Bombardier Transportation announced it is opening a rail car assembly site in Pittsburg, California to assemble BART’s Fleet of the Future rail cars.  This work, which is currently taking place in upstate New York, will be transferred to the Bay Area over the coming months.

The new facility will employ local workers, contribute tax dollars to the local economy and, thanks to its proximity to BART’s Hayward Test Track, greatly reduce the vehicle emissions needed to transport the cars to BART property.

What used to be a 3,600-mile journey home to the Bay Area, will now be a quick 50 miles.

It also means local jobs.

“It’s Bay Area workers building cars for Bay Area commuters,” said BART Director Mark Foley. “Bringing the work home.”

Watch the Press Conference

Riders are giving the new trains high marks for its new features and design. The customer survey results were unveiled at a recent Board meeting. The vast majority of features received at least 85 percent “Excellent” or “Good” grades.

Some of its most well-received features were the ease of on-board and off-boarding the train; lighting; audio announcements; floor-to-ceiling poles; comfortable air temperature; and digital displays.

BART’s website dedicated to the Fleet of the Future has lots of great information about the status of the roll out. They keep it updated with the number of new cars delivered to date and the number in service.

A Fleet of the Future tracker is in the works that will show you if one of the next approaching trains at your stations is a new train. That feature will roll out in phases, to eventually include digital platform signs, bart.gov, and the BART Official App, which you can download for free.

 

BART is making major schedule changes beginning February 11th to accommodate Measure RR funded improvements to our infrastructure to keep BART safe and reliable. Projects to upgrade our electrical power system in downtown San Francisco and the Transbay Tube Seismic Retrofit require adjustments to our schedules. The Fleet of the Future roll out is also allowing us to expand some service and run longer trains.

Riders are encouraged to check before you go. Download the official BART app or check the Trip Planner to see how these changes impact your trip.

Weekday Changes

To retrofit the Transbay Tube, we need to open at 5am on weekdays- that’s one hour later. Visit www.bart.gov/earlybirdexpress for bus service alternatives during the 4am hour. We will also be single-tracking trains through the Tube on weeknights for this project. Impacts from this project include:

• Weekdays after 9pm, trains will run every 24 minutes instead of 20 because of single tracking.
• On Friday evenings, trains will be added to the schedule after 8pm to the Green, Red, and Yellow lines to reduce wait times and increase capacity.
• The first train from Daly City (5:03 am) to Antioch will skip from MacArthur directly to Pittsburg/Bay Point. The train will not pick up or drop off passengers between these stations. The next train from Daly City (5:11 am) will make all stops.

·         Weekday service improvements include:

• New direct Millbrae to SFO service on weekdays from 6:30 am to 9 pm every 30 minutes.
• Early morning/late-evening trains will now be longer.
• A Fleet of the Future train will run as part of the schedule on each transbay line and some trains will be lengthened thanks to the arrival of the new fleet.
• We are adding an additional Yellow Line train to the morning commute and we will extend one late afternoon train from Pleasant Hill to Pittsburg Bay Point.
• New Richmond-Daly City (Red) and Warm Springs-Daly City (Green) trains on Friday evenings at select times.

Sunday Changes

To upgrade the electrical power system in Downtown San Francisco from 8am-6pm, we need to single track trains in San Francisco on some Sundays. We will maintain 20-minute headways, but impacts include:

• For the most part, only one line (the Antioch/Yellow Line) will provide service through the Transbay Tube (some direct Red and Green line trains will be part of the schedule at select times).
• Sunday service changes vary week to week and riders are encouraged to check the Trip Planner or the official BART app before each trip to see the service plan.
• Dublin/Pleasanton/Blue Line service will operate between Dublin/Pleasanton and MacArthur.
• All Lake Merritt-Dublin/Warm Springs Transbay riders must transfer at 12^th Station—go downstairs one level.
• All Millbrae riders must transfer to/from a San Francisco/Antioch train at SFO.

·         Sunday service improvements include:

• Yellow Line passengers transferring to an East Bay line should transfer at MacArthur and will now have increased service with both a Blue and Orange Line train depending on destination.
• Additional trains/train length will be added to the Orange/Richmond/Warm Springs service.
• New direct Red and Green line trains added to the schedule on Sundays at select times.

There are no changes to Saturday service.

Check Before You Go

The new schedule has been loaded into the Trip Planner on bart.gov as well as the official BART app. Select a date Feb. 11^th and beyond to see how these changes impact your trip. 

Sunday riders are encouraged to check the Trip Planner or the app before each trip as it varies week by week based on single tracking weekends.

