Bart Planner Trip
Bart Planner Trip
Bay Area Rapid Transit ( BART ) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on 104 miles (167 km) of track with 43 stations in four counties. With average weekday ridership of 346,504 passengers, BART is the fifth busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the United States.
BART is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, a special-purpose transit district that was formed in 1957 to cover San Francisco, Alameda County, and Contra Costa County. The name BART is an acronym and is pronounced as a word, not as individual letters. In some ways, BART is the successor to the Key System, which ran streetcars across the lower deck of the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge until 1958.
BART has served as a highly successful rapid transit and commuter rail system, and it has provided a valuable alternative transportation route to highway transportation. Due to the success and the number of commuters depending upon the rail system, BART has been undergoing a vast modernization to improve the quality of the system and its ability to serve the public's transportation needs. These modernizations have included overhauls of the stations, the purchase of new and refurbished rolling stock, and extensions to the area covered by the BART lines.
History
Development and origins
Main article: History of the Bay Area Rapid TransitSome of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System's current coverage area was once served by the electrified streetcar and suburban train system called the Key System. This early twentieth century system once had regular trans-bay traffic across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. By the mid-1950s that entire system had been dismantled in favor of highway travel using automobiles and buses - given the explosive growth of expressway construction. A new rapid-transit system was proposed to take the place of the Key System during the late 1940s, and formal planning for it began in the 1950s. Some funding was secured for the BART system in 1959, and construction began a few years later. The first passenger rail service commenced on a few stretches of track in September 1972. The new BART system was hailed by some authorities as a major step forwards in subway technology.
However, questions arose concerning the safety of the BART system and the huge expenditures necessary for the construction of the BART network. Praise for the new transportation system was not unanimous at first.
Recent history
A recent study shows that along with some Bay Area freeways, some of BART's overhead structures could be extensively damaged and could potentially collapse in the event of a major earthquake, which is predicted as highly likely to happen in the Bay Area within the next 30 years. Extensive seismic retrofit will be necessary to address many of these deficiencies, although one in particular, the penetration of the Hayward Fault Zone by the Berkeley Hills Tunnel, will be left for correction after any disabling earthquake, with the consequences for in-transit trains, their operators, and their passengers left to chance.
In May 2004, BART became the first transit system in the nation to offer cellular telephone communication to passengers of all wireless carriers on its trains underground. This is in contrast to other systems in United States, which, while having some cellular telephone service, do not provide it for passengers of all the major cell phone carriers. Service was made available for customers of Verizon Wireless, Sprint/Nextel, AT&T Mobility, and T-Mobile in and between the four San Francisco Market Street stations from Civic Center to Embarcadero. In 2005, coverage was made available between Balboa Park and 16th St. Mission. By July 2008, the fifth cell phone network of the Bay Area, MetroPCS, was added. In December 2009, service was expanded to include the Transbay Tube, thus providing continuous cell phone coverage between West Oakland and Balboa Park. Service is planned to be added in downtown Oakland, Berkeley, and the Berkeley Hills Tunnel by the end of the third quarter 2010. Coverage is expected to be added to South San Francisco and San Bruno in 2011. The goal is to provide continuous cell phone and internet service throughout the entire BART system.
Starting on February 20, 2007 BART entered into an agreement to permit a beta test of WiFi Internet access for travelers on the BART system. It initially included the four San Francisco downtown stations; Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, and Civic Center. To date over 30,000 patrons have utilized the service. The testing and demonstration also includes above ground testing to trains at BART's Hayward Test Track. The testing and deployment has been extended into the underground interconnecting tubes between the four downtown stations and further. The successful demonstration and testing provided for a 10 year contract with WiFi Rail, Inc. for the services throughout the BART Right Of Way (ROW).
During the months of May 2008 and July 2008 the WiFi service was expanded to include the Transbay Tube and now awaits BART cars which have the necessary WiFi equipment to benefit from the network access.
Since the mid 1990s, BART has been trying to modernize its aging 30-year-old system. The aforementioned fleet rehabilitation is part of this modernization; presently, fire alarms, water-sprinkling systems, yellow tactile platform edge domes, and cemented-mat rubber tiles are being installed. The rough black tiles on the platform edge mark the location of the doorway of approaching trains, allowing passengers to wait at the appropriate locations for the train, instead of waiting until the train arrives to figure out where to board. All faregates and ticket vending machines have also been completely replaced.
In the spring of 2007, BART experimented with a system of placed advertisement panels in the Transbay Tube, and when riders looking at the windows saw what looked to be a moving commercial for what was Reebok's "Run Easy" campaign.
On April 10, 2007, BART General Manager Tom Margro, who has been BART chief for eleven years, announced his retirement.
In late May, 2007, BART stated its intention to improve non-peak (night and weekend) headways for each line to only 15 minutes. The current 20-minute headways at these times is viewed as a psychological barrier to ridership. June 2007, BART temporarily reversed its position stating that the shortened wait times would likely not happen due to a $900,000 state revenue budget shortfall. Nevertheless, BART eventually confirmed the implementation of the plan by January 1, 2008.
Furthermore, in June 2007, BART suddenly removed all references to implementation of the TransLink payment system from their website. BART spokesperson Marty Moran stated (via email) that TransLink now may be implemented as early as late 2007. Implementation of TransLink on BART was pushed back even further due to disputes regarding the processing of fares between MTC and BART. TransLink was planned to be rolled out simultaneously on BART, SF Muni, and Caltrain in Spring 2008,. TransLink access was rolled out in May of 2009 .
As BART celebrated the 50th anniversary of its creation by the state legislature, the organization's management announced their plans for the next 50 years. Their vision includes adding a four-bore transbay tube beneath San Francisco Bay that would run parallel and south of the existing tunnel and e
Transit.511.org
Plan a Trip; Nearby Routes and Services; Rail Systems; Real-Time Departures; Schedules, Maps & Fares ... Shuttles serving BART stations: Shuttles serving VTA stations * Shuttles serving Caltrain ...
Schedules - Quick Links
Media Blog; Archives; Archives (annual) Links; Bus & Ferry Rider Info. Bus Schedules; Ferry Schedules; Trip Planner; Maps; Bus Fares; Ferry Fares; Contact Us
Transit.511.org
San Francisco Bay Area public transit trip planning. Routes, schedules, fare ... BART strike averted, Trip Planner now includes BART in itineraries. You can exclude BART and/or AirBART ...
BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit
Official information from the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), providing train service throughout the San Francisco metropolitan area including the East Bay, Peninsula and ...
BART Widget
A trip planner for the BART train system in the northern California bay area. Instructions for use: Open dashboard. See when the next train is coming.
Apple - Downloads - Dashboard Widgets - BART Widget
Self-contained trip planner for the BART train system in Northern California.
Transit 511: Trip Planner - Plan Your Trip
use St., Ave., Blvd., Rd., etc. if known, for addresses and intersections (ex: 101 8th St. or Market St. & Grove St.) OR enter a landmark (ex: Ashby BART, SFO or Herbst Theatre).
BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit
BART offers free ride program for school field trips in January. Field trip video on BARTtv: Parking lot changes to start Feb. 1 at Dublin/Pleasanton Station
Bart - Trip Planner - Yahoo! Travel
Oops! The system timed out and we were unable to get your trip information.
Jerry Zhao's BART trip planner
Download the midlet here. Screen Shots: TBA. Tested on Sony Ericsson T610, T310, T300. Links: BART, BART Trip Planner on the Web, BART Trip Planner for PDAs.
