Search

Senior operations foreworker Curtis Zedd Jr. photographed on July 9, 2021

By MELISSA JORDAN
BART Senior Web Producer

Curtis Zedd Jr., a born-and-bred Oaklander, does hard, physical work as a BART senior operations foreworker, troubleshooting problems on trains, his 6-foot-1 stature giving him a strong and commanding presence when emergencies arise.

And yet, it was his empathetic, compassionate, sensitive side that kicked in recently when he was credited with saving the life of a man having a mental health crisis, for which he received a commendation for outstanding service.

It was June 23 and Zedd had just checked in to start a shift at Millbrae Station. He noticed that two station agents were trying to talk to a man who was standing in the trackway between the running rails (the tracks the train runs on) and the electrified third rail, which powers the train and can be deadly if touched.

Zedd’s quick thinking kicked in and he got on the phone to the Operations Control Center, asking for the rail to the powered down, then he sat down on the edge of the platform, made direct eye contact with the man, and locked in his gaze.

Curtis Zedd Jr. photographed using his radio during a shift at SFO Station on July 9, 2021

“The first thing I said to him was, ‘Is everything OK?’ “ Zedd recalled. “And he said, ‘No, I’m just tired. I’m tired of everything,’ And I asked him to tell me about what was going on with him. He said he’d already told it, that he’d told his whole story. And I said, ‘Well, you haven’t told it to me. Tell me what’s going on.’ “

The man, whom Zedd estimated to be in his late 50s, said he was a homeless veteran. He said he had nowhere to go, no hope, and just wanted “to end it all.”

“I told him that tomorrow would be another day. That he was able to wake up today, and now he would be able to wake up tomorrow and there would be another chance.”

“I just sat with him, and kept listening to his story,” Zedd said. “I told him, ‘This is not the way to go. We can get somebody out here to take you to a place to stay, to get you some help. I told him that he mattered, and also that his actions would affect a lot of people, people who would be hurt, who would be traumatized, by what he was trying to do.”

What’s especially remarkable is that Zedd stepped up even after having seen such traumatic situations already in his career. Many years ago, when he was working as a train operator at BART and just a few months out of training, a woman threw herself in front of his train at Montgomery Station; she survived. In another case a couple of years back on the Warm Springs line, he coaxed another person in crisis off the edge of the platform to safety.

Zedd doesn’t want to be called a hero, and said it was just instinct that kicked in. He went down into the trackway to be closer to the man at Millbrae after the third rail had been de-energized and trains were being held back.

“I told him, ‘Talk to me. You can vent. I’ll listen to whatever you have to say. Let’s just get out of the trackway. And in the end he calmed down.”

BART Police arrived soon and took the man to receive a mental health assessment.

“I’ve been in transit for 20 years, before BART at VTA, and unfortunately you see this in the rail industry, you see people at the end of their rope sometimes,” Zedd said. He has some close friends who were on site at the VTA yard the day of the recent mass shooting. He grieves for them, and for all who have been touched by such tragedies.

“These things affect a lot of us transportation workers,” he said. “It’s something that station agents deal with every day; they’re usually the first people to come into contact with anybody having a mental health crisis.”

“When we see people who are in trouble, who need help, we try to help them. We sympathize with them,” he said.

Curtis Zedd Jr. received a commendation for his outstanding work on June 23, 2021

The job of a BART operations foreworker involves supervising train operators and station agents, in addition to troubleshooting and attending to emergencies. It’s an incredibly stressful job, but Zedd said he loves his work.

“When I clock in, for the 8, or 10, or 12 hours I’m here, I try to have a good attitude,” he said. “I come in and do my job to the best of my ability. We all have a lot of respect back and forth.”

Zedd calls himself a “transit junkie” who has been riding BART all of his 41 years. His earliest BART memory is taking the train as a young boy from Coliseum Station in Oakland to 12th Street/City Center Station for the Christmas parade.

Operations Control Center Manager Shanon Matthews, who put Zedd in for the commendation, said he truly went above and beyond the call of duty. “We got a call from Curtis to de-energize the rail,” she said. “This person was very erratic, and Curtis kept the individual engaged in conversation. He kept him distracted and got him to turn away from the third rail. And he actually talked the guy back up on the platform and calmed the guy down. He was a strong, compassionate presence.”

BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez has recently created a Bureau of Progressive Policing and Community Engagement, which includes social-work-trained Crisis Intervention Specialists; you can find job listings for those positions at www.bart.gov/jobs. Because these crisis-focused workers can’t be in all places at all times, work like that of Curtis Zedd, the station agents who first interacted with the man in crisis at Millbrae, and others like them, are essential to BART, and to the wellbeing of all who use the BART system.
 

2025 will be remembered as a year when BART transformed the rider experience through a series of innovations focused on safety and convenience. The emphasis on implementing and maintaining the Safe and Clean Plan has been key to delivering what we are calling the New BART. These are the 10 accomplishments we are most proud of.