The extra Friday service will be reflected in the Trip Planner and in Real Time Departures.  However, these extra trains are not listed in the Schedule by Station or Schedule by Line sections of bart.gov or the printed brochures. 

Sunday’s new Red and Green line trains will be reflected in the Trip Planner, and Schedules by Station, Schedules by Line and Real Time Departures. They are not listed in the printed brochures because they vary week by week.

Sunday Service Map: 

Millbrae Shuttle Service weekdays and Saturday:

Suspect believed to have strong ties to Antioch area, goes by first name Matty,  father’s first name believed to be Vic or Victor

The BART Police Department is releasing new information about the killing of 19-year-old Carlos Funez-Romero, who was fatally shot aboard a BART train stopped at the West Oakland Station on January 9, 2016.  The department is also announcing the reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect is being increased from $10,000 to $25,000. (See related KRON4 news report)

Detectives with the BART Police Department have been following up on multiple leads as well as working closely with partner law enforcement agencies to identify and locate the suspect.  Investigators now believe the suspect has strong ties to the Antioch area and goes by the first name of Matty.  Detectives also believe the name of the suspect’s father is Vic or Victor.

“We are encouraged by the recent progress we’ve been able to make and are fully committed to bringing this suspect to justice,” said BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas. “Homicides very rarely happen on our system, but when they do we will find those responsible as proven by the arrests made in connection with all three homicides we had last year.” 

The investigation into the killing of Funez-Romero has remained active for three years.  Chief Rojas in June boosted the effort to find the suspect by assigning an investigator to the case full time.  That’s on top of other BPD resources that have been dedicated to solving this case.

The suspect is a black male who is 6’0” to 6’4” tall.  At the time of the murder he had a bald-shaved/or close-cut hair style, slim build, and was wearing a green hooded jacket with beige, construction-style boots.

Before the killing of Mr. Funez-Romero, there had not been a homicide on the BART system since February of 2013.

Anyone with information on this case is strongly urged to immediately call the BART Police Department at 510-464-7040 or the anonymous tip line at 510-464-7011.

By Allen Payton, Publisher

Usually, I don’t recommend elected officials serving in the same office for 24 years, such as Joel Keller, who was elected to the BART Board on the same night in November 1994 that I was elected to the Antioch City Council. That’s because elected representatives tend to become complacent or arrogant in office and stop listening to their constituents, and end up doing the bidding of the powerful, special interests who support them and contribute to their re-election campaigns.

However, Joel is different. Having served on the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and three of the four transportation boards in East County, including as Chairman of the Bypass Authority in 1998 when we purchased the right-of-way for the State Route 4 extension (aka The Bypass) from Lone Tree Way to Balfour Road, I’ve learned the difficult lesson that infrastructure projects can take a long time. Too much time for most all of our liking. But, that’s another issue. My point is, it’s taken that time for Joel to get BART extended to Antioch.

Although it’s not full or “real” BART, as we Antioch residents would have preferred, the bottom line is Joel was able to wade through the funding limitations from BART and the federal government, as well as the opposition by other regions in the BART District and directors who represent those regions and make his promise and commitment a reality. Antioch has a BART station. During his next four years, if re-elected, I believe Joel will be able to help deliver further extensions in East County, first to Laurel Road – which will benefit Antioch’s economic development area for job creation and serve the residents of Oakley – then to Brentwood near Sand Creek Road.

Joel has done what he said he would do, and he listens to his constituents. Most recently, Joel heard the complaints about safety on the BART system. In order to ensure the rest of the board members heard the complaints from the people in his district who can’t attend their normal day time meetings in Oakland, had the board hold a night time meeting in Pittsburg. Then, due to the overwhelming response by riders to the opening of the Antioch BART Station, Joel heard the outcry for more parking spaces, and he delivered by getting the other BART Board Members to join him in voting to fund 800 more spaces.

I believe Joel has earned one more term on the BART Board, which most likely will be his last, and recommend we re-elect him.

Construction would begin in fall of 2019 with the new lot opening in fall of 2020

With full funding identified, BART is moving ahead with plans to nearly double the amount of parking at the Antioch Station.

The station has been a tremendous success since opening in late May and that has pushed the demand for parking in Antioch far beyond the space available.

Antioch Station currently has 1006 parking stalls. Another 800-plus spaces will be added under this plan.

“The response to the extension has been overwhelmingly positive, except for criticism about the lack of parking,” says BART Director Joel Keller, who represents East Contra Costa County. “We’ve made it a priority to ensure that every rider has access to the new service which takes drivers off the congested Highway 4 corridor.”

