART’s new 2026-2035 Sustainability Action Plan.  

To receive the meeting Zoom link, register by clicking here.

The meeting will gather perspectives and ideas from the community as BART moves forward in updating its 2017 Sustainability Action Plan for 2026-2035. BART’s Sustainability Department will provide background on its sustainability vision and program; an overview of current efforts to update the action plan for 2025; and presentations on key topics (each followed by interactive polling), including energy/GHG emissions, water, waste, resilience and adaptation, transportation and land-use planning, materials and construction practices, and rider and employee experience.  

This will be followed by a Q&A and a discussion of next steps.  

More on BART’s Sustainability Action Plan

The action plan identifies, evaluates, and prioritizes the most important actions BART can take to advance sustainability through Calendar Year 2035. The plan summarizes much of the existing sustainability work BART is doing and finds the best points to leverage sustainability in the future planning, design, construction, operations, and ongoing maintenance of the system. 

To read more about BART’s Sustainability Program, visit bart.gov/sustainability. To read the 2017 Action Plan, click here.