1. Next Generation Fare Gates installed at all 50 stations 

BART promised to have the state-of-the-art gates in all stations by the end of 2025, but staff beat that deadline by more than four months when the final gates were installed in August. Next Generation Fare Gates have changed the feel and appearance of stations and have proven to be a strong deterrent against fare evasion. The number of riders who say they saw someone fare evade on their trip dropped 59% in the last year. 

2. The arrival of Tap and Ride 

August also marked the arrival of Tap and Ride, which provides riders the ability to pay for adult fares at BART fare gates using physical contactless credit or debit cards or mobile payment methods, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. BART became the first Bay Area transit agency to offer this convenience. Other Bay Area transit agencies joined BART in December. Tap and Ride is a critical step towards the implementation of Next Generation Clipper, which will offer additional benefits, including free or discounted transfers. 

3. Big decreases in violent and property crime  

The crime rate fell consistently throughout 2025 as BART delivered on its promise to put rider safety first. Through November, violent crime was down 31% while property crimes were down 44% compared with the same period last year. These improvements came as BART PD continued its focus on maintaining a highly visible presence across the system and as new fare gates helped discourage unwanted behavior. 

4. More riders said BART is doing a good job 

BART’s customer satisfaction rate reached 89% in the latest Quarterly Performance Report, up from 83% from the same period a year ago. In February, satisfaction with BART hit its highest mark in ten years in BART’s biannual Customer Satisfaction Survey. 80% of survey respondents said they would recommend BART to a friend or out-of-town visitor. 

5. BART’s safety and cleanliness gains boosted ridership 

BART ridership was on a steady upward trajectory throughout 2025. In October, BART posted its highest weekday average ridership since 2020. Ridership was 10.7% higher than October 2024, with an average of nearly 200,000 weekday riders. In total, passengers took more than 5.3 million trips during the month. On Saturday, October 18, BART recorded 150,000 trips, the highest Saturday ridership in five years.  

6. Big Sync saved riders time 

BART and partner transit agencies continued their collaboration by syncing schedules to make riding transit faster. The Big Sync saw agencies across the Bay Area update their schedules at the same time in mid-January and mid-August to improve transfer reliability and timing. The improved schedule coordination means some riders save up to 20 minutes per trip. And BART updated its digital Passenger Information System on train car screens to show major transit transfer connections at each stop. BART also advanced unified maps and signs through the Regional Mapping and Wayfinding project with new directional signs at Powell Street Station to help guide riders to BART and Muni services. 

7. Fleet of the Future reaches 1,000 cars 

A huge improvement for riders was BART’s transition to filling its entire schedule with only Fleet of the Future trains. BART received its 1,000th Fleet of the Future car from manufacturer Alstom in July. The project is on track to be completed in 2026 when BART accepts the final 1,129th car. It’s expected to come in nearly $400 million under budget thanks to a fast-paced production and delivery schedule as well as BART’s decision to bring more of the engineering work in-house.  Investing in a larger fleet sets BART up to serve the region for decades to come. 

8. BART earned high marks from the Federal Transit Administration 

A review by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) found BART is meeting standards in nearly two dozen categories, including financial management, ability to utilize federal grants, and project implementation. This latest oversight is based on the FTA’s examination of a sample of BART’s award management and program implementation practices.  

9. BART brought stations to life with huge public events 

2025 was an incredible year for public events that highlighted BART’s importance to the communities we serve. In February, BART hosted Valentraine, the first-ever speed dating/friend making event on a moving BART train, and a May the Fourth-themed train ride. Over the summer, BART hosted an Under the Stars Family Movie Night at Concord Station, where we screened never-before-seen footage from a Train Operator’s point of view along all 131 miles of the BART System. Then, in September, the Let’s Glow! BART Anime Festival brought thousands of people to Warm Springs/South Fremont Station. Fall offered a music festival in the North Berkeley parking lot as well as a special Halloween-decorated train ride for families. These events make transit more inviting and celebrate how BART is a welcoming and safe way to experience the Bay Area. Keep a lookout for what we have planned for 2026! 

10. Improved stations and rebuilt infrastructure 

Riders saw the differences as BART revitalized stations and replaced decades-old core infrastructure. BART completed a transformation that made it easier for riders to walk and bike to North Berkeley Station by widening the Ohlone Greenway, building new two-way cycle tracks, and installing more bike lockers, among other upgrades. BART has now installed 19 canopies to better protect escalators in downtown San Francisco. And the Civic Center Street Substation project was completed, boosting system reliability and expanding energy capacity for long-term operations.  

You can read more about BART’s work to rebuild the backbone of the system in the latest Measure RR Annual Report. Measure RR is a $3.5 billion bond measure to replace BART’s aging infrastructure that was approved by voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties in 2016.