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(October 2 update):  The track shutdowns that had been planned for two weekends in October and November between Rockridge, MacArthur, and 19th Street stations have been postponed until 2025. The postponement will allow BART to focus on other priorities to improve reliability and limit future disruptions. We also continue to evaluate lessons learned from the first shutdown weekend in June, as we plan to adjust our approach and execution. BART’s goal remains to minimize short term impacts on riders by maximizing work efficiency. 

BART crews have begun the process of replacing a series of interlockings between Rockridge, MacArthur, and 19th Street stations.  Free buses will replace trains between Rockridge, MacArthur, and 19th Street stations on 18 non-consecutive weekends over the next three years.  Riders can expect delays of 40 minutes in the area on those work weekends. There will be no Red Line service on these weekends but the Orange line will serve Richmond riders.

Additional service impacts on all work weekends for this project include:

*Yellow Line will run 20-minute service.
*Orange/Blue/Green Lines will run 30-minute service (usually 20 minutes but not possible given project constraints).
*Service to/from Millbrae will be via the Yellow Line.
*All train schedules will be different from the normal weekend timetables. Please check the Trip Planner to see the new train departure times (use the impacted dates of service when planning).
*Due to the new schedule, the last train departures of the night may be earlier than the regularly scheduled departures.
*MacArthur Station will be open for southbound Orange Line stops from Richmond. No Yellow Line service to MacArthur (Yellow line trains end a Rockridge).
*Orange Line bus bridge will operate between MacArthur and 19th St.
*Yellow Line bus bridge will include buses that go directly between Rockridge and 19th St as well as buses that also stop at MacArthur.
*Lower level platforms at both 12th and 19th Street stations will be out of service.
*All buses used for the bus bridge will be outfitted with racks for bicycles. You can also bring traditional bicycles onto the buses if space allows. Please avoid bringing motorized bikes or eBikes to the bus bridge as they may not be allowed on the buses. 
*It might be faster to ride your bike between stations than to take the bus bridge. It might also be faster for Richmond Line riders to ride their bikes directly to 19th Street and take BART to their final destination from there. 

Interlockings are a vital part of the BART system. They are segments of the railway that allow trains to safely move from track to track. Shutting down train service in the work area ensures a safe workspace for the project team. Work on this project will happen on select, non-consecutive weekends into 2026.

BART crews will make the most of their time in the system by taking on as many trackway improvement projects as possible on the weekends when this portion of the system is closed to trains. In addition to replacing interlockings, the team will also replace traction power cables, install new train control equipment, install new digital display signs at underground stations up to Berkeley and 12th Street/Oakland City Center, manage vegetation that could impact service, and do deep station cleaning.

This will be one of the most challenging rebuilding projects that BART has ever undertaken because of the location of the project. With limited workspace, crews will be unable to use a crane or other heavy equipment to lift track components into place. Instead, workers will transport all materials on rail and assemble larger components by hand. The equipment being replaced is decades old and has outlived its design life. Riders will enjoy a smoother, safer, more reliable, and quieter ride once this project is complete. You can get more details on this project from this staff presentation to the BART Board of Directors.

This project is part of BART’s overall effort to improve the safety and reliability of the 131-mile, 50 station system. There are now more rebuilding projects happening across BART than at any point in its 50-year history. You can learn more about the progress of this work by reading the 2023 Measure RR Annual Report published by the independent Measure RR Bond Oversight Committee.

You can keep up with the latest updates for trackway repair projects that impact service by going to our Alerts and Advisories page.

Learn more about the project with our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. Also, check out our podcast for an in-depth discussion about the project, its challenges, and long-term benefits for riders.

*This article was originally published May 1, 2024.

A major improvement for bicyclists has just been completed at Ashby Station. 

The Ashby BART Bicycle Access Improvement Project provides a better and safer bicycle connection to BART from both the west and east, as well as closing a gap in Berkeley’s bike network between Adeline Street and MLK Jr. Way across BART property, connecting Woolsey St. to Prince Street. There is now a one-way inbound bike lane from Woolsey Street-Adeline Street into the station area as well as a two-way cycle-track from MLK Jr. Way-Prince Street into and out of the station area.

