Life With BART

Ashby ::: one entry gate in service, with its gate jammed in the open position. Being the good citizen that I am, I run my ticket through nonetheless.

Ashby ::: One exit gate, one entry gate, one out of service gate.

12th Street ::: Ah, there's one of the brand new faregates sporting a very fashionable bright orange Out Of Service sticker over its mouth.

Embarcadero ::: Platform escalator out of service and dismantled.

Embarcadero ::: Street escalator is back in service.

Ashby ::: Huge rush-hour crowd heads for two functioning exit gates. Guy at the front sticks his ticket in; faregate takes it; keeps it; and remains closed. Guy looks confused. Well, that gate is now out of service. We've got one functioning exit gate, a passenger with his ticket lodged in the bowels of a 30 year old faregate, and no sign of a station agent.

Embarcadero ::: Hmm. Wonder why there's a BART employee in a yellow vest standing near the exit gates. I will know in 3 or 4 seconds. Which is the amount of time that it takes me to put my ticket in the [new] gate, begin to stroll through the open gate, and have the gate beep loudly and slam closed on me. I've got one foot in and one foot out. Yellow Vest Man asks to see my ticket, wants to know if it deducted the correct fare. It did. He says that I probably confused the [optical?] sensor with my bag. Whatever.

Street escalator is out of service and cordoned off.

Oh hell; I've got insufficient value on my ticket. Gonna have to stop at the Ashby ticket machine before catching my SF train. Enter station...three ticket machines out of service. One in service. Long line. Woman at front of line spends several precious minutes repeatedly stuffing the same dollar bill into the machine, which repeatedly stuffs it right back out. Time's a-wasting, and the SF train is coming ever closer. She finally gets her ticket. Next guy stuffs in a five. Machine chokes, begins beeping frantically. Great. Zero machines in service; 15 people in line; train approaching Ashby. Fortunately there is a technician in the station, who opens the offending machine, removes the five, and reboots the machine. Next couple of patrons go smoothly. My turn; I've pre-selected my crispiest bills; get my ticket and get the hell out of there.

I feel very sorry for anyone who uses these machines regularly.

I'm heading in to work a little earlier than usual today; seems like earlier is busier on BART. Train is more crowded than usual, so forget about finding a seat. Heavy stop and go traffic from Macarthur to West Oakland...I'm expecting to find BART cops peering into trains (and slowing stuff down) at West Oakland, but surprisingly there is no sign of them. After West Oakland, all is smooth.

Okay, forget my crackpot theory about air resistance. Mike O reports that the reason that trains seem to accellerate at the last moment while emerging from the Transbay Tube into Embarcadero is because of the famous Power Sagging deal. Basically, the rails in Embarcadero are on a separate circuit from the Tube, so as soon as the train hits the Embarcadero circuit it's got more juice available and can accellerate more quickly. If only for a split second before braking at Embarcadero.

Ever notice that coming out of the Transbay Tube, just as the train is about to enter Embarcadero, it seems to accellerate a little bit? Always wondered about that. I wonder if it is due to lower air resistance at the very end of the tube and in the stations...I mean, it must take a lot of energy to punch through the column of air in the tube, but less so in the stations. Hmm...

Oh, by the way...smooth ride today, no problems.

Smooth ride again this morning; not sure what kind of protests may be going on in SF but they aren't having any apparent effect on BART.

New faregate printer problems continue -- drops a digit, and prints so faintly that it's nearly illegible. I dunno, I expected near-perfection in printing from these long awaited brand spanking new machines. Is BART even aware that they're not printing properly? Did BART get a 90 day warranty?

Heading to work a little later than usual today...I get a seat right away at Ashby. Smooth ride to Embarcadero. Outside the station, Market Street is nuts with protesters, cops, onlookers. No busses or cars are getting through, but BART isn't ruffled.

Embarcadero ::: Richmond train is late.

