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Construction for the next phase of the Hayward Station Accessibility Improvements Project will begin on Thursday, May 2, 2024 and last for approximately 3 weeks. 

During this phase, the following changes will occur: 

• About half of the passenger loading zone will close – the remaining portion will stay open with an accessible pedestrian path to the station entrance. 
• Most bus bays will change locations within the station area. 

Buses will be located in the bus bays shown in the list below. 

Bus bay numbers are shown in the map below and posted at each stop location. 

Aisle A is closest to the station, Aisle B is the bus island. Bus bays are numbered sequentially starting from the bays closest to B Street. 

Cindy and Jeff, who celebrate 41 years of marriage this year after meeting on BART, smile in a recent photo. 

It was 1983. BART was pretty new to the Bay Area and so was 23-year-old Cindy when she stepped onto a BART train that would change her life.  

A few months before this BART ride, Cindy’s company had transferred her from Phoenix to their offices in San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid. Everything was different and new and exciting in the glittering city by the bay. Nonetheless, Cindy quickly realized Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City was rooted more in reality than fiction when it came to the local dating game. 

“I dated some interesting people when I got here,” Cindy said, laughing.  

It was the Friday before Memorial Day and a sunny spring day in the city – a refreshing reprieve from that winter’s record-setting rains – and Cindy was out with coworkers at a bar on the Embarcadero.  

“Back then, they’d let you go early on Friday afternoons before a holiday weekend,” she said. “And that meant happy hour.”  

After some cocktails and gossip, Cindy bid her coworkers farewell and walked to Embarcadero Station, catching an eastbound Yellow Line train.  

The train car was packed that evening, and Cindy – her feet aching from too many hours squished into heels – couldn't find a seat.  

“Why didn’t I bring flat shoes today?” she said aloud, speaking more to the universe than any person in particular.  

But then a human voice responded: “Why don’t you just take your shoes off?” 

The voice belonged to a young man hanging onto the strap beside Cindy. The two struck up a casual conversation as the train began its underwater journey through the Transbay Tube: “Where are you headed? Are you from here? What do you do for work?” 

“He told me he grew up in the Bay Area and had just moved back, and I told him how I’d just been transferred to work in the Transamerica Pyramid,” Cindy said.   

After chatting the entire way, the man got off at Lafayette, and Cindy continued her journey to Walnut Creek, where she was meeting coworkers for a “continuation of happy hour.”  

At that second bar, Cindy offhandedly mentioned she met a nice guy on BART. Her colleagues – most of whom were married and eager to set up the new girl in town – pestered her with questions. “Did you get his name? His number? Anything?” 

“Nope,” Cindy said. And that was that.  

Actually, that wasn’t that. Fast forward to the following Wednesday, and Cindy gets a call from the Transamerica receptionist on her floor.  

“Did you meet someone on BART last Friday?” she asked.  

“Uh why?” Cindy replied.  

According to the receptionist, a man had just stopped by with a bouquet of flowers and a note with his phone number, signed “Jeff.” He told the receptionist to deliver the flowers to “the girl who just moved to San Francisco from Phoenix.” He provided no further identifying information.  

After picking up the bouquet, Cindy returned to her desk, picked up her landline and called the man named Jeff.  

The two set a date for that Friday night.  They started out at the Washington Square Bar and Grill and then went to dinner at St. Pierre’s in North Beach. They were the first patrons at the restaurant and the last to leave. At the end of the night, they walked together to the BART station.  

“After that first date, I thought the guy definitely had potential,” Cindy said.  

Cindy’s early intuition was spot on. She and Jeff were engaged that April, less than a year after meeting, and married that October. Seven years later, they welcomed a baby girl, and three years after that, a baby boy. 

This fall, Cindy and Jeff celebrate their 41st anniversary. Four decades later, they’re still head over heels. 

So many people have found love on BART! Read some of our past BART meet cute stories:

BART attorney met the love of her life on San Francisco-bound train

BART Connects: A transit wedding happened naturally for these newlyweds 

Couple who met on BART tie the knot with whimsical BART-themed wedding at Fairyland  

"Good vibes on the train": BART employee takes BART to wedding ceremony at San Francisco City Hall 

“BART Guy” and “BART Girl” finds love on an empty Embarcadero platform  

More than 219,000 of you rode BART this long weekend – to barbecues, to hikes, to watering holes, and perhaps to check off some sites for the Transit Month BART Scavenger Hunt (hosted by YPT SF Bay). 

Speaking of Transit Month, the celebration of regional transportation is fast underway. Keep with Transit Month events -- and hit the ground running on the Ride Contest – to keep your calendar booked in the waning weeks of summer.  

Around BART, some exciting changes are afoot, including our new-and-improved schedule, launching next Monday, Sept. 11. To learn more, watch our explanatory (and entertaining) video and reference this article. We’re think you’re going to like the changes, which emphasize weekend and weeknight service.  

