Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connector, a automated guideway transit line serving Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport. With an average of weekday passenger trips as of and annual passenger trips in , BART is the seventh-busiest rapid transit system in the United States.
BART is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District which formed in 1957. The initial system opened in stages from 1972 to 1974. The system has been extended several times, most recently in 2020, when Milpitas and Berryessa/North San José stations opened as part of the under construction Silicon Valley BART extension in partnership with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).
Services BART serves large portions of its three member counties – San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa – as well as smaller portions of San Mateo County and Santa Clara counties. The system has 50 stations: 22 in Alameda County, 12 in Contra Costa County, 8 in San Francisco, 6 in San Mateo County, and 2 in Santa Clara County. BART operates five named heavy rail services plus one separate automated guideway line. All of the heavy rail services run through Oakland, and all but the Orange Line cross the bay through the Transbay Tube to San Francisco. All five services run every day until 9 pm; only three services operate evenings after 9 pm. All stations are served during all service hours. The eastern segment of the (between Antioch and the transfer platform east of Pittsburg/Bay Point) uses different rolling stock and is separated from the rest of the line. Route nameFirstserviceLength(mi)TerminiLines usedNotes197251Berryessa/North San JoséRichmondR, K, A, SOperates during all service hours.197362.2SFO (until 9pm)AntiochC, K, M, W, Y, EOperates during all service hours.Uses DMU vehicles (eBART) between Antioch and Pittsburg/Bay Point.Millbrae (after 9pm)197453Daly CityBerryessa/North San JoséS, A, MNo evening (after 9 pm) service.197638.2MillbraeRichmondR, K, M, W, YNo evening (after 9 pm) service.199735.7Daly CityDublin/PleasantonL, A, MOperates during all service hours.20143.2OAKColiseumHOperates during all service hours.Uses AGT vehicles.
Hours and frequencies BART's network topology, which mixes densely-packed urban stations served at high frequencies by multiple interlined services along a central trunk (West Oakland to Daly City, served by all lines but the Orange) with branching suburban lines with widely-spaced stations and lower frequencies, is similar to European S-Bahn systems. Trains on each primary service run every 20 minutes, except the busy Yellow Line, which operates every 10 minutes on weekdays. However, many stations are served by multiple lines; the trunk between West Oakland and Daly City receives 15 trains per hour (average four-minute headways) in peak hours. The Oakland Airport Connector runs "on demand", typically on headways of 10 minutes or less.
Timed cross-platform transfers are available between the Orange Line, which runs north-south through the East Bay, and the Yellow Line, which operates through the Transbay Tube to serve the San Francisco Peninsula. This service complements the Red Line during daytime hours and replaces that line when it stops operating after 9:00 p.m.
The first inbound trains leave outer terminals around 5:00 am on weekdays, 6:00 am on Saturdays, and 8:00 am on Sundays and most holidays. The last trains of the service day leave their terminals around midnight; the final Yellow and Orange Line trains in both directions meet at MacArthur station, and the final Orange and Blue Line trains in the southbound direction meet at Bay Fair station, for guaranteed transfers.
Bus services Two different bus networks are operated by regional transit agencies as a rail replacement bus service when BART is not operating due to regularly scheduled maintenance during the overnight hours.
The All Nighter network provides basic bus service to San Francisco, the East Bay, and Peninsula, replicating rail transit services in those regions, including BART, Caltrain, and Muni Metro. All Nighter buses serve most BART stations (directly or within several blocks), replicating 3-Line late night BART service with abbreviated routes: Buses replicating Yellow Line service terminate at Rockridge (stations east of Rockridge to the regular terminus at Antioch are not served) Buses replicating Blue Line service terminate at Bay Fair (stations east to Dublin/Pleasanton are not served) Buses replicating Orange Line service terminate at Fremont (stations south to Berryessa/North San José are not served) The All Nighter-branded bus service started in 2006, although late night bus service had been provided as an alternative to BART prior to then.
The network is another bus alternative which provides service to major BART stations in the early morning between 3:50 am and 5:30 am. Early Bird Express buses are operated by local transit agencies, including AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit, Muni, and SamTrans, running between a limited number of major BART stations on San Francisco/Peninsula and Transbay routes which all meet at the Salesforce Transit Center. Early Bird Express routes are identified by three-digit route numbers starting with 7xx. , there are six Early Bird Express routes, replicating 3-Line service: Yellow Line bus substitute operating to and from Millbrae (Peninsula) Blue Line bus operating to and from Daly City (San Francisco) Yellow Line buses operating from Pittsburg/Bay Point and Pleasant Hill (Transbay) Blue Line bus operating from Dublin/Pleasanton (Transbay) Orange Line bus operating from El Cerrito del Norte (Transbay) The original Early Bird Express network was introduced in February 2019 when the start of rail service was shifted from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. to accommodate seismic upgrades in the Transbay Tube; at its debut, it featured fifteen routes, but some were eliminated later that year due to low ridership. Additional routes were eliminated in 2024, including an inbound bus from Fremont replicating Orange Line service.
