BART

A BART train enters a station (I can't remember which)

Website

http://www.bart.gov has schedules, routes, fares and more

BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit and is a high-speed rail system with 43 stations. It travels through eastern San Francisco, from Millbrae on the peninsula and ending at four stations in the East Bay: Richmond, Pittsburg/Bay Point, Dublin/Pleasanton, and Fremont.

BART connects with Caltrain in Millbrae and with Amtrak in Richmond. It makes a stop at SFO and there is a shuttle from the Coliseum station to the Oakland International Airport. The four northernmost San Francisco BART stations are also Muni Metro stations. To connect with Amtrak, riders can take either the Richmond-Millbrae line or connect to the Richmond-Fremont line at Oakland City Center/12th Street in Oakland when direct trains are not available. There is no direct Richmond train on Sundays and in the evening.

Bikes can be brought onto BART trains, but there are several restrictions during commute hours (weekdays between 7:05 and 8:50 am, and 4:25 to 6:45 pm). During these times, bikes cannot be on BART within San Francisco. Anyone traveling to or from the East Bay with a bike during commute hours has to get on or off at Embarcadero station.

BART policy forbids taking bikes onto escalators, and the 16th Street station has a bike ramp along the edge of stairs in the southwest corner of 16th and Mission.

More details on bike rules can be found on BART's website, here.

Bathrooms in underground stations in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley have signs that say something to the effect of, "Due to terrorism concerns, you cannot use the toilet." i.e. Bart is too cheap to maintain the downtown bathrooms or they are getting vandalized too much. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/16/MNG9TR15PL1.DTL

Several changes were implemented to BART service on January 1, 2008. BART trains run more frequently every day after 7 pm and all of Sunday. The track layout is essentially the same, with the following exceptions:

This line no longer bypasses the San Francisco airport and is now limited to running on weekdays after 7 pm and on weekends. Passengers traveling between Caltrain and the San Francisco airport must now head northbound before switching to a southbound train, but the many passengers traveling between Millbrae and San Francisco now experience a more direct route that is six minutes shorter. Most trains heading north from Millbrae will offer a timed transfer to SFO at San Bruno.

Previously extending from Richmond to Daly City, the Richmond-Millbrae line now provides direct access from Amtrak in Richmond to Caltrain in Millbrae. Service is limited to weekdays, and now starts around 4 am instead of 5 am.

Like the Richmond-Millbrae line, the Pittsburg/Bay Point-SFO line used to stop at Daly City. Now it travels to SFO, with the earliest train arriving at the airport at 5:15 am instead of 5:31 am.

Another change implemented to BART service in January 2008 was a fare increase amounting to an additional 10 to 30 cents depending on the route. Fares within the city raised from $1.40 to $1.50. The most expensive trip, which is between Pittsburg/Bay Point and Millbrae, now costs $6.60 instead of $6.30. BART's reasoning for increasing these fares is based on inflation.

BART's fares are loosely based on the total distance traveled within the system. Passengers can ride in between any of the eight San Francisco stations for no charge with a Fast Pass, which costs $55 a month. Individual BART tickets can't be combined, but any ticket can be added to at either a fare machine or an add-value machine. Alternatively, tickets with small amounts of change remaining can also be donated to local charities via the Tiny Tickets Program.

• I know a guy who used to collect the Fast Passes and he has this huge photo album collection of all the passes he's ever used. Someone should really make an art piece out of those things. -EmilyTung

Inside a BART train (July 2008).

BART's San Francisco stations, from north to south are below:

• Embarcadero
  

• Montgomery
  

• Powell
  

• Civic Center
  

• 16th Street Mission
  

• 24th Street Mission
  

• Glen Park
  

• Balboa Park

Peninsula BART stations, from north to south, are in:

• Daly City
  

• Colma (built over the main BART train yard)
  

• South San Francisco
  

• San Bruno
  

• San Francisco International Airport
  

• Millbrae

A BART machine crashes and reveals its hidden secret: Windows (2007). A BART machine's innards (2007).

East Bay BART stations include:

• Oakland City Center/12th Street
  

• 19th Street/Oakland
  

• West Oakland
  

• MacArthur
  

• Ashby
  

• Downtown Berkeley
  

• North Berkeley
  

• El Cerrito Plaza
  

• El Cerrito del Norte
  

• Richmond
  

• Rockridge
  

• Orinda
  

• Lafayette
  

• Walnut Creek
  

• Pleasant Hill
  

• Concord
  

• North Concord/Martinez
  

• Pittsburg/Bay Point
  

• Lake Merritt
  

• Fruitvale
  

• Coliseum/Oakland Airport
  

• San Leandro
  

• Bay Fair
  

• Castro Valley
  

• Dublin/Pleasanton
  

• Hayward
  

• South Hayward
  

• Union City
  

• Fremont

A new West Dublin station is currently under construction, and should be done sometime in 2009.

BART launched the myBART program in 2007 as an interactive resource providing passengers with additional BART information, such as a calendar of free events near stations, as well as discounts on things such as admission to other events, and contests to win BART tickets. Unlike bart.gov, myBART's site is written in a humorous, youthful tone — possibly intended to give the service a more approachable demeanor.

Packard Jennings and Steve Lambert (public domain)

In November of 2007 the city's Art on Market Street program featured illustrations by Packard Jennings and Steve Lambert that were inspired by the question "what would you do if you didn’t have to worry about budgets, bureaucracy, politics, or physics?"

In November 2007, BART announced that six of its stations will get Peet's Coffee shops. However, eating and drinking in trains and stations is still banned.

In February 2008 a trial to offer Wi-Fi on trains was started.

Trivia: The hole in the Bart ticket is to let vision impaired people know which way to insert their ticket into the fare gate.

If you'd like to exercise your First Amendment right to free speech on BART, make sure you obtain a Free Speech Permit.

Need help finding your way around? Directions can help you.