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Eric Mazariego navigates El Cerrito Plaza Station. 

BART is developing detailed descriptions of station tactile guideways, a navigation system for riders who are blind and low vision that leads to bus bays, fare gates, and platform stairs. Find the descriptions here and read the story of their development here. 

Eric Mazariegos has been taking BART “forever.”  

His earliest BART memory is riding trains to eye doctor appointments in San Francisco with his mom. He was eight years old when he started losing his vision, and it took doctors two years to figure out what was happening. That meant lots of appointments – and lots of BART.  

Those long BART rides from his home in Concord to San Francisco and back turned out to be a useful educational tool as his vision loss continued.  

“I rode it so much as a kid, I’d memorized a lot of the stations,” he said. “I had a head start [for navigating the system without vision].”  

Later in life, he began taking BART regularly, first to get to class at San Francisco State, then a job in Fremont, and now to his current workplace, the Orientation Center for the Blind (OCB).  

“It’s my primary mode of transportation,” he said. Rideshares fill in the blanks when necessary (though BART is always his first choice).  

Eric uses his white cane to follow the tactile guideway at El Cerrito Plaza. 

When Eric navigates a BART station, he is listening to the sounds around him and translating the tactile clues from his white cane to the spatial map in his mind.   

Every BART station has a unique soundscape and tactile geography that allows Eric to make his way through a station and onto a BART train.  

“I listen for the turnstile, so I know where to enter. I feel for the carpets near the escalators – a clue that I’m almost there. I hear my cane on the metal landing platform. Then I ascend to the platform,” Eric said, describing some of the cues he uses to navigate a station without vision. When he reaches the platform, there are other guide tools – bumpy tactile guideways that signal you are nearing the trackway, speakers announcing the approach of trains. 

Part of Eric’s job is to support people like him -- people who are blind or low vision -- in learning to move around their cities and regions.  

Eric serves as the Administrator of OCB, a 60-year-old residential training program run by the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) that provides free on-site training to job seekers who are visually impaired and blind. Said Eric: “The mission of the DOR is everyone who wants to work can work.” 

Eric started at OCB as a dorm counselor in 1999. Twenty-five years later, he’s overseeing the organization’s entire staff of 35. To get to OCB from his home in Concord, Eric takes BART, twice a day, five days a week. Without it, his travel options would be extremely limited. 

Eric stands on a BART train. 

The OCB campus is about a half mile from El Cerrito Plaza Station. Every day of the week, you’ll see OCB participants on campus going to and from classes, which include courses such as Daily Living Skills, Cooking, Braille, Adaptive Technology training, and independent travel. Some students are new to blindness. Some come from outside of the Bay Area. Many live on campus through the duration of their training course.  

“I’d have to find a job closer to my house,” he said. “BART opens up the possibilities to work wherever you want, and your job is a huge part of your life. A lot of people take that for granted.” 

There’s a learning curve for OCB students ready to set out on their own via public transportation. First, they must learn white cane skills so they can detect obstacles and pathways and safely orient themselves in spaces they haven’t experienced before.   

Teachers provide hands-on guidance and “BART field trips” to show students how to confidently navigate the system, and they have tactile maps of some stations so they can get a sense of their layouts. Many students want to go out and learn by experiencing it for themselves.  

“When students advance to the point of being able to use BART, they love it. It’s so freeing because it takes you everywhere, runs frequently, and is dependable,” Eric said. “A lot of our students come from Southern California, and they’re not used to having great transit. Many don’t like going back home because they fall in love with our transportation system.” 

Eric enters Downtown Berkeley Station's platform via the stairs. 

About BART Connects 

The BART Connects storytelling series was launched in 2023 to showcase the real people who ride and rely on BART and illustrate the manifold ways the system affects their lives. The subjects of BART Connects will be featured in videos as well as a forthcoming marketing campaign that is slated to run across the Bay Area. Find all the stories at bart.gov/bartconnects.  

The series grew out of BART's Role in the Region Study, which demonstrates BART’s importance to the Bay Area’s mobility, cultural diversity, environmental and economic sustainability. We conducted a call for stories to hear from our riders and understand what BART means to them. More than 300 riders responded, and a selection of respondents were interviewed for the BART Connects series. 

Linda Healey pictured at Walnut Creek Station. 

Do you have a favorite BART memory or story to share? Email a short summary to BART Storyteller Michelle Robertson at [email protected], and she may follow up to schedule an interview.    