Hey, Mike O has pointed us to another BART-related site, SanBrunoBART.com. Mostly focused on (duh) the Peninsula, but it has some interesting stuff. LWB says check it out.

Embarcadero ::: Thanks to the worn out printers on the old faregates (and my failure to keep a running tally in my head), the Embarcadero faregate (spiffy new) sends me off to the Addfare Machine. Okay, haven't done this in a while. Let's see...there's two machines...both in use...there's two more, one out of service, one apparently working. Add my $1.10, return to exit, and I'm out. Not too painful.

Embarcadero ::: Richmond train is late.

Ashby ::: Approaching Ashby, it's the usual scene -- train is packed, riders are anxiously jockeying for position near the doors. Once they open, a crowd surges out and heads quickly to the exit, hoping to get through the exit gates before the backlog forms. We got two exit gates tonight and Ms. Ramirez standing by in case of jams, but it doesn't matter. Pity the poor sucker who took his time; the queue extends all the way across the platform and down the stairs.

New Faregate Status AFAIK

Complete (12 of 39):

Embarcadero
Montgomery
Powell
Civic Center
16th Street
24th Street
Balboa
12th Street Oakland
19th Street Oakland
Rockridge
Concord
Fruitvale

In Progress/Teed Up (4):

Daly City (March 27th)
Glen Park (March 29th)
Macarthur (April 8)
Coliseum (April 12)

Please contact me with corrections and updates!

[Last updated April 7, 2003]

Ashby ::: SF train is late, but the PA makes an announcement to provide an ETA. I appreciate that.

It's an All Faregate Monday!!

Mike K writes to say that new faregate installation is complete at Civic Center, just in time for yesterday's peace rally. This completes the 4 downtown SF stations. Daly City and 24th Street are next.

Ernie blogs the first recorded sighting of a new faregate with the dreaded orange Out Of Service sticker across its mouth. That didn't take long. Another bad omen.

Okay, we're back from vacation, and we're tanned, rested, and ready. What does BART have in store for us? Plenty of parking at Ashby, and seats on the train. Is everyone taking a sick day to rest up after the big peace rally? At Embarcadero, the new faregate isn't printing ticket value properly; it's dropping the last digit. Bad omen.

Embarcadero ::: Platform escalator out of service and fully dismantled.

New faregates are fully installed at Embarcadero.

Oh golly. Apparently BART is concerned that a bit of tunnel in the new SFO extension may not have been constructed up to spec and could be vulnerable in an earthquake. BART and the contractor say that this won't slow down the project. Whatever. I don't think anyone really believes what they say about schedule anymore.

Ashby ::: All faregates in service, one entry and two exit.

Onboard ::: Light traffic; I get a nice comfy seat.

Embarcadero ::: Platform staircase is back in service.

Embarcadero ::: Oh, this is something new! The platform staircase is out of service and cordoned off! Golly. Can't tell why; there's no one around and the stairs look fine.

No response yet from World Famous BART Spokesman Mike Healy to our email about the weird evening wait at 12th Street. I mean, I don't expect Mike to jump to attention every time I send an email...he's got real work to do (I presume). But seeing as BART Customer Service just doesn't respond to BART customers and BART management doesn't share any information with its front-line employees, Mike is just about the only public point of contact at BART.

Embarcadero ::: BART is almost half done with the new faregate installation. By tomorrow, the west end of Embarcadero should be complete.

Platform escalator is back in service.

Other than that, well, it kind of sucks tonight. There's no one single full-on disaster, just a whole bunch of things that go a little bit wrong. The usual stuff -- late, overcrowded, backed up, etc. etc.

