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Heading to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass at Golden Gate Park this weekend? Public transit is your best bet.

BART riders heading to Hardly Strictly from the East Bay can take a train to Powell Station. Transfer to a Muni 5 Fulton bus or 5R Fulton Rapid on Market Street and ride to Golden Park. 

BART riders coming up from San Mateo County or San Francisco can take a train to Civic Center Station and transfer to a Muni N Judah train on the upper level of the station. The N Judah train will run near Golden Gate Park on Irving and Judah Streets.

Rider Tips

Parking is free at all BART stations except Milpitas and Berryessa/North San Jose (which are operated by VTA) on Saturday, Oct. 5, and Sunday, Oct. 6. Pay for parking easily on the BART app.

Before you leave home, put Clipper card on your cellphone through either Apple Pay or Google Pay. Please ensure you have sufficient funds for a round trip. Plan at the cost of your trip in advance.

Real-time departures and train alerts can be found at bart.gov/eta or on the BART app. 

Discover more fun events happening this weekend on BARTable. 

The BART Board of Directors annual workshop will be held Thursday, February 8, 2024, and for the first time, it will include a lively panel discussion with transit advocates, policy experts, and key stakeholders to discuss what is needed to develop and successfully pass a regional transportation funding measure to provide long-term funding for BART and all Bay Area transit agencies.

The panel discussion is free and open to the public and will take place from 9am-noon in the BART boardroom (2150 Webster Street, Oakland) and on Zoom. This is an exciting opportunity for the BART board, BART employees, news media, and members of the public to hear a variety of perspectives about what transit operators need to do in the next 30 months to achieve a successful transportation measure in 2026, including improvements to the customer experience and policy reforms. 

In addition to the experts on the panel, Rebecca Long from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission will help us set the stage for the discussion, as they are leading the effort to secure long term funding for transit.

Public comment related to the panel topic will be taken at the end of the panel discussion. 

The second half of the Board Workshop will include informational staff presentations on BART’s operating budget projections and BART’s capital program to fund and deliver projects that ensure safe, reliable, and frequent service. Staff will also introduce a new customer commitment and review the changes underway to improve the customer experience. 

View the agenda and presentations.

Panel Details

Moderator: Karen Philbrick, PhD, Mineta Transportation Institute, San Jose State University

Panelists:

• Alicia John-Baptiste, President and CEO, SPUR

• Darrell Owens, Policy and Data Analyst and Advocate, East Bay Transit Riders Union

• Emily Loper, Vice President of Public Policy, Bay Area Council

• Ian Griffiths, Co-Founder and Policy Director, Seamless Bay Area

• Jeff Shaffer, President/Business Agent, Local 1277, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)

When: February 8th, 9am-noon

Where: In person in the BART Boardroom, 2150 Webster Street, Oakland, or via Zoom by calling

833-548-0282 and entering access code 822 5984 8450 or logging in to Zoom.com and entering

access code 822 5984 8450.

BART’s work to install state-of-the-art Next Generation Fare Gates at all 50 of its stations by the end of this year has achieved a significant goal. With the recent completion of work at San Bruno Station, new gates have now been installed at all six BART stations in San Mateo County. Next Generation Fare Gates are now in service at 48 stations, putting the project on track to reach its goal of full installation across the five counties BART serves by the end of 2025. 

“The installation of these game-changing fare gates is the result of a collaborative effort. I’m proud to say we have hit the reset button on the relationship between San Mateo County and BART,” said San Mateo County Board of Supervisors President David Canepa. “BART and San Mateo County share the goal of increasing ridership through making stations safer and cleaner. These gates represent a critical step in what will be an ongoing partnership to put riders first.” 

Next Generation Fare Gates feature clear swing barriers that are much more difficult to push through or jump over compared to the old gates BART had used for decades. The new gates are bolstered by a one-of-its-kind locking mechanism designed to boost their resilience. The gates also improve access for paying riders. They have LED lighting on the swing barriers and are equipped with 3D sensors that can detect if someone is in a wheelchair or has a bike, stroller, or luggage with them. 