We're also proud to announce that last week BART, community partners, and local youth launched Phase II of our groundbreaking Not One More Girl initiative that addresses sexual harassment and gender-based violence on BART with new strategies to build a culture of supporting girls and gender-expansive youth when riding transit. The second phase of the award-winning initiative places emphasis on enabling people to have a greater sense of empowerment in a harassment situation and exhibits tools that fellow riders can use to provide support when harassment occurs. Read more about the initiative here and scroll to the bottom of this article to view the new art by local artist and muralist Safi Kolozsvari Regalado. 

For an in-depth listing of local events, visit the BARTable website. We publish a weekly event roundup, BARTable This Weekend, that highlights happenings around the region as well as cool contests and sweepstakes from our partners.      

Sunday, Sept. 10: Oakland Pride and Pridefest Oakland 

Oakland Pride and Pridefest Oakland have joined forces for a joyous celebration of the LGBTQ+ community on Sunday, Sept. 10 from 12pm to 6pm in Uptown Oakland. The festivities commence with a parade celebrating LGBTQ+ lives and resilience from 11am to 12pm. Keep an eye out for the BARTmobile during the parade in its special Pride hat.  

September through October 16: Explore the Bay Area on BART, Win Prizes with Agents of Discovery 

From September through October 16, BART has partnered with Bay Area Explorer 4.0. a campaign that uses AR gaming to help kids engage in free outdoor learning experiences using their phones or their parents’ phones. Think Pokémon Go, but for parks and education.  

Anyone can join by downloading the free Agents of Discovery mobile app and completing “missions” made up of educational “challenges” that teaches children about local history, culture, ecosystems, and safety.  

BART launched four missions for riders that will take them on a fun and educational journey from Warm Springs to San Leandro, Millbrae to Daly City, North Concord to Rockridge and Richmond to Ashby.  

Players, or “agents,” who complete missions will receive rewards as they play and earn the chance for big prizes like a $250 Clipper Card. 

Learn more on BARTable.  

Share Your BART Story at bart.gov/YourStory

This week, we launched a call for riders' BART stories. We want to hear what BART means to you and gain insight into how we can continue to improve.

Do you have a favorite BART memory? Have you met a dear friend or life partner aboard a train? Did you take BART to a seminal life event? Have you been sitting on a unique idea to improve the system? We’d like to hear it.

To answer our questions, visit bart.gov/YourStory. Once you've completed the questions, you can enter to win one of three $100 e-gift cards. Respondents have the option to remain anonymous.

Weekend Listen: All About the Schedule Change with BART’s Manager of Scheduling and Planning 

In lieu of our typical Weekend Read we’ve got a Weekend Listen for you. BART’s podcast series, "Hidden Tracks: Stories from BART,” recently released a new episode all about the reimagined new schedule, featuring an interview with BART’s charismatic Manager of Scheduling and Planning, John FitzGibbon. Listen and/or read the transcript here.   

Nosh on Ice Cream at BARTable Creameries 

Summer officially ends Friday, Sept. 22, so you might want to seize the high temps while they're here and get yourself some ice cream from the Bay Area’s BARTable creameries. From Italian-style gelato to Japanese green tea soft serve, head to a BARTable ice cream shop this weekend and reference our curated roundup here.  

Sweepstakes Spotlight: Win Glasses and Tickets to the Lafayette Art & Wine Festival  

Enter to win two glasses and drink tickets to the Lafayette Art & Wine Festival that will take over the streets of downtown Lafayette on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 23 and 24.  

Enter to win by Sunday, Sept. 10 on the BARTable Contests and Deals page.  

Read BART’s Safe & Clean Plan 

Happy Riding this Weekend!   

We hope you enjoy your weekend adventures aboard our trains.      
 
Stay in touch by signing up for the BARTable This Weekend newsletter on the BARTable website – your one-stop shop for all things accessible by BART. You can also keep up with BARTable on Facebook and  Instagram. 

Some of the leaders of Not One More Girl Phase II pose with the project’s new art posters (Art by Safi Kolozvari Regalado). From left to right: Malkia Chionesu, development and purpose alignment consulting with M.CHIO; Gaby Guzman, Latinx Mentoring and Achievement Coordinator of Youth Services with The Unity Council; and Franchesca Rodriguez, Betti Ono Transit Justice Community Engagement Facilitator and graduate student at UC Berkeley’s Department of City & Regional Planning. 

Bystander intervention cards that were launched as part of Not One More Girl Phase II. The two distinct wallet-size cards are now available to riders to discreetly hand to people to signal they need help or support, or to notify someone being harassed that you are there to help and support them. They are available for pickup at Station Agent booths.  

Ni Lee, PE, PMP, Group Manager and Deputy Project Director for VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project, pictured outside BART Headquarters in Oakland. 

In 16 years at BART, Ni Lee, PE, PMP, has been promoted six times. At this rate, she’s averaging a promotion every 2.67 years.  

The secret to her success? 

“Much of what I know,” she said, “I learned as a food server.” 