Linda Healey took BART to work for more than twenty years. When her son was young, those daily BART rides were her only downtime in the day.  

“BART got me home to my child quickly,” she said. “And it got me home unstressed because I could relax, rather than sit in traffic. That was a gift.”  

Now retired, Healey still looks back on her BART commute fondly. Each morning, Healey would walk about ten minutes from her home to Walnut Creek Station, where she’d board a San Francisco-bound train.  

During the ride, she finally had a few minutes time to read, and she treasured that time. She alternated between the classics and pure “pleasure reading,” from Finnegan’s Wake to Agatha Christie. Thirty minutes or so later, she’d disembark at one of the Market Street stations in San Francisco and head to work for the day at a large financial institution.  

Healey still takes BART to those same stations, but nowadays, her destination is mostly dinner or the theatre, a lifelong passion of hers. In the eighties, she said she took BART to see the original touring casts of classics like Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables. She’s especially grateful for BART’s Senior Clipper card, which gets her 62.5% off her fare.  

One of Healey’s most treasured BART memories doesn’t involve her commute or theatergoing. Eleven years ago, she met a 21-year-old Italian woman on a train who was traveling alone. Her name was Stefania, and she couldn’t remember which station she was supposed to meet her aunt at, but knew she lived in Danville. Healey suspected Walnut Creek was their meeting place.  

The two women struck up a conversation, and Healey learned Stefania lived in Lucca, Tuscany, and was staying with her aunt for 29 days to practice her English. Healey was charmed by her wit and “beautiful Italian accent.” They chatted the entire way.  

When they got to Walnut Creek Station, Healey made Stefania a deal. She would walk home, wait a few minutes, and then return to the station in her car to make sure Stefania had been picked up. Healey told her, “If you’re still there when I get back, I’ll drive you to your aunt’s place.” She returned a half hour later, but Stefania was nowhere to be found. 

The two women kept up a correspondence, with Healey sometimes helping Stefania with her English class homework. In the decade since, Healey has watched Stefania fall in love, get married, and have a child. She sends Healey baby pictures now. Healey hopes to meet the family in Italy one day.  

“We were at such different points in our lives,” Healey said. “But we just hit it off on BART. It never would have happened if it weren’t for that train ride. I really scored.”  

Healey intends to visit Stefania in Tuscany in the near future. She’ll take BART to the airport, as she always does.  

Today, Healey’s son – now in his thirties and living in Oakland – does the same commute his mother did for so many years, though he hops on the train a few stops up the line. He even works for the same company.  

“I passed the BART baton to him,” Healey said. “Hopefully one day, he’ll get to take it just for fun.”  

About the BART Connects Storytelling Series

The BART Connects storytelling series was launched in 2023 to showcase the real people who ride and rely on BART and illustrate the manifold ways the system affects their lives. You can follow the ongoing series at bart.gov/news. 

The series grew out of BART's Role in the Region Study, which demonstrates BART’s importance to the Bay Area’s mobility, cultural diversity, environmental and economic sustainability. We conducted a call for stories to hear from our riders and understand what BART means to them. The call was publicized on our website, social media, email blasts, and flyering at stations. More than 300 riders responded, and a selection of respondents who opted-in were interviewed for the BART Connects series. 

BART Director Melissa Hernandez in the BART boardroom after her appointment to the BART Board of Directors.  

This Hispanic Heritage Month, BART is proud to celebrate members of the BART District of Hispanic and Latino heritage, who enrich our organization and the community at large. Over 15% of BART's workforce identifies as Hispanic and Latino, and we have been celebrating them throughout the month with stories, gatherings, and acknowledgements. 

Read a profile of BART's new Director of the Office of Civil Rights Rudy Garza here and a profile of Aileen Hernandez, BART Interim Manager for Grants & Funding Advocacy Division here. 

Director Melissa Hernandez is becoming accustomed to being “the first.”  

She was not only the first Latina to be elected Mayor of Dublin, making her the first Latina mayor in the history of the Tri-Valley, she is also the first Latina to serve on the BART Board of Directors following her appointment as BART Director of District 5 this spring. 

“Wow, BART, it took fifty years,” Hernandez said with a laugh. It was five decades too many, but Hernandez, a working mom from an immigrant, working-class background, is already bringing her unique experiences to make BART more responsive and accessible to every one of its riders. 