“We carry approximately 25 percent of transit boardings among all operators in San Mateo County,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “I think even more people in San Mateo County will ride BART because of these fare gates and how they are changing the station environment by serving as a deterrent against unwanted behavior.” 

The new gates are getting mostly positive reviews from riders. A survey of riders indicated the number of those who reported seeing someone fare evade dropped by nearly 1/3 from just a year ago as new gates have been installed in more stations.  

The installation of Next Generation Fare Gates at the five non-airport stations in San Mateo County was fully funded by the San Mateo County Transportation Authority through voter-approved Measure W. SFO funded the new gates at San Francisco International Airport Station. 

Learn more about the Next Generation Fare Gates project here. 

BART riders can now access free Wi-Fi 6E at four more heavily travelled stations, ensuring seamless connectivity for fans and residents ahead of FIFA World Cup-related events.

The four stations that recently went live are 16th St/Mission, 24th St/Mission, Glen Park and Balboa Park. Visitors to these stations are now provided with critical connectivity, especially during a busy ridership period with the Bay Area hosting an international event. The Wi-Fi access is essential for international visitors to communicate without a U.S. roaming plan.

This brings the total number of BART stations with free Wi-Fi to nine, following February’s launch at the first five stations — San Francisco International Airport, West Oakland, Embarcadero, Civic Center, and Powell Street.

This is a comprehensive digital transformation project that will bring state-of-the-art Wi-Fi connectivity to all BART stations over the next couple of years, followed by onboard connectivity on all BART trains.

The Wi-Fi is powered by Boldyn Networks, a leading neutral host provider. BART riders will access the SSID network named “BART Wi-Fi," and no password or email is required. Sessions on the network will last 20 minutes, and users will be required to confirm they are still actively using the network beyond 20 minutes. 

Once users select to join the BART Wi-Fi network, their device will present an option to connect automatically. If that option is selected, their device will remember the SSID. When within the coverage area of the network, their device will automatically join the SSID, and a captive portal page will be presented to ensure they are still active on the network.

“Providing high-quality Wi-Fi is part of our commitment to meeting the evolving needs of our riders and enhancing the customer experience through reliable connectivity,” said Ravi Misra, Assistant General Manager of Technology at Bay Area Rapid Transit. “Boldyn partnered with us to deliver this second phase of upgrades as the region prepares to host the FIFA World Cup, with additional improvements coming in the months and years ahead.”

“As we get closer to the most important international sports event of the year, we are proud of our partnership with BART and the visible progress we’re making in connecting more tunnels and stations with our fiber, Wi-Fi and 5G technology,” said Dana Tardelli, Chief Operating Officer of Boldyn Networks, US. “A well-connected transport infrastructure will provide an unforgettable experience for the millions of locals and visitors getting to different destinations in the area to watch their favorite teams play”.

Benefits of the new Wi-Fi service include:

• Eases strain on cell network during high-density events.
• Overall, phones perform better when connected to reliable Wi-Fi, especially in a congested area. It saves battery life too.
• Ensures riders can access digital fare payments and emergency communications.

Wi-Fi connectivity is expected to be deployed at BART’s remaining stations in phases, with full project completion by early 2028.
 

Mark Nagales is pictured at Millbrae Station with the program from his grandmother's 2015 memorial service. 

Mark Nagales’s earliest childhood memory is riding a BART train with his grandmother. He can recall the colors most of all – the blue seats, golden carpet, all the ads and people and scenery streaming by the giant windows.  

“Growing up, everything in my house was white, so it stuck out to me how vibrant the BART trains were. I’ll never forget the colors of those legacy trains,” said Mark, who joined BART in 2023 as a Senior Government and Community Relations Representative.  

Every weekend for years, preschooler Mark and his grandmother, Juanita, would take BART from their home in South San Francisco in search of adventure. Often that meant simply riding the Yellow Line an hour or so from South San Francisco Station to Concord. 

“We didn’t have a lot of money, so going to Concord to see relatives was like a vacation,” Mark said. “I didn’t get out of the sphere of South San Francisco often, so looking out the windows on BART, I was wide-eyed. I’d never seen so many places before. It was like traveling to a new world.” 

