Dear Editor:

‘After waiting almost 60 years Antioch gets extension to BART!’ Vol. 9, No. 6, dated June 2018

This article has been anticipated about as long as residents have been waiting for the new EBart train and Antioch Station to open. It’s a wonderful advancement on the part of BART and a welcome addition for the residents of Antioch!

Although the article is highly positive on the new eBart train, the negative factor involving the parking at the station far outweighs the good it brings when there is absolutely no ability to access and utilize the train because there’s no available parking. By 7:30 am on any given day, the parking lot is packed full. And for those who chose to park on the street, citations and towing added to the agony of not being able to find a spot to park. If you can’t park at the new station, how are you supposed to use the new train system? For those of us who daily commuted on the Tri-Delta 300 Express to BART, this is extremely disappointing as we can no longer take the bus from park-n-ride to the Pittsburg BART, and even then, having a place to park. Sure, the new eBart trains boast a variety of amenities and the “newness” is refreshing; however, with not having adequate parking to accommodate the daily commuters who have been using this park-n-ride location for years to ride the bus to BART, it’s very discouraging to know that we now must try to find another alternative in parking our car if we wish to use BART’s Etrain system.

It is awesome to see the new eBart train up and running. The issue of parking and the overwhelming demand for such on a daily basis limits this “awesome’ness” to a great degree. Both the City of Antioch and BART should have planned way ahead of this station’s opening to ensure sufficient parking was readily-available for the mass of those who would utilize this station – this should have been a prime consideration and know well in advance that the two parking lots would not suffice for the demand of the commuters who have been waiting such a long time for this station to open – only to find now that we can’t utilize its services since we can’t find a parking place.

It’s very sad that I now must rely on someone else to me ff and pick-up at this station if I use BART’s Etrain. The impact of others having to do the same is also a serious issue with more car traffic in the lanes adjacent to the station. The high demand for use of the new train demands a higher use for parking and this now needs to be a key factor to consider in moving forward. Having the BART Etrain finally open is great; allowing the daily commuter to access and use this train system – and can park at its station – is now the immediate need that both the City of Antioch and BART need to consider and rectify.

Michele Garcia

Antioch

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2018 at 6:00 am and is filed under BART, Opinion, Letters to the Editor, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.