The plan calls for converting a plot of BART-owned land just east of the current lot into more than 800 additional parking spaces. 

The current daily ridership for the Antioch Station is 3,050 while the forecasted ridership before its opening was 2,270 trips.

The proposed parking lot cost is $16.4 million. Funding sources include the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, BART, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the East Contra Costa Regional Fee and Financing Authority.

BART will now work on the environmental impact and design.

Approval by the BART Board is required with the plan expected to go before Directors in late 2018 or early 2019.

Construction would begin in fall of 2019 with the new lot opening in fall of 2020.

 

Rider safety will be the focus as the BART Board of Directors holds its Thursday, September 27th meeting at 5:00 P.M. at Pittsburg City Hall. The BART board voted in August to hold a special night meeting in a suburban location to further discuss General Manager Grace Crunican’s Safety and Security Action Plan.

“The special time and location of this board meeting will give more members of the public the chance to share their thoughts about public safety directly with board members,” said BART Board President Robert Raburn. “We need their input as we take action to make BART safer.”

The meeting will include an update on BART’s proof-of-payment strategy. There will be a presentation with citation data as well as a hearing on a request to hire more community service officers to expand the program, which was launched in January. Further, the board will get an update on station infrastructure efforts to deter fare evasion. That is likely to include a discussion on whether to replace BART’s fare gates.

BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas is scheduled to present a new report from the University of North Texas on the BART Police Department. The report includes recommendations for adequate police staffing levels at BART.

The board is moving towards adopting a district surveillance policy. A final vote on this policy could come at this meeting depending on actions that take place at the September 13th meeting. BART has already made clear that any boosts to system safety will not include the implementation of facial-recognition technology.

The board could also vote on a plan to provide alternative bus service for when the system moves to a 5am start time as part of the Transbay Tube seismic retrofit project. The switch to the 5am service start is expected to happen on February 11, 2019.

We also anticipate an update on efforts to increase parking around the new BART to Antioch line.

The meeting is open to the public. The public may comment at various points throughout the meeting- including the public comment period or during specific agenda items. The agenda will be posted the Friday before the meeting at https://www.bart.gov/about/bod/meetings/2018

Because this meeting is not taking place in the BART board room, we will record it and post it on our website several days later due to the post production time needed. It will not be livestreamed.

The meeting will be held in the Pittsburg City Council Chambers, which is on the third floor of the building. The council chambers are located at 65 Civic Avenue, which is a short walk from the Pittsburg Center Station on the new BART to Antioch line. Courtesy of Tri-Delta Transit, there will be a shuttle available in the pick-up lot at the corner of Railroad Avenue and California Avenue to transport attendees between the BART station and the City Council Chambers. The shuttle will run from 4:15 pm to 11:15 pm. There will be directional signs at the Pittsburg Center BART station and the shuttle pick-up and drop-off locations. See map below:

Pittsburg City Hall shuttle route

Driving Directions:

From all points west:

Take Highway 4 eastbound toward Pittsburg/Stockton

Exit Railroad Avenue (exit 23)

Turn left onto Railroad Avenue

Turn left onto Center Drive, drive past the Justice Center and the Library

There is a parking lot in front of City Hall

Parking is free.

From Antioch/Oakley/Brentwood:

Take Highway 4 westbound toward Martinez

Exit Harbor St/Railroad Avenue (exit 23)

Turn left onto California Avenue

Turn right onto Railroad Avenue

Turn left onto Center Drive, drive past the Justice Center and the Library

There is a parking lot in front of City Hall

Parking is free.

Editor’s Note: We need to pack the room and make sure our voices are heard, by letting the full BART Board know about our concerns with safety, so that they don’t just hear from the folks who live close to and/or were able to attend their day-time meeting during the summer at the BART Headquarters in Oakland.

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

From BART.gov

Our new BART to Antioch service has been a tremendous success this first week of service, which has meant parking demands in Antioch have exceeded the space available.

In the long term, we are exploring limited options to increase capacity.

In the short term, to ensure public safety, over the weekend we plan to block access to illegal parking in the field across the street from the station.

This step is being taken due to the fire danger as the field is dry and hot engines can spark a fire.

Blocking access is also meant to prevent drivers from parking in Slatten Ranch Road bike lanes.

Tips for parkers: the parking lot at Pittsburg Center Station did not fill up this week.

Pittsburg/Bay Point didn’t fill up until much later than it did before the extension opened and at 10 am, there were still open spots.

Carpooling to Antioch with Scoop is also an option because it guarantees a space before 10 am, allowing users to be flexible with their schedule.

In addition, TriDeltaTransit reconfigured many of their routes to accommodate BART riders.