On BART days, Mark remembers waking up early with his grandma and going to McDonald’s for a 20-piece McNuggets meal – a quick snack before they walked to the station and caught a train. Grandma Juanita didn't like driving outside of her small neighborhood, “but she always felt comfortable on BART,” Mark said.  

Onboard, Mark stayed glued to the windows, his hands and nose leaving tiny streaks on the glass. He admits that he sometimes had trouble sitting still onboard – there was just so much going on, so much to see! Grandma Juanita didn’t mind the high energy.  

“She just loved that I was happy,” Mark said. “And she loved that I was with her.” 

When Mark learned the last in-service legacy train would be taking its final ride on Sept. 10, 2023, (BART officially retired the legacy fleet at a celebration in April 2024), he knew he had to be on that train. And he knew he had to bring his grandmother, who passed away in 2015, with him.  

So Mark gathered his wife and two children, and together, they rode the old BART train into San Francisco. During the ride, he held the program from his grandmother’s memorial service.  

Mark Nagales and his family pose on the concourse at Millbrae Station. 

“It was a full circle moment for me,” he said. “That ride was a way to say thank you to my grandmother and to honor her memory.” 

That legacy train ride was something of a transit party with lots of people taking photos, shaking hands, and swapping their favorite BART memories tied to these old trains.  

Mark expected the experience to be a bit emotionally challenging, but once the ride began, it was nothing but celebration and good cheer.  

“I couldn’t stop smiling because I just kept thinking about my grandma and how proud she’d be if she could see me now. And the best part was that I was able to experience it with my own family.” 

Mark immigrated from the Philippines to South San Francisco when he was one year old. Many of his earliest memories revolve around his grandmother, who took care of him when his parents were working multiple jobs at San Francisco International Airport. It was rare for Mark to have both his mom and dad home at the same time.  

“The constant in my life was my grandma,” Mark said. “She taught me how to be loving, caring, and kind because that’s how she treated me.”  

At one point, Grandma Juanita took a part-time job at the airport. She didn’t have to work, but wanted to in order to make sure her grandson could have everything he might need.  

"We didn’t have much back then,” Mark explained. “But love was always abundant.” 

Mark is the first person in his family to not to work at SFO. He nonetheless honors his family’s transportation lineage through his work at BART. When he received the official offer letter, Mark said all he could think about was being five years old, holding his grandmother’s hand on BART.  

“To be able to work at the transit agency that opened the world to me...there are no words,” he said. “When I started working here, it felt like home. It made me think about all the things my grandma and family experienced and all the families who are currently experiencing the same things. I know BART is making a difference for them like it did for us.” 

Mark Nagales and his family pose for a selfie on a legacy BART train.

Mark and his family still live in South San Francisco and even serves on the city council. His parents are just a few minutes down the road, and like Grandma Juanita, Mark’s mom loves to spend time with his eight-year-old daughter, Josephine, to take her around the Bay on BART. 

Now that he has children of his own, Mark gets to experience the same feelings his grandmother experienced when she got to watch him play and learn and grow. 

“When you’re a kid, you don’t realize how happy it makes your parents or grandparents see you experience joy,” he said. “When my kids get to be my age, they’ll look back like I’m doing now and realize how much these special moments meant to their dad.”  

Mark’s final ride on the legacy train was one such special moment, and to share it with his beloved Grandma Juanita and his own family meant everything to him.  

And it turns out the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  

“On the train, my kids do exactly what I used to do -- putting their hands on the windows, playing around on the seats. I’m always like, ‘Don’t do that!’” Mark said. “You know, I bet my grandma once said the same thing to me.”

A new interactive exhibit at the Western Railway Museum lets visitors step aboard three legacy BART cars and explore the technology, design, and history of the system. The opening of the museum’s Rapid Transit History Center arrives during Transit Month and the week of BART’s 54th anniversary.  

The exhibit is open to the public September 12 and 13, 9:30am to 5pm, at the Western Railway Museum in Suisun City. BART's merch store Railgoods will have a pop-up at the museum on September 12, from 11am to 3pm. 

Purchase tickets here. 