Historically, BART operated bus service between 1974 and 1997, extending transit coverage to central and eastern Alameda and Contra Costa counties; these routes were discontinued following the completion of rail line extensions starting in the late 1990s. BART Express was operated for BART under contracts to AC Transit (1974–1989) and Laidlaw (1989–1997). Since then, some services similar to the legacy BART Express routes which were not replaced by rail service have been taken over by local bus operators, including WestCAT and Tri Delta Transit.
To accommodate those with conditions and disabilities that prevent from boarding a train, BART has entered a joint venture with AC Transit to establish East Bay Paratransit to provide paratransit bus services.
Connecting services
Intermodal connections to local, regional, and intercity transit – including bus, light rail, commuter rail, and intercity rail – are available across the BART system. Three Amtrak intercity rail services – the California Zephyr, Capitol Corridor, and Gold Runner – stop at Richmond station; the Capitol Corridor also stops at Oakland Coliseum station. Transfer between BART and the Caltrain commuter rail service is available at Millbrae station.
BART and most lines of San Francisco's Muni Metro light rail system share four stations (Embarcadero, Montgomery Street, Powell Street, and Civic Center/UN Plaza) in the Market Street subway; connections are also available to three lines at Balboa Park station and one line at Glen Park station. A tunnel at the Powell Street station connects to the Union Square/Market Street station on the Muni Metro T Third Street line. In the South Bay, Milpitas station provides a connection to the Orange Line of VTA light rail.
BART is served by bus connections from regional and local transit agencies at all stations, most of which have dedicated off-street bus transfer areas. Many connecting routes (particularly in suburban areas) serve primarily as feeder routes to BART. Larger bus systems connecting to BART include Muni in San Francisco, AC Transit in the East Bay, SamTrans in San Mateo County, County Connection and Tri Delta Transit in eastern Contra Costa County, WestCAT in western Contra Costa County, WHEELS in the Tri-Valley, VTA in the Santa Clara Valley, and Golden Gate Transit. Smaller systems include Emery Go-Round in Emeryville, Commute.org on the Peninsula, San Leandro LINKS, Dumbarton Express, and Union City Transit. The Salesforce Transit Center regional bus hub is located one block from Embarcadero and Montgomery stations.
Several transit agencies offer limited commuter-oriented bus service from more distant cities to outlying BART stations; these include VINE from Napa County, Solano Express from Solano County, Rio Vista Delta Breeze, Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority from Stanislaus County, and San Joaquin RTD from Stockton. Many BART stations are also served by privately run employer and hospital shuttles, and privately run intercity buses stop at several stations.
Airport connections
BART also runs directly to two of the three major Bay Area airports (San Francisco International Airport and Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport) with service to San Jose International Airport provided by a VTA bus route available at Milpitas station.
History
Origins, planning, and geographical coverage Some of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system's current coverage area was once served by an electrified streetcar and suburban train system called the Key System, and interurban trains by the Sacramento Northern Railway. These early 20th-century systems once had regular transbay traffic across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge, with Sacramento Northern travelling on the bridge using Key System tracks. The Key System served communities close to the San Francisco Bay. The Sacramento Northern, went through the hills in Contra Costa County connecting several towns there, then north into the Central Valley.
Sacramento Northern passenger service which at its height went from San Francisco to Chico (north of Sacramento) ended in the early 1940s. The Key System was dismantled in the 1950s, with its last transbay crossing in 1958, and was superseded by highway travel. A 1950s study of traffic problems in the Bay Area concluded the most cost-effective solution for the Bay Area's traffic woes would be to form a transit district charged with the construction and operation of a new, high-speed rapid transit system linking the cities and suburbs. Marvin E. Lewis, a San Francisco trial attorney and member of the city's board of supervisors, spearheaded a grassroots movement to advance the idea of an alternative bay crossing and the possibility of regional transit network.
Formal planning for BART began with the setting up in 1957 of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, a county-based special-purpose district body that governs the BART system. The district initially began with five members, all of which were projected to receive BART lines: Alameda County, Contra Costa County, the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County, and Marin County. Although invited to participate, Santa Clara County supervisors elected not to join BART due to their dissatisfaction that the peninsula line only stopped at Palo Alto initially, and that it interfered with suburban development in San Jose, preferring instead to concentrate on constructing freeways and expressways. Though the system expanded into Santa Clara County in 2020, as of June 2024 it is still not a district member.