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Chief Alvarez regularly walks trains to interact with passengers. Shown here on Feb. 1, 2021; note the poster at left behind blue seats advertising the text-BPD line. 


Ed Alvarez has worked his entire career to meet this moment. Reflecting on his first year as BART Police Chief, Alvarez sat down for an interview in which he laid out an ambitious agenda.

“I want to build the most progressive police department in America,” Alvarez said, of the just under 400 personnel under his watch.  “Not just the most progressive transit police department. The most of any PD.”

Alvarez joined BPD almost a quarter-century ago. It was his first job in law enforcement and he has served his whole career at BART, working his way up through the ranks and making deep connections to the community.



Swearing-in ceremony for Chief Alvarez on Feb. 7, 2020. At left, applauding, is Deputy Chief Angela Averiett, whom Alvarez named to lead the new Bureau of Progressive Policing and Community Engagement

He was appointed as chief on Jan. 1, 2020, and sworn in on Feb. 7, 2020, in a ceremony with blue and gold balloons, sheet cake, handshakes and hugs, just one month before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic. His long years of experience gave Alvarez the insights to quickly implement many strategic initiatives that already have paid off, with more on the way.

Notably, Alvarez created a new Bureau of Progressive Policing and Community Engagement that is an umbrella over a growing team of non-armed personnel that includes the award-winning Transit Ambassadors and soon will include an additional 20 Crisis Intervention Specialists. They’ll focus on connecting those experiencing homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse with services.

The Bureau also will include 10 police officers who will receive specialized training.

Chief Alvarez introduced the first group of BART PD Ambassadors to the public on Feb. 10, 2020

“We’re infusing 40 additional bodies into our system,” Alvarez said. “These are people who are providing presence, resources, who are extra eyes and ears. We’re going to have more presence than we’ve ever had at BART.”  BART Police also have prioritized making it easy to contact them; there is the BART Watch app to communicate in real-time with Dispatch as well as a direct text-BPD line. 

Deputy Chief Angela Averiett, who leads the new Bureau of Progressive Policing, said Alvarez has been a steady hand in a time of great change.

“I think the chief’s leadership is a reflection of the resilience of this organization,” she said. “Through all the major challenges of the past year, he has led us courageously and transparently and kept us focused on the mission. His creating this bureau speaks to his very forward-thinking way of how law enforcement needs to change and adapt, how we need to make meaningful reforms.”

The pandemic and associated economic misery has exacerbated homelessness, stressed an already-fractured patchwork of services, and has exposed disparities in health, safety and other outcomes along race and class lines.


On a train walkthrough Chief Alvarez asked a passenger whose mask was down around his neck to wear it properly

Additionally, the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020 drew worldwide attention and built a movement demanding more accountability from law enforcement. Alvarez said he was appalled by the abuse of power “and the arrogance” in the Minnesota case – and that he conveys that message to BPD personnel.

“We have to earn the public’s trust every day,” Alvarez said. “We can’t take their trust for granted. We have to do better.”

“It shouldn’t have happened,” Alvarez has said of Floyd’s death. “And a lot of departments are changing how they operate because of it, because of him and the other individuals before and after him. It’s been a call to action.”

He’s committed to meeting the moment by increasing training (which already goes beyond state standards), including the innovative ICAT, or Integrating Communications, Assessment and Tactics course. ICAT is designed especially for situations involving people who are unarmed or armed with weapons other than firearms, and who may be experiencing a mental health or other crisis.  

Alvarez also has prioritized working collaboratively with the Citizen Review Board and the Office of the Independent Police Auditor, two civilian oversight bodies that provide another layer of police accountability at BART.

“We all have the same goal of making sure BART is safe for the riding public and our employees,” Alvarez said.
 

Chief Alvarez on one of his regular walkthroughs to listen to concerns of passengers 

As a first-generation immigrant, Alvarez is keenly aware of the issues of mistrust that arise when there are disparate impacts from policing, and that BART is not immune from them.

“We need to be treating all people fairly and equitably,” he said. “That is my expectation for everyone at BPD. We are here to protect and serve. We will continue to work on building bridges and engaging with the communities we serve."


Chief Alvarez at his desk in the BART Police headquarters in Oakland on Jan. 15, 2021

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.