Life With BART is going on vacation for a bit.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Montgomery. Faregate out of service; mechanic at work. I head for a functioning faregate, then notice that it's stuck open. Run my ticket through anyways.

Platform escalator out of service.

Train arrives on time; I get a seat. A woman across the aisle from me is chowing down on some chinese food. It smells good, but she'd best keep an eye out. Last time I took a cup of coffee on the train, a short-tempered BART cop threatened me with a $240 fine. I keep my food away from BART now.

Here at Life With BART LLC, we're eagerly awaiting installation of the new faregates (especially at Ashby) but have been unable to get any information from BART about the schedule. Fortunately, Google is more helpful than BART, turning up this limited information:

• Embarcadero: December 2002
• Montgomery: January 2003
• Civic Center: March 2003
• El Cerrito Del Norte: May 2003
• Fremont: September 2003
• Lake Merritt: September 2003

Obviously, this doesn't mention most of the stations, but gives some guide. Unfortunately, it also seems that BART is already falling behind schedule. Unless they're planning on doing Embarcadero during Christmas week. We'll see when we get back from vacation.

It's all good this morning.

Embarcadero. A teenage string quartet serenades us as we exit the station. Nice way to start the day.

Embarcadero. Faregate out of service; mechanic poking around. Platform escalator out of service, but at least it's not cordoned off, so we can use it as stairs.

Richmond train is late. Here comes a late Pittsburg train; I'll take it to Oakland and see what happens.

Outside Macarthur. We've stopped. "Just waiting for the train ahead to leave the station," says train operator. No biggie; that's usually a 30 second thing. We wait. Time passes. The train at Macarthur is in no hurry to leave. Five minutes later, we roll into Macarthur and I exit.

Macarthur. It is cold. Where's that train? Fremont-Richmond train should be here in a minute...and, here comes a train. Odd, it's a ten car train; must be the late one from SF. Works for me.

Ashby. Exit train, through gates, dodge lake in front of station...run into my neighbor. One of the nice things about public transit.

Time to go down to the corner store to buy another $48 BART ticket. Gotta do this pretty often, seeing as the $48 ticket doesn't last very long. (Could be worse, it'll only pay for 5 round trips between Pittsburg and Embarcadero.) The good part is that the store is close to my office, I never have to deal with the incredibly crappy BART ticket vending machines, and there's a $3 discount on the $48 ticket.

No faregate problems this morning, no delays, I get a seat, I read my paper. It's all good. I must say, the past two or three weeks have been decent to good for BART. Hope that they can keep it up.

Flashback to last night. Embarcadero. Two faregates out of service at the entrance that I use, but it's not really a problem because Embarcadero has so many faregates. At Ashby, two exit gates are in service, including the one that was broken in the morning.

Ashby. Faregate out of service. Looks like a mechanic has visited, as the hood is popped open.

Actual train ride goes smoothly. I even get a seat. :)

Ashby. Faregate jams. Agent appears, fixes. [insert standard faregate griping]

12 Street. Ah, the new faregates. I am so envious. What's taking so long at the other stations? As far as I know, they're at 12th St, maybe 19th, Rockridge, and Powell. Maybe Lake Merrit. Can't remember. Anybody seen them at other stations? Send me an email with any reports.

I believe that BART defines an "on-time" train as being not later than 5 minutes. Having no compelling argument against this standard, Life With BART will adopt it as well.

Richmond train is "on time." Kinda full. By 12th Street, it's really full. By Macarthur, it's really really full. And at Ashby, it seems like half the train pours out. Two faregates operate as well as they ever have, but they can't keep up. There's a huge queue trying to exit.

Whoa, KPIX says that there's no power between El Cerrito and Richmond stations, and BART is running buses on this stretch. Glad I don't have to go that far; sounds awful. It's storming pretty heavily out there right now. Maybe that has something to do with it. Though I don't think that BART is reliant on the PG&E distribution network; I think BART gets its juice directly from the transmission system.

Looks like faregate problems at Embarcadero; long line backed up to exit on one side of the station. Surprisingly, it seems only a few people are aware of Standard Operating Procedure for this situation: you exit on the side that has no backup, and then cut through the wheelchair swing gates (ignoring the little beeping alarm) to get back to your side of the station. Voila.

Civic Center. They got this funky frame made from PVC tubing off to the side of the faregates, just like at Embarcadero. I have to guess that it's in preparation for installing the new faregates. C'mon, faregates!! When ya coming? BART's last word on the subject said that Rockridge was getting them on November 5 and 7, but no updates since then.

Ashby. The escalator is back in service. Ms. Ramirez isn't working Ashby tonight.

News flash: Life With BART has a secret admirer! :)

Escalator at Ashby is still out of service and under repair. I guess they've been working on it all night long. Rest of trip goes well.

San Francisco. Late. It's hours since the last direct Richmond train; I have to catch a Pittsburg train and transfer at 12th Street. I don't mind the transfer. I used to transfer all the time, back before BART decided that it was a problem and made it impossible during commute hours. No, I don't mind the transfer. I do, though, mind when the train is late, and this one is late. Not incredibly late, but enough to be annoying.

