BART – Bay Area Rapid Transit

And just when we think BART couldn’t possibly get any worse we find out the security cameras on the majority of the cars are fake. So much for our safety. Oh but now that someone was murdered on a BART train last month BART is going to put real cameras in the cars. Too little too late.

A half hour from downtown to SFO? For a quarter the price of a taxi and half the price of an UberX? Yes, please. The train that I rode from Powell Street station was clean and quiet. It wasn’t rush hour, so there was plenty of seating. The train was well lit and I felt secure. The downtown station was a bit dingy and smelly, but the one at the airport was bright and well lit.

FARE EVADERS
In light of the recent fare increase, I get quite irritated when I see a fare evader. I see it occur about 3 times per week. I see this crime so often that I now can tell when someone is about to evade the fare by watching their body language. They begin to look over at where the station agent is located. Often the station agent is busy/​talking to another station agent/​distracted/​assisting a customer. The fare evader walks to the turnstile which is located farthest from the station agent, and positions himself very close to the customer in front of him who is in the process of going through the turnstile. Then the fare evader quickly runs through before or during the seconds that the turnstile gate closes. Often, the fare evader has a very satisfied look on his face, that he never pays for a BART ride, and never intends to pay again. Can you imagine how many thousands of dollars BART may be losing? (And we, the honest people, are paying higher fares for?) If me, just one person, is seeing the thieves evade the fare at least 3 times per week, there must be many, many more that are unseen.
One evening recently at the Pittsburg station, I witnessed another fare evader and decided I had seen enough. I went up to the station agent, told her what I saw in a loud voice, and pointed to the fare evader. The fare evader saw me do this. The station agent did not try to detain him. She did not announce anything on the speaker system. As I was leaving the station, the fare evader followed me and told me that he «was tired of people like me doing things to his people.» I assumed he was trying to make my reporting of his crime to the station agent into a racial issue (I am white; he was black.) He kept following me so I turned around and yelled as loudly as I could, asking for someone to call BART police. After 15 seconds of my screaming, he wandered away and got on a bus. I called BART police myself, but they never appeared.
One time I asked a station agent about the prevalence of these fare evaders. He told me the following: «the Board of Directors at BART have instructed us to not to do anything about it.»
Twice, I have called the «Comments and Complaints» phone line to voice my concern about this, and asked what is BART’s policy on dealing with the fare evaders. I asked if they could please return my call. I have never heard back from BART. That phone line is: 510– 464‑7134.
EATING AND DRINKING ON TRAINS
BART has signs posted in the stations and inside the train cars prohibiting eating and drinking. It is announced on the speaker system via a recorded message, and the consequence when caught is a $ 250 fine. Yet there are a good number of people who ignore the rules. I wouldn’t care so much about this normally — but I have realized how these rule breakers can actually cause a danger to other passengers. When liquids are spilled on the floor, passengers can slip and fall. I was in the same car as a woman who spilled her coffee right before the train departed the station. Then I observed how the coffee «traveled» all over the floor of the car, expanding further each time the train stopped and began moving again.
On my trip each morning, the train begins to become very crowded, especially at the MacArthur station. I see people carrying tall, hot, paper cups of coffee. They are standing up holding the coffee, and they are positioned extremely close to other passengers. If the train comes to a sudden stop (which happens often), and if that hot coffee spills on fellow passengers, then doesn’t BART recognize the potential lawsuit (s)?
Additionally, scraps of food, ketchup, mustard, and other food items are seen on the seats, even in the morning, when you would think that the trains should have been cleaned prior to the morning commute. Shells from nuts and seeds, chips, Cheetos, open cans of soda, and water bottles roll on the floor.

I use BART 4 times a week for my commute from Orinda-​Montgomery and back. It can be smooth and tolerable, but when push comes to shove it’s miserable.
I can somewhat overlook the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of the stations and trains. Even though Montgomery is seriously extremely gross. They had people in hazmat suits clean the stairs at some point. That says all.
What’s more an issue is poor communication and the terrible design of the system itself.
When something happens, the announcements through the intercom are barely audible because the quality is terrible. So you’re left wondering what’s going on and how long it’ll take to resolve.
Since everything from West Oakland through the later San Francisco stops is going through the same 2 tracks, any minor incident shuts the whole system down.
It looks like they are updating the LED signs in the city, however signage at SFO are terrible. I have missed a late train due to insufficient signage, which made me arrive home 30 minutes later. I could have taken the train that was on the wrong side of the platform but it wasn’t posted anywhere where that train would be headed. Station agents just shrug and didn’t think it would be a big deal. A station like SFO that has many tourists should have proper signs. If the LEDs don’t work, put temporary signs up, or stand on the platform and announce what’s going on. It’s not rocket science.
Oh and another tidbit that drives me crazy are my fellow riders. People that stand right at the doors for 30 – 45 minutes straight should just move down the fricking aisle and not block the doors. Ridership 101 people.