Watch a video of the bike lane here 

The MLK Jr Way-Prince Street station area driveway has become one-way inbound only for vehicles. The Adeline Street/Woolsey Street station area driveway remains one-way outbound only for vehicles, but bicycles can now circulate in both directions. The project also installed directional curb ramps at the Woolsey Street-Adeline Street driveway, so they align with the intersection’s crosswalks.

To complement the BART project, the City of Berkeley will start construction this spring on crossing improvements to both Adeline and MLK Jr. Way, expected to be complete by spring 2026.

On Wednesday, May 7 BART will begin the installation of Next Generation Fare Gates on the concourse level of North Berkeley Station. The installation work will happen in stages so riders can continue to use the remaining gates while new ones are being installed. A temporary gate will also be installed to support entry and exit. There will be additional BART staff as well as signage to direct riders to the open gates. The installation of each new set of gates is expected to take up to two weeks to complete. The work to replace all three sets of fare gates at North Berkeley Station is expected to continue into June.

A temporary barrier will be installed around each set of gates when it is ready to be removed to provide a safe workspace for the installation team as well as to protect riders from construction. The work will not delay train service, but riders may experience a few extra minutes wait to pass through the gates during peak travel hours.

The latest work comes after BART has successfully installed Next Generation Fare Gates at 29 stations across the system. All 50 BART stations will have new fare gates by the end of 2025. You can learn more about BART’s Next Generation Fare Gates project here.

Update: June 26, 2024 7:15 am

Crews moved our maintenance vehicle out of the way last night. 

The Red Line returned to service when we opened this morning.

We apologize for the inconvenience it caused and we thank our riders for their patience.

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At about 3:30am on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, a BART track maintenance vehicle derailed near 19th Street/Oakland Station blocking one set of tracks.

No BART stations are closed but the Red Line is cancelled. We anticipate the Red Line to be cancelled all day but back in service tomorrow. Red line trains will show as cancelled in real time departures and the Trip Planner. 

• San Francisco bound passengers coming from the Richmond direction who would normally take a Red Line train should take an Orange Line Berryessa train and transfer to a Yellow Line San Francisco train at MacArthur Station. 
• Millbrae riders should take the Yellow Line.
• Orange Line trains coming from Richmond will need to divert to West Oakland after 12th St. Station and then turn back towards the Berryessa direction. So they will run: 12th St, West Oakland, Lake Merritt, and so on. Orange Line trains coming from Berryessa don’t need to do this.
• Platform 2 at 19th Street/Oakland Station is closed and trains may be stopping at a different platform that usual at 12th and 19th St stations.

The incident is not causing major delays. 

BART Service Alerts are available via email, text, or customized push notifications in our official BART app. 

Text and email opt-in: http://cloud.info.bart.gov/signup 

On our app, select the profile icon and then notification settings. Set as many as you need for exactly when you typically ride BART. You will get push notifications of our alerts only during the selected times.

BART will begin the installation of Next Generation Fare Gates on Friday, October 11 at San Francisco International Airport Station. The station has a total of four sets of fare gates, two on the upper level and two on the lower level. Workers will replace one set on each level of the station simultaneously. While this work is being done, a set of the old gates will remain open for riders on each level. There will be signage to direct riders to the open gates. There will also be additional staff on site to help direct riders. Once the installation of the first two sets of new gates is complete, work will begin on replacing the third and fourth arrays.

A temporary barrier will be installed to provide a safe workspace for the installation team as well as to protect riders from construction. Each new array is expected to take up to two weeks to install. The latest work comes after BART successfully installed Next Generation Fare Gates at 24th Street Mission, Antioch, Civic Center, Fruitvale, Oakland International Airport, Richmond, and West Oakland stations. 

All BART stations will have new fare gates by the end of 2025. You can learn more about BART’s Next Generation Fare Gate project here. Riders can provide feedback about the new gates at bart.gov/comments.

BART is making more progress with its effort to replace aging fare gates at all 50 stations by the end of this year. This week BART will begin installing Next Generation Fare Gates at Concord, Glen Park, and San Leandro stations. Work is also scheduled to begin next week at El Cerrito Plaza Station. The latest work comes after BART has successfully installed Next Generation Fare Gates at 22 stations across the system.