The Western Railway Museum is one of only a handful of places selected to receive legacy BART train cars following the decommissioning of the original fleet. It is the only organization to be awarded three retired cars: A Car 1164, B Car 1834, and C Car 329. Visitors can enter all three cars and explore displays, videos, and memorabilia. Included in admission is access to Western Railway Museum’s exhibits and historic rail car collection, train rides aboard Key System Bridge Unit 187, and the opportunity to take a commemorative photo in the nose of a legacy BART train.  

“This exhibit is a picture of the resurgence of rail transit and commuter rail in the 1970,” said Bob Simon, Western Railway Museum board member and retired BART employee. “BART was the start of that revolution.” 

The Rapid Transit History Center was created in partnership with the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association, which operates the Western Railway Museum and preserves the history of electric rail transportation in the Bay Area. 

Western Railway Museum preserves more than 50 historic rail cars and offers scenic train rides across its 22-acre site. Visitors can also enjoy exhibits, historic train rides, picnic grounds, a museum store, library archives, and the Depot Café.  

Celebrate Transit Month 

The exhibit opens during Transit Month, when communities across the Bay Area celebrate public transportation with events and activities throughout the region. Learn more here.

BART will extend the length of evening trains on multiple lines starting Friday, August 28, through Sunday, August 30, for the Pokemon World Championships, which will be at Moscone Center in San Francisco. The event will feature a nightly drone show that is expected to start around 9:35pm on Friday and 9:20pm on the weekend that will be flown near the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero along the San Francisco waterfront. The longer evening trains will ensure BART has plenty of room for additional riders before and after the shows. 

The Pokemon spirit will be evident on BART throughout the World Championships. Dozens of trains will be outfitted with posters and ceiling decals celebrating Pokemon. Powell Street Station, which is the closest BART station to Moscone Center, will be dominated by Pokemon ads. The Pokemon ad buy is part of BART’s ongoing effort to explore new and creative revenue opportunities as the agency faces a structural deficit starting in Fiscal Year 2027.   

The weekend is expected to be a busy one for BART ridership in San Francisco as in addition to the Pokemon Championships, the Giants have home games against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday, August 28, and a doubleheader on Saturday, August 29.  

Riders coming from San Jose and southern Alameda County who plan to travel north are encouraged to start their trip at Union City the weekend of August 28-29 to avoid delays from rail replacement work. The work requires us to replace our regular train service with free buses between Union City and Warm Springs/South Fremont stations all day Saturday and Sunday. You can learn more about the project and its service impacts here. 

The legacy car is pictured on the back of a flatbed truck driving on the freeway beside a Fleet of the Future train running on the track.

There is now a BART car you can snooze in for hours without fear of missing your stop.  

After a busy career shuttling millions of passengers around the Bay, this BART car has retired to the idyllic Sierra foothills, nestled among the streams where plucky prospectors once panned for gold. And soon, you’ll be able to rent it for a peaceful, transit-forward vacation.  

Michael Lin is the mastermind of the Sierra Train House, a short-term rental featuring a decommissioned legacy BART car that will start taking reservations in 2026.  

The project, which Lin describes as “a metaphoric train station that blends the space age, modern aesthetics of BART with a cozy cabin,” is now one big step closer to completion. In mid-March, the historic A car traveled more than one hundred miles on the back of a flatbed truck from BART’s Hayward Yard to its new home in Jamestown, an old gold mining town outside of Sonora. The BART car’s journey to Jamestown was not a short ride in both miles and time. Lin first responded to BART’s call for proposals to repurpose legacy cars back in 2021. Twenty individuals and organizations submitted proposals, and Lin was one of eight selected to receive a car.  

The remaining legacy cars, which served the Bay Area for more than fifty years, were retired in 2024, then dismantled and recycled. BART is unable to keep a heritage train on property due to limited funds, storage space, and equipment needs, but is supporting the Western Railway Museum in its efforts to create a Rapid Transit History Center. The museum received its first of three legacy BART cars in August 2024.  

Michael Lin smiles in front of his legacy car at Hayward Yard on transport day. 