Ridiculously rude Asian guy on south San Francisco Bart station. 12÷26÷15 I entered the station so he started to run after me accusing me that I didn’t buy a ticket. I told him I will buy it at the exit because I don’t know where I am going
he started to say something like «oh why u going if you don’t know where u going «it’s not his business why and I don’t have to explain every stupid worker what happened in my life. Is he really getting paid for being rude or what? And if he thinks he did the right thing it’s mistake because I am gonna complain more and more until he learn how to respect people

People running the Embarcadero Station should be fired.
Why is that during morning rush hours, you have escalators going down? When the majority of the people are trying to exit the Bart platform? Did Bart realize that people are obese so that it tries to make them take the stairs?

The most respectful, safe, clean, trustworthy, fun, wholesome people do not ride BART.

I bike from my house to Bart in roughly 25 – 30 mins. My Bart ride is roughly 45 mins to work. I depend on BART to be reliable and on time and on serval occasions they fail. This service has many issues ranging from several delays, broken Add fair machines and poor scheduling. I can however say that all the Bart attendants that I have met have been very friendly and helpful. The trains however have added updated like hard floors and upholstery seats. If I had one major issue it would be for the bikers. We pay the same fair but get treated like pest. I equate that issue to the over crowded trains during commuter hours. Perhaps Bart should re-​assess their the schedule system for the commuters who live in Pittsburg and Lafayette areas.

Sure… it gets you from Point A to Point B and serves people without other transportation options. But its a bad experience that absolutely pales in comparison to mass transit system in major cities around the world. BART is a poorly planned linear system that leaves populated areas of the Bay Area poorly served. There aren’t enough cars to provide service even as it is due to BART’s poorly managed financial condition and the cars on the track are generally very overcrowded. The trains itself sound like they are about to fall apart as they rattle down the ancient tracks and the interiors are filthy and appear to go uncleaned for months. Windows, seats, floors are all dirty and stained. The stations are for the most part are dirty, depressing concrete monoliths that reflect the institutional, unimaginative utilitarian architecture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many stations and parking lots are dangerous after dark.
Worst of all, BART management seeks to stick taxpayers with new taxes to operate the system in 2016. Meanwhile, BART will not seek to tax corporations and real estate owners whose property values skyrocketed when BART stations were constructed near their property. Such assessments are perfectly legal to do under California law and many mass transit systems around the globe provide funding this way. This funding failure has been studied by planning and transportation professors at UC Berkeley and reported in this article… www​.east​bay​ex​press​.com/​o​a​k​l​a​n​d​/​b​a​r​t​s​-​b​i​g​-​g​i​f​t​-​t​o​-​w​e​a​l​t​h​y​-​c​o​r​p​o​r​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​C​o​n​t​e​n​t​?​oid=3 654 041
BART/​mass transit is a public good. But this is a system designed to barely get by, which it is.

I’m not going to argue against BART as the fastest and often most reliable form of public transport in the bay area. I will say however, that when something did go wrong, my customer service experience was horrible. When asking politely about a malfunctioning machine, I was instantly treated to the answer, «it didn’t do that. What did it do?» When I explained, I was met with «that’s not my problem,» followed by multiple, painstakingly condescending answers to my simple desire to find someone who could help me.
Take the BART, just realize that they have Comcast-​grade customer service.

Although many trains run on similar tracks, which can be confusing to visitors, the public train system is great for getting around the Bay area without the need for a car. I can’t imagine going to all the places that we went in three days while driving and trying to park. I love the trains and think they are more convenient than trying to drive around SF and oakland. I gave 4 stars because of the loud noise while going through tunnels, the inconsistent temperature of the trains and the confusing ticket-​buying machines.

For all its quirks, BART is a major asset to the SF Bay Area and a strong positive quality of life differentiator. I take it from the far suburbs to the City pretty much every day and to me that beats driving in our traffic jams in every way. Of course, it helps that I live at the end of the line and can always get a good seat on my way to work so I can sleep or do something fun or productive.
It is mostly functional as big delays are fairly rare (once or twice a month do I get hit by those). If one wants to live near a station, the choice of neighborhoods is great as the service area in the East Bay is large. The stations and trains are clean-​ish and modern-​ish (compared to Chicago or NYC). Clipper payment system is impeccable. Many stations do have large parking lots that always have room if you are there by 7:30. A lot of the tracks are elevated or at least are on the surface, affording a great view of the Bay Area. Most importantly, speed is unbeatable when roadways are congested.
It is unfair to compare BART to transit in places like Northern Europe or East Asia. Sure, those are superior but for America, BART is just awesome. It is no secret that public transportation is just not a priority in this country so an apples to apples comparison is called for. In my experience, the only system in the US that compares to BART in both service area and cleanliness/​modernity is the Washington Metro and even that comparison is a toss up. Folks like to bring up NYC as the ultimate transit success yet as functional as its subway is, a lot of it is unbelievably delapidated.
I love my BART.