The work will not impact train service, but riders may experience a few extra minutes wait to pass through the fare gates during peak travel hours.

You can learn more about BART’s Next Generation Fare Gates project here

BART riders will benefit from faster train speeds through the downtown Oakland core service area following the repair of an essential power substation. Last summer, the substation located near 19th Street Station failed after experiencing a fault, requiring BART to realign power distributions from nearby redundant substations while repairs were being made. This configuration required BART to run trains at slower speeds in the track areas approaching MacArthur, 19th Street, and 12th Street stations. Trains were also metered into these stations, causing frequent but short train holds. This service plan caused delays of about three minutes, but those delays could compound when other incidents occurred in the system.

Crews have been diligently working to get the substation back to full operations, and late last week, the substation was successfully brought online. Over the weekend, normal speeds were restored. Trains no longer need to run at 27 mph through the area and are now travelling up to 70 mph.

2025 will be an important year for fortifying and expanding BART’s power substations. Another substation located east of the Transbay Tube is being fully renovated, and two new power substations located near Civic Center and Montgomery stations will also be coming online this year. This work plays a key role in ensuring that BART’s power system infrastructure is robust, reliable, and ready for the future. 

BART Directors have extended the highly successful restroom and attendant programs for another two years. The Board voted to award new contracts to provide attendants at the stations where they are already working through June 30, 2027. 

“The service these attendants provide are a vivid example of the type experience we need to offer the public,” said BART Board President Mark Foley. “A smile, a pleasant greeting and a professional attitude make a big difference – and these attendants keep our elevators and restrooms in the safe and clean condition our riders deserve.” 

The elevator attendant program began in 2018 at downtown San Francisco stations, with attendants in the elevators at all times trains were running, making sure users were following the rules, getting to where they needed to go and contacting BART staff with any issues.  

The program later expanded to all four downtown San Francisco stations: Embarcadero, Montgomery St., Powell St. and Civic Center. 

The restroom attendant program began in 2022 when BART reopened remodeled restrooms at Powell St. and 19th Street in Oakland. The restroom attendants make sure the restrooms are being used for their intended purpose and provide a friendly, safe presence.  

Restroom attendants are on duty while trains are in service at all four downtown San Francisco stations, 19th Street and Lake Merritt in Oakland and Downtown Berkeley Station. 

The attendants are one reason restroom availability survey results increased six percent in BART’s most recent Customer Satisfaction Survey compared to the previous survey.   

Half of the 1,200-pound bull gear ready for installation at 12th St. Oakland Station.

The sun has just risen in a wash of pink and purple over BART’s Oakland Shops, and four men dressed in blue are standing around a giant gear.  

It looks like a bicycle gear with its interlocked steel circles rimmed with teeth. But this gear is big. Very big.  

Known as a bull gear, this 1,200-pound steel beast can be found in all of BART’s 175 escalators. Like its namesake, its job is to pull heavy loads, in this case, moving the belt of an escalator used by thousands of BART passengers each day.  

The bull gear in question belongs in an escalator that carries riders from the concourse at 12th St. Station to the platform. Many of the escalator’s components, including the bull gear, are nearly as old as the BART system.  

Recently, the gear’s bearings were starting to wear, meaning the ride was not as smooth as it should be. So BART’s Elevator/Escalators Maintenance team sprung into action, taking the escalator out of service so the gear could be removed, renovated, and reinstalled in a matter of weeks. Like the gear, it was a big job.  

Escalator techs Mehdi Nategh and Brian McMurtrie and escalator tech trainees Austin Eagleston and Luis Gonzalez separate the bull gear with a forklift and load it onto a cart at BART's Oakland Shops.

When this bull gear wore out, rather than ordering a new gear with a price tag in the tens of thousands, the maintenance team saw an opportunity to save money in BART’s operating budget by refurbishing it with new bearings and bolts. The renovated part should provide a smooth and safe ride for years to come.  

“We are mitigating problems as they arise,” said Eric Stockton, Section Manager of Elevator/Escalator Maintenance. “Customer service is our number one focus at BART, and escalators play a big role in that.” 

So how do you fix a bull gear? Unfortunately, you can’t tinker with it while it’s installed in an escalator. That means Eric’s team has to take the escalator apart, then use a chain fall (a gear system used to raise and lower loads) to lift the bull gear onto a flatbed cart.  