“It makes me emotional. Neither one of my parents graduated high school,” she said. “To have gotten where I am now is really important for my family, for the girls who feel they will not get anywhere because they’re struggling in school and don’t have the right resources. I want to continue to uplift the future generations of women leaders and make certain that all of our institutions are meeting the needs of our region’s many constituencies.” 

Director Hernandez (second from left) is pictured at BART’s Project Doneway fashion show with the judges Charleston Pierce, Mary Campbell, and Randy Wells.  

Hernandez grew up in a large, loving family with solid working-class roots. She still remembers her parents waking before the sun rose to work in the fields and them returning in the afternoon to take care of the children.  

“That is where I get my work ethic and drive for leadership,” said Hernandez.  

She continued: “As someone from the immigrant tradition and a working mom myself, these early experiences drove me to support our public schools, improve our communities, and make certain that all working families have access to jobs. And part of that access means being able to get to a job on time, through a reliable, affordable transportation system!”  

Director Hernandez with Transit Ambassadors Nequavis Brown and Kingsley Odiurho at Hayward Station. 

Hernandez has made championing public transportation the core of her professional life. She has served on numerous transit boards, including as the chair of the Tri-Valley Regional Transportation Authority and the Tri-Valley/San Joaquin Valley Regional Authority.  

You might say transportation runs in Hernandez’s blood. For the majority of his life, Hernandez’s father worked as a truck driver. In fact, at 74 years old, he is still at it, though he's driving small hauls now.  

“My father has the strongest work ethic I know,” Hernandez said. She remembers taking her dad’s old 18-wheeler for a spin – a memory that has stuck with her now that she’s embedded in the transportation industry.  

From left to right: BART board members Mark Foley, Melissa Hernandez, and Rebecca Saltzman are pictured at the BARTmobile's 20th Birthday Party at Orinda Station.  

“It is so difficult to drive those things,” she said. “It takes a ton of practice. The same goes for driving those big city buses and BART trains!”  

Much like her father’s ever-shifting truck routes, Hernandez’s life has had its twists and turns.  

In her teens, she worked at small businesses, including scooping ice cream and working as an office manager at a dental office. Those early work experiences at small local businesses drive her philosophy as a BART board director. 

“COVID was a wake-up call for BART,” she said. “It gave the organization time to get back to the basics of quality service, safety, and cleanliness for our customers.”  

From left to right: BART Chief Transportation Officer Tera Stokes-Hankins, Assistant Chief Maintenance Officer Greg Lombardi, Deputy General Manager Michael Jones, Director Melissa Hernandez, BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin, BART Police Lieutenant Jaswant Sekhon, Assistant Chief Transportation Officer Eric Matthews. 

Being a Latina in a position of power has not always been easy. As Hernandez wrote in her application for the BART Board: “I am well acquainted with being the only person who looks like me, or who has my experiences, in any room I enter.” 

Rather than shrinking when she walks into those rooms, Hernandez is focused on elevating her unique experiences and building common ground in these polarized times. 

Director Hernandez with Alameda County Supervisor Elisa Marquez at Marquez’s family’s restaurant in Hayward. 

“It is important to have many diverse groups of people at the table – and not just different genders, orientations, and ethnicities, but people from different upbringings,” she said. “Much of who we are stems from our childhoods and how we were raised. I am always trying to bring forward the values my parents imparted.” 

One such value is mentorship. 

Director Melissa Hernandez with her son.  

At the dental office where Hernandez began working as a teenager, she learned the impact a consistently supportive role model can have on your life.  

“The solo dental practitioner really took me under his wing, and it spurred my first career in the health services,” she explained.  

“Really, it was the folks—whether my parents, small business owners, and other women in leadership— who helped me along the way and made me the person I am. And now that I am here, I want to give back to the communities I serve and most importantly, allow my daughter and other little girls to dream about all that they can accomplish and contribute.” 

Director Hernandez with her daughter in San Francisco. 

Starting September 11, 2023, BART will roll out a reimagined service plan that is responsive to post-pandemic commute patterns and ridership growth opportunities. This new schedule is designed to work for everyone, every day.  
Listen to our podcast to take a deep dive into the changes being made. 
And watch our explainer video. 