Its a huge f u to your passengers when you try to hide outages. An alert system can easily be integrated into the site. Or at the very least, let the people at the terminal know what is going on. Not doing so is amatuer communication indicative of a group of people who have no clue what they are doing.
ALL terminal operators should be notified immediately of any outage so they can alert riders before they enter the terminal and wait 30m for a train that is not coming. show ALL delays on the prompter. Its 2015.
I had to return home today because BART was down. no where could I get any information online about it being back up. I had to walk back and forth to the terminal (15m each way) to see if it was up. Hours of my time was wasted because of poor decisions to not alert and communicate with passengers.
The technology and management of BART is 1985…

Gets you where you want to go, most of the time.
The tunnels can be uncomfortably loud for some passengers.
The cars can be uncomfortably hot and humid from lack of ventilation.
The signage of which station you’re at is often hard to see, if visible at all, from within a car.
The bart mobile app is often a minute (or more) behind, where it says 1 minute left when the train is actually pulling into the station.
The trains are often delayed.

I have mixed feelings about the BART, which I think just about everyone can agree with. I will break this down from two viewpoints, and tell you how I arrived at my conclusion.
Viewpoint #1– Lived in California their entire life, with a few trips to NYC, LA, and maybe London once. I would say this person’s name is John. He loves the BART for its convenience and value. It’s the easiest way to get around — a good alternative to driving, and faster. Usually reliable and usually clean, the BART provides good service for a wide area around the Bay. He wishes it ran past midnight, but he’s generally happy with the overall value proposition, all things considered.
Viewpoint #2 — Grew up on the East Coast, near Boston and New York at separate times, and then lived in Asia for years, hitting the major metropolises and also visiting major cities in Europe and the Middle East. So, even being as generous as possible, I can give BART a maximum of 2 stars. First off, you need ear plugs when you’re riding. I’ve read it can spike over 100dBs at certain times under the bay, which is unacceptable for everyday riders to endure that. Next, the stations and trains are not that dirty, but they’re not clean either. Tokyo and Seoul take the crown in that category. For speed, BART is slower yet again, because there are constant delays and breakdowns. How about having to transfer to another train when going from Berkeley to San Francisco? This would be acceptable in a network like Seoul or Tokyo, but with 4 lines, no. Just, no.
BART fails in my eyes simply because of the network. Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong… I could go on — they all have extensive networks that provide incredible city coverage. It’s not just the coverage, however, because those places all have more people. Would you guess that the BART is the most expensive out of all of them? Singapore’s minimum fare is under $ 1. Seoul is right around there as well. I can’t expect round-​the-​clock service, but even my minimum expectations are not met on mass transit in San Francisco (bus, muni… also looking at you). Yes, it’s better than some other places I’ve been (Ghana, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos), but to be such a great place to live and have this as a huge negative is disappointing. The thing is, I don’t see it getting better anytime soon.

Instead of setting a flat fare per trip like some commuter trains, BART requires passengers to pay by the mile. They post a chart on the wall to help you locate your final destination and pay the corresponding fare.
We waited in line ten minutes to purchase our tickets because the people in front of us were confused about the ticket buying process. It’s definitely not intuitive. If you pay with a $ 20 bill, the ticket machine assumes that you want to buy a $ 20 ticket. If you want one for a smaller dollar amount you have to subtract value from your $ 20 ticket in $ 1 increments.
I appreciate BART for getting us from the airport to the burbs in a reasonable amount of time. That’s about all the praise I can muster up though.
We rode one of the 1970s era trains that looks like a silver sock puppet with racing stripes. The ride was rough and incredibly loud. Actually, loud isn’t even the word to describe the grating shriek of metal on metal – it was almost demonic. I’m prone to motion sickness so being jostled around for much of the ride made me feel queasy too.
The main reason I didn’t enjoy my ride on BART is because the train car and track didn’t seem designed for one another and it made for an uncomfortable ride. San Francisco deserves better.