Once his proposal was accepted, Lin started searching for suitable homes for the car. Jamestown had the qualities he was looking for: access to outdoor activities, reservoirs, great hiking, and history. Old mining towns abound in these foothills. Though the gold is mostly gone, you still have a chance to strike it rich – a casino was recently constructed two miles down the road from Lin's property. Yosemite National Park is about 45 minutes by car.  

The Sierra Train House property backs up to railway tracks still traversed by 19th-century steam trains that carry tourists from the depot at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park. “The Movie Railroad” has appeared in more than 200 films, tv shows, and commercials, beginning with the 1919 silent serial The Red Glove. The park that houses the railroad is home to an authentic roundhouse with an operating turntable, functional blacksmithing area, and a belt-driven machine shop.  

“It felt right to be near a rail town,” said Lin.  

After he purchased the property, the permitting process began, followed by some significant sprucing up of the land.  

Before the car could be delivered, Lin said the property needed a lot of tree work, and the driveway required repaving so a flatbed could drive down it. Next, foundation was laid for the car and the tiny home that will connect to it. Lin laid a couple of 39-foot-long train tracks purchased from a railway supply company onto the concrete, which the train car now rests upon.  

The less-than-1,000-square-foot tiny home has two bedrooms and one-and-a-half baths. The BART car itself will have a fine balance of “retaining its integrity but making it more intelligible,” Lin said.  

Left: A crane lowers the legacy car onto the tracks at Lin's Jamestown property. Right: The car is soldered to the tracks. 

When you enter the car from the back door, a small bedroom will be to your right. The middle of the car will include a bathroom and a room with bunkbeds. Then the front third will be an open space for hanging out, complete with a coffee table arcade game. A few days before the car delivery, Lin bought a Pong-themed table from a guy on Craigslist. Incidentally, Pong came out in 1972, the same year BART opened.  

The car’s cab will remain more or less intact. Lin wants to rig it so people can push the control panel buttons and hear BART sounds, like the horn and station announcements – “The doors are closing. Stand clear of the doors.” 

All told, the property will accommodate eight people comfortably. Lin pictures this the sort of place you stay with a group of friends or families, which will also help keep the cost down. This is a unique rental, Lin stressed, and it will be pricier than a run-off-the-mill accommodation, though he wants to make sure it’s still accessibly priced. He’s not sure exactly how much he’ll charge for a stay.  

But it will be worth the price, Lin said. H has even more plans for the property, including activities like a bocce ball court and foot bridges constructed from rail.  

A financial advisor by day, Lin studied architecture as an undergrad at UC Berkeley and is a serious tinkerer, especially with Lego. Residents will see some of Lin’s Lego art inside the Sierra Train House. 

The Sierra Train House is the definition of a labor of love, and Lin intends to build the property so that it lasts for a hundred years and beyond, just like the Railtown nearby. History, he said, is not something he takes lightly.  

“I have a sense of responsibility to preserve this train car,” Lin said. “It’s neat to save a train.”  

Keep up with the progress of the Sierra Train House on Instagram and Facebook. 

 

 

 

 

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BART will exclusively run Fleet of the Future trains for the base schedule as part of its reimagined schedule launch on September 11th. This change represents a big improvement in the rider experience as well as on-time performance. Without this change, BART would be running legacy cars in service well into 2024. Legacy trains may still be spotted here and there, but only as event trains or for contingencies.

The new trains are much more reliable than legacy trains, as evidenced by the most recent Quarterly Performance Report (QPR). The QPR for April through June, shows the Mean Time Between Service delays for the new cars are more than double the length for that of the legacy cars; in other words, the new trains operate for more than twice as long before service delays.

Using exclusively new trains for the base schedule is possible because BART is kicking off a new plan to size trains for safety and efficiency. 

“Our new cars are cleaner, require less maintenance, have better quality surveillance cameras, and offer a better customer experience with automated next stop displays and announcements," said BART Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost. “Feedback from our riders on the Fleet of the Future cars has been profusely positive so offering more new car rides is a great accomplishment in customer service.”

BART will hold a proper public retirement ceremony for the legacy fleet to mark their final run in service at a later date (likely in 2024).