Highlights of the new schedule:

• Eliminates 30-minute wait times on nights and weekends. 
• No BART rider will wait more than 20 minutes for a scheduled train no matter what hour of the day or day of the week.
• 50% increase in evening service seven days a week.
• Service on BART’s busiest weekday line, the Yellow Line, increases from trains every 15 minutes to every 10 minutes from Pittsburg/Bay Point.
• Reduced wait times thanks to new scheduled transfers. 
• New schedule improves reliability and better serves SFO and OAK. All Red Line trains will stop at SFO before Millbrae, streamlining service for airport riders. 
• Only new Fleet of the Future trains will run for the base schedule
• Trains will run shorter to enhance safety and cleanliness and to increase police presence

Examples of what the new service means for riders:

• People that live near Pittsburg, Concord, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, and other areas along parts of Highways 4, 680, and 24, will have 10-minute BART service to San Francisco, Berkeley, and Richmond (a timed transfer is required for Berkeley and Richmond) until 9pm.
• People that live near Milpitas, Fremont, Union City, and other areas near Highway 880, will have 10-minute BART service to San Francisco until 9pm (a timed transfer may be required).
• There will now be nine trains per hour (instead of eight) to/from SFO until 9:00pm and three trains per hour until midnight (instead of two).
• On weekends, until 9pm, the Richmond Line will have trains every 10 minutes that will get you to San Francisco (a timed transfer may be required).
• On weekends, until 9pm, the Berryessa Line will have trains every 10 minutes that will get you to San Francisco (a timed transfer may be required).

View our new Safe & Clean Plan.

Train Schedule Timetable PDFs available

View the PDF timetables. 

The schedule change is cost-neutral and relies less on flattened levels of work commute trips and more on ridership growth opportunities.
 
To make this significant investment in service on nights and weekends, some weekday service will be slightly scaled back based on ridership trends and areas of the system where riders are served by multiple lines with the option to transfer. BART’s Blue Line to and from Dublin will have 20-minute frequencies at all hours, marking an increase on nights and weekends, but an added 5 minutes between trains during weekday daytime hours. BART’s Blue (Dublin-Daly City) and Orange (Richmond-Berryessa) lines serve the fewest riders in the system on weekdays. 

Riders coming from the Richmond and Berryessa/North San Jose direction will now have a train about every 10 minutes on weekdays during daytime hours instead of a train every 7.5 minutes. BART will increase communication on these lines about the option to take an Orange Line (Richmond-Berryessa) train and transfer if necessary to complete their trip. To make 10-minute service possible for Green and Orange line riders to the city, we had to move the Blue Line to better align with the Green Line, removing the Dublin to Richmond transfer opportunity at Bay Fair. It will now be a 17-minute wait at Bay Fair if you want to make that transfer. But we adjusted the Blue Line so instead of waiting 17 minutes at Bay Fair, Blue Line riders can now transfer to the Red Line/Richmond train at West Oakland, giving the rider a 15-minute advantage (requires changing platforms).

BART to Antioch service will now be every 20 minutes instead of every 15 minutes on weekdays so that every other BART train lines up for a timed transfer with an Antioch DMU train at the transfer platform. BART doesn't own enough DMU train cars to match the new 10 minute frequencies of the Yellow line. The BART train that doesn't line up with the Antioch DMU train, will turn around at Pittsburg/Bay Point. Antioch riders will benefit from more frequent service on nights and weekends (from 30 minutes to 20 minutes).

SFO and OAK Airports will be Better Served 

The new schedule improves service to and from San Francisco International and Oakland International airports. During the daytime, 9 trains per hour will serve SFO instead of 8, and on nights and weekends, trains will arrive and depart every 20 minutes instead of every 30 minutes.

All Red Line trains will now stop at SFO before heading to Millbrae, this will streamline the customer experience to and from the airport. Currently the Red Line passes through Millbrae before heading to the airport. This change allows us to increase service to SFO, is responsive to current travel patterns, and eliminates confusion at Millbrae for airport riders. For Millbrae riders, this move adds a few minutes to the trip. 

There will also be more trains on nights and weekends to OAK.

Improved Reliability

This new service plan will also improve on-time performance and improve reliability during the peak commute because there will be less train traffic and congestion through the core of our system. Trains won’t stack up as frequently as they will be better spaced apart, allowing us to recover from delays faster.
BART will still maintain a clock-face schedule seven days a week offering a consistent timetable for easy planning no matter what day of the week, but now it will be with 20-minute common headways.

Changes in Frequencies

The maps below display the changes to the number of trains per hour for each line for weekday daytime 5-line service, weekend 5-line service, and evening 3-line service.

(Weekday daytime 5-line service)

(Weekend daytime 5-line service)

(Evening 3-line service)

*This article was originally published on April 27, 2023.

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Click on the image to watch an explainer video on the upcoming BART schedule change on September 11th.