Bart… older than I am.
I will start by saying that its very useful when travelling and especially going to «Special» events involving libations.
Now, the trains have a lot of issues and it’s pretty often. In the winter time you’re often likely to get on a train with its air conditioning on (which I don’t mind as I love cold weather), but in the devils heat you are also likely to board a train with the heat on which is sickening. Whether it’s a «Medical» emergency, police activity, or just some unknown delay… it happens a lot. The trains are pretty clean for the most part, but the employees can come across as unhappy and treat everyone the same. A paying passenger doesn’t often look like a homeless person begging or trying to ride for free, but some Bart employees act like you simply don’t matter whether you are polite or not.
I will share one of my experiences with a sad Bart agent… the clipper card was recently introduced and the Bart system was not fully prepared for clipper. My clipper card did not work at several of the gates so instead of holding up other passengers I went to «See Agent» as the machine instructed. I politely told the agent good morning and explained that I tried to use my clipper card and it would not work… the agent came out stating «you just want me to work today…» was serious and not joking with me. They got it to work after running it across the reader MANY times, and told me I just have to do it right next time. I thanked them kindly and went to work.
I have family that works for Bart and have gotten assistance with a smile from many Bart employees so they definitely deserve stars.
Everyone knows Bart as a whole is a great asset to the Bay Area in general, but Bart can do better.

You made us wait in the cold today at the 853 am east Dublin because the driver had only like one door open all the way in front what bs nonsense is this I paid to board not get shut outside for 10 minutes. There’s no good logic to not open more doors. We expect a reply to this ASAP.
#2 as I write this I’m looking at dirt all around seats and windows and outside looks dirty too. Do better job cleaning.
#3 get a better Ac system that supports capacity else charge me less for half the service quality.
Get your act together.

Bay Area Rapid Transit has its own Unilocal page?! Wow, I’m impressed. Unilocal really does have EVERYTHING available for review.
This is a really tough call to make, but since I don’t drive, I am pretty much dependent on BART. Because of this, I will give them a 3 instead of a lower score.
I live very close to Pleasant Hill BART, and on the weekdays, my commute into the city is usually a breeze. If I manage to catch a certain train, I always have a seat, but anything a few minutes earlier or later than that one train seems to be packed. The trip back, however, is much less comfortable.
I get off work at 3pm, 4pm at the latest, and even before the big 5 o’clock rush, I struggle to find seating, let alone a place to stand sometimes. People push and shove their way past me, even when I am crammed into the train with little to no room in between myself and the next commuter. Sometimes I just stay in the city a few hours longer, grab a meal or see a movie, just so I can avoid the hassle of rush hour.
A great number of trains are usually somewhere between slightly messy and disgusting. I have seen trash, empty bottles, mysterious stains (and smells) on the floor and on the seats. I thought they were supposed to be getting new trains? Granted, the new vinyl material for the chairs is a huge improvement over the fabric, and much less smelly. I would highly recommend they get rid of the carpeted floors.
On the weekends, the Yellow Line always seems to have issues with delays and single tracking, so my 20-​minute wait for a train turns into a 40+ minute wait. I’ve waited over an hour for a train several times on my Saturday commute.
On Tuesday, what with the windstorms, it was a 2 hour trip from Embarcadero to Pleasant Hill… an hour of which was spent waiting out in the cold at Lafayette because they kicked us off the train. I was literally so cold, I was tearing up and shivering. No apologies offered, no free ride, and the gate checker was very rude to me to boot. I called the BART customer service line and left a message, but of course, never heard back.
Despite all of these gripes, when the train IS on time and when I am able to find a seat (or a spot to stand without it feeling like a mosh pit), it is a great relief to not have to deal with traffic or pollution. If they could just work on being consistent, especially with the Pittsburg/​Bay Point trains, I would greatly appreciate that.
Extending their service on holidays is also a wonderful gesture, but if they could figure out a way to run a few late-​night trains on weekends, that would also make a huge difference. I’m not the party animal I used to be, but sometimes I enjoy going to concerts, and they often let out at midnight, which is about the time the last train leaves the San Francisco stops. How about just one or two post-​midnight trains leaving every half hour or hour? Just my two cents.
At least there is always an interesting tale to tell about BART, as it services all types of folks. My favorite one was the drunk lady who brought a glass of wine onto the train, complained about her boyfriend, and then fell asleep on my shoulder. Be strong, Drunk Lady. Life’s not so bad, is it?

Recently my usual station began charging to park, one of the last to do so. I forgot to pay for my spot this morning (I’ve been lazy, haven’t got the EZRider pass yet). I called a friend who was actually willing to go pay my $ 1, providing the Station Attendant would let him in the fare gate soley for this purpose (it’s about a ten foot walk past the gate, in full view of the attendant.)
He was let in and my spot did get paid for, but not without a scolding and a stern «Don’t expect us to let you do that again.»
My God, Bart employees love to be hated.