Tim Goodman, humorous SF Chronicle TV reviewer, riffs on BART:

This probably sounds semi-insane -- yes, a real stunner for us -- but we'd like to disabuse BART officials of their notion to put TVs on the trains in an effort to generate more revenue. Why? Because, we smell a rat that reeks more than the funky green coat on the guy next to us, who just happens to be passed out and sharing the next 20 stops with us. A Chronicle story on Friday said flat-screen TV additions (with optional headphones for riders) would give BART $25 million to $40 million during the course of a 10-year contract. But what do riders get? News. And commercials. Our guess is a lot of the latter. Hey, here's an idea: How about putting some money into more trains? Wait, here's another: We'll take the TV scam if $3 million of that money is used to clean up the pigeon splooge that's all over everywhere at BART.
We'd pay an additional 50 cents each way on BART if we could bring coffee onto the train. Why the hell hasn't anyone at BART tried that idea?
This BART thing is now annoying us. Honestly. The elevators are always busted, the signs are lousy, the pigeons are blowing mud at a ridiculous pace, once-free parking lots are now pay-only -- and now we're going to be crammed onto a train showing Headline News with no remote? Where did things go wrong? Where's the love, BART? A little Peaberry's to and Peet's fro -- that's not allowed? Where's the joy? You know, the kind of spark one gets when the Concord train comes by -- what we call "the Unicorn train" because it's so rare. We get so little pleasure on your trains. Why not give back to the people, instead of punishing us with TV advertising? Coffee yes, commercials no. Rally the protest singers. Let's get a parade up.
We don't like whiners. We whine only when it serves our interest. And, as you know, we're not afraid to take a bullet for you, TV-wise. We watch TV so you don't have to. That said, is it not cruel and unusual punishment that we be forced to watch TV on BART? On the other hand, it seems like so much fun on JetBlue.
"Tonight on BART TV: And you thought the Concord train was a Unicorn. How about that 24th Street train? Our I-Team investigates. After the break, some news you can use: How to decipher which side you should step to when it's not your train. Later: BART Sports. How fast can you get up the Embarcadero steps when the elevator is out and you're late for a meeting?"

Ashby ::: two exit faregates, one entry faregate. Entry faregate jams. Queue is growing. Passenger flags down staton agent, who saunters over and reverses one of the exit gates, then sets about trying to unjam the busted gate. By now there are 30 or so people queued up to enter the station.

I get a seat on the train. I'm comfortable.

Embarcadero ::: Platform escalator is still out of service, cordoned off, and undergoing "repair efforts." Kinda ridiculous, seeing as it just spent a full week undergoing major repair not one month ago. You'd think that a major repair like that would buy you more than 1 month of service.

Ashby ::: Faregate report...one entry, one exit, one out of service. The usual. Long queue trying to enter in time to catch the SF train.

Embarcadero ::: Platform escalator still out of service, but there are a couple of mechanics on the scene.

And, the new faregates are open for use! Slick...they even have that New Faregate Smell. Seriously. Added bonus: they print legibly, so now I know how much value is left on my ticket!

Embarcadero ::: New faregates have been fully installed on one side of the station! Okay, semi-fully. They're not turned on yet, so we're all using the gates on one side of the station.

Good news: tomorrow (presumably), we get to use them!

Bad news: remember that platform escalator that was out of service for an entire week recently? Yeah...you remember. Well, it's out of service again, and it's a crowded mess of people trying to get down the stairs.

San Leandro ::: So this is San Leandro. Well, they don't have new faregates here either. They do, though, have 4 gates instead of the pathetic 3 at Ashby, which seems to help a lot. They also got two public restrooms right off the main entrance. Word to the wise: I've checked; don't use them unless you absolutely have to.

So, about that SFO extension...

Did you know that BART has a Public Information Office for this project? 650-689-8365; press "0" to connect to a human. And that human will tell you that, no, BART has not yet taken possession of the project from the contractor.

It's essentially March now. Once BART gets the project, they have a minimum of 2.5 months of testing. The absolute earliest that SFO will open must therefore be mid-May...IF the contractor hands over on Monday and IF there are no delays in testing.

I'm feeling that my earlier estimate of mid-July is not going to be too far off the mark.

Ashby ::: one entry faregate, two exit faregates