Ni started working in food service when she was in middle school, serving donuts at a local shop. In the years that followed, she worked at a smattering of restaurants in both Taiwan, where she was born, and California. The list includes McDonald’s, Applebee’s, Chili’s, and Dennys, to name a few. Her last job in the industry was working as a server at California Pizza Kitchen in Emeryville.  

Lee’s current work environment is quite different than those she grew up in. Now a top engineering manager, Lee says much of what she knows about working and managing others crystallized while she was waiting tables and daydreaming about what her future might hold. Writing a book about her restaurant days is on her “secret bucket list.”  

Lee is the Group Manager and Deputy Project Director for VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project. It’s a big job with an admittedly long title. In the role, she manages a team of seven who are responsible for collaborating with the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) throughout the phases of design, construction, testing, and commissioning of the Silicon Valley Phase II Project, emphasizing a strong commitment on safety and reliability. 

Lee wants her staff to feel supported and empowered. As a leader, her goal is to foster a work environment founded on trust, one in which her employees have the right tools and guidance to be successful. Mentoring and supporting their growth is central to her management philosophy, and in her time at BART, she’s finetuned countless resumes and mapped out many a career plan.  

But the teaching goes both ways, she said. In her conversation with BART Communications, Lee referenced a Chinese proverb: “三人行, 必有我師.” In English, the phrase translates roughly to: “When you’re in a company of three, you will find a teacher.”  

“I believe that everyone’s my teacher – my supervisor, my peers, my teams,” she said. “I can learn something from anyone.” 

Lee was raised between Taiwan and Southern California. Regularly switching between continents was hard. She had to constantly make new friends, and out of necessity, she admits she got pretty good at it.  

“This was before the internet and cell phones,” she said. Long-distance calls were expensive, so Ni and her overseas friends sent each other notes in the post.  

Lee's congeniality proved especially useful years later as an engineering student at UC Berkeley. She studied electrical engineering and computer sciences, and in one of her classes, there was an option to enter her team’s final project into a robotics competition. Their project was building a robot “to help socially awkward engineers make friends.”  

“It would come out, do a little dance, and then say pickup lines in three different languages,” Lee said. Her favorite line was, “Hey baby, what’s your major? Is it looking good?”  

Said Lee with a laugh: “We didn’t win.” 

The project sparked a passion for robotics in Lee, especially the realm of autonomous vehicles (this was years before Waymos were cruising San Francisco streets). In her senior year, Lee founded and served as the first president of Cal Robotics, a student organization that fostered a community of robotics enthusiasts. The club doesn’t appear to be operating anymore, but Lee and her Cal Robotics colleagues undoubtedly paved the way for the many robotics clubs currently active on the UC Berkeley campus (the university even has a robotics lab now!).  

While a student at UC Berkeley, Lee also had her first exposure to BART. She didn’t own a car, so “BART and AC Transit were always there for me.” Though she never did finish the autonomous vehicle she designed as an undergrad, “BART’s fully automatic,” she pointed out, and that satisfies the “geekiness in me." 

Lee came to BART from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). She worked closely with BART in her role and quickly realized that the BART staff she worked with “all radiated the same passion.” She wanted to be a part of it.  

In 2008, Lee joined BART as a Safety Specialist in Operations Safety. Things snowballed from there. Since that first job, Lee has served as Senior Operations Safety Specialist, Manager of Operations Safety, Project Manager (this was a “pivot moment” for her career, she said), Manager of Engineering Programs, Senior Manager of Engineering Programs, and now Group Manager. 

And who knows where Lee will soar from here? She's not totally sure either.  

“I should know this because I do career plans,” she said. “Where’s my career plan, ha.” 

Lee can say with certainty that she wants to continue mentoring people. 

“I was afforded that by many, many people throughout my career,” she said. And she wants to repay the favor.  

This story ends where it began. May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and Lee always celebrates the month with delicious meals shared with family, friends, and colleagues. 

“I’m very honored and humbled that there’s an entire month dedicated to celebrating my heritage,” she said. “I’m grateful to the trailblazers who paved the way, and I do feel like I have an obligation to promote cultural awareness.” 

Her favorite way to do so is through food, she said.  

“The month encompasses so many diverse, rich cultures and histories,” she continued, and with that, many different cuisines and dishes and flavors.  

“Who doesn’t love a variety of delicious and diverse food?” she said in closing.  

BART wishes you a wonderful Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. More than 24% of BART employees are members of the AAPI community (as of May 1, 2024), and we want to honor and recognize the ways their heritages and cultures have contributed to BART and our region.  

In celebration of the month, BART Communications interviewed Ni Lee, Group Manager and Deputy Project Director for VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project. Lee discusses growing up between Taiwan and Southern California, the many lessons she learned working in food service, and shares her favorite recipe for hot pot dipping sauce. 

BART celebrates heritage and diversity months throughout the year, and with stories such as Lee’s, we want to recognize some of the exceptional employees in our organization.   

Read about another amazing AAPI BART employee, Crisis Intervention Specialist Caryl Blount on bart.gov/news.  

And check out BARTable’s suggestions for celebrating AAPI Heritage Month near BART stations.