It's really full, too. Again, I don't mind. In fact, I think it's great. Ten years ago, these late night trains were empty. Now they're always packed; standing room only. I just hope that at some point BART will acknowledge that there is real demand for late night service, and add more trains and run later.

Ashby. Platform escalator is out of service. Mechanic is on the job.

Zero entry gates in service at Ashby. Station agent is nowhere to be seen. Passengers are nonchalantly strolling through the wheelchair gate, being the only way to get to the train. Okay then, I guess that's what I'll do too. Thanks for the free ride, BART.

KQED is reporting a BART delay between SF and the East Bay.

KPIX is reporting a BART delay between SF and Daly City.

BART, as usual, is not reporting.

Embarcadero. Richmond train is late, but here comes a (late) Pittsburg train. I guess I'll take it and wait at Macarthur; might save a couple of minutes by catching the Fremont-Richmond train.

There's a guy on the train napping in his seat. Nothing unusual about that. But this guy brough a pillow! I guess he likes to be comfortable. Nap on, dude!

Macarthur. Electronic sign says: Richmond train in 7 minutes. Three minutes (presumably) later, sign reads: Richmond train in 4 minutes. Actually, there should be two Richmond trains (a late one from SF, and one from Fremont) coming in 4 or 5 minutes, but the sign only mentions one. And.... here it is. Six cars. That makes it the one from Fremont. The sign still says nothing about the one from SF.

Ashby. There's a new station agent at Ashby; Ms. Ramirez I think. She's always outside her booth, near the gates when I exit. Today I realize what she's doing: she's positioning herself right next to the gates so that she can respond immediately if a gate jams. Wow. I am stunned. I am going to nominate Ms. Ramirez to be promoted to BART Customer Service Manager. She rocks!!

Bad teeny-bopper pop music streaming from Ashby. Must be a kid and his boombox. Oh, wait a minute.... it's a KISS-FM promotional booth inside the station, with a big ol' sound system. This is odd. I sure hope that KISS-FM is paying BART for the privilege of annoying its passengers. Well, I don't have time to stop and chat; I've got a train to catch.

[googling.] Oh, I see. It's the KISS-FM 'winter coat' charity campaign. I guess I can't complain too much about that; although, if they really were only interested in collecting coat donations they wouldn't be so baldly promoting their music and station, would they?

In the very first entry in this blog, I raised the impolite and excessively cynical question of whether the BART Security Escorts that had so suddenly appeared at Ashby were just a pre-election stunt. In keeping with our Fairness Policy, I will admit that evidence suggests that they were not just a pre-election stunt. At least not just a pre-election stunt. I'm not sure what kind of stunt they are. They're still there. Sometimes. In groups of six or so. And then the next day, they're not there. In groups of zero. I don't get it. Isn't security an everyday thing? If BART really wanted this program to work, wouldn't they have maybe two or three escorts there every day, rather than six or seven on random days and zero on other days? I guess it's largely academic, seeing as no-one appears to ever avail themselves of the Security Escort service, but still it makes me wonder.

I've been riding BART for years, but I rarely disembark at Montgomery, and I'm not that familiar with the station. Unlike Embarcadero, at Montgomery the escalators are hidden from view. So I exit the train and don't know which way to head. I walk left, round a corner... there's no exit. Backtrack, round the other corner... ah, there's the escalator. There's a new cutting-edge technology called the "directional sign" that could, if implemented, make BART just that much more friendly for new riders.

Platform escalator still out of service at Embarcadero. The goods news is that it's now being worked on. The bad news is that it's now rush hour, and there's a huge crowd slowly slogging down the staircase.

One exit gate at Ashby, but the agent rushes out to reverse another gate, giving us two. Too late, though; there's quickly a queue extending all the way back to the stairs. Even two gates just can't handle the passenger load at Ashby.

One entry gate at Embarcadero, and it's locked in the 'open' position. I run my ticket through anyways; BART needs the money.

Street escalator out of service at 12th Street; mechanics are hard at work but it looks like a big job.

Platform escalator out of service at Embarcadero, no signs of any rescue attempt.

Powell. Dublin train has just left the platform. "Pittsburg train in 2 minutes... Dublin train in 14 minutes," says the electronic sign. I see. What about the scheduled Richmond train in 3 minutes? Is it missing? Is it (secretly) coming? No one knows! BART isn't saying!! Sigh. I'll take the Pittsburg train and wait in Oakland.

I board an un-renovated car. I sit. Eww. The seats are filthy and sagging and the carpet is so goo-impregnated that it has achieved a smooth, rubbery look. And the smell! It's unbearable. I can't take it. I'm going to the next car; I don't care if I have to stand.

Macarthur. Electronic sign says "Richmond train in 9 minutes." That would be the Fremont-Richmond train. I can infer from this that the SF-Richmond train (due in 2 minutes) is not coming. I wait. Time passes. The electronic sign advertises some KISS-FM promotion and a couple of other things that I don't care about. More time passes. The PA shares with us the familiar elevator status message, as well as the equally familiar message from BART Police (the one that basically says that you're on your own). Does BART use either of these fine technologies to provide an update on service to Richmond? No, it does not. Thanks, BART! It's great to be back from Thanksgiving vacation!