These gears are too large to fit in BART’s elevators, so the gear must be wrenched in half with a forklift to split it into two, more manageable pieces. Then up the escalator into the light of day, onto the back of a truck, and off to the parts repair shop for a makeover.  

 

 

 

 

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On this particular morning at the Oakland Shops, the four men standing over the refurbished 12th St. Bull gear were tasked with getting it back into its escalator home. That meant, repeating all the steps above but in reverse.  

By 8am, the men were off to 12th St., one truck carrying the cloven gear, another carrying their tools. You can watch some of the reinstallation process in the above video. 

It took about a month to get the bull gear in place and the parts attached to get the escalator back in service. It’s worth the hard work, said Mehdi Nategh, the team lead who’s been working on escalators for almost thirty years.  

“These bull gears can last more than twenty years,” he said.  

Carrying parts into the station.

While escalator tech Brian McMurtrie and escalator tech trainees Austin Eagleston and Luis Gonzalez prepped the gear from the top, Nategh went down in the machine room directly beneath the escalator. Here, the inner workings of an escalator come to light. As the escalator moves above, you can see the drive chain turning in an endless loop, powered by a drive machine with a gearbox and 480-volt AC motor.  

Being down there changes your perspective. When you step onto an escalator, you probably don’t stop to think about how it runs or the little mechanical world beneath it.  

Once the bull gear is in place there is much more work to be done.  

“We have to hook up the handrails, put the steps backs in, I'm sure there are some sensors we need to replace,” said Gonzalez.  

A few weeks later, once the work was complete, a joy ride of the escalator demonstrated the work paid off. The ride was smooth and quiet as the refreshed bull gear pulled us along. 

Mehdi Nategh in the machine room.

Update 4/15/24: The final bus bridge that had been scheduled between Richmond and El Cerrito del Norte the weekend of April 27-28 has been cancelled. Instead, our team will do trackway replacement work on the Yellow Line between Rockridge and Lafayette stations the weekend of 4/27-28. Get more details on this project here: https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2024/news20240313

BART’s next major track improvement project will focus on replacing track equipment near Richmond Station. On four non-consecutive weekends in February, March, and April workers will replace an interlocking near Richmond Station. Interlockings allow BART to safely move trains from line to line and are an essential part of the system. Work will also be done to address vegetation that could impact service.

The weekend dates for this project are February 17-19 (Presidents’ Day Weekend), 3/16-17, 4/13-14, and 4/27-28.

• Free buses will replace train service between Richmond and El Cerrito del Norte stations on all four weekends. 
• The Red Line (Richmond-Millbrae) will be cancelled thus reducing service frequency and transbay options during these weekends. Transbay riders in the East Bay who would normally take the Red Line should instead board an Orange Line (Richmond-Berryessa) train and transfer to a Yellow Line train to San Francisco at MacArthur Station. This is scheduled to be a timed transfer to reduce wait times.
• Millbrae riders will be served by a shuttle train between SFO and Millbrae that is timed with the Yellow line train for an easy transfer at SFO. 
• Riders can expect delays of up to 20 minutes in the work area on shutdown weekends. 
• Richmond Station will not have train service but will still be open for Amtrak passengers and passengers traveling through the station. Riders will be able to board the bus bridge at Richmond.

Cyclists might find it faster to ride their bike along Nevin Ave in Richmond and the Ohlone Greenway to avoid the bus bridge and reduced frequency on the Richmond line. 

You can keep up with the latest updates for trackway repair projects that impact service by going to our Alerts and Advisories page. BART’s Trip Planner has been improved to show the full customer journey including bus bridges.

BART wants to thank AC Transit for providing buses for BART riders during this track closure. Bay Area transit agencies are improving regional coordination to keep the Bay Area moving.

The equipment being replaced is decades old and has outlived its design life. Riders will enjoy a smoother, safer, more reliable, and quieter ride once the projects are complete. 

This upcoming work is part of BART’s overall effort to improve the safety and reliability of the 131-mile, 50 station system. You can learn more about the progress of this work by reading the 2023 Measure RR Annual Report published by the independent Measure RR Bond Oversight Committee.

This article was originally posted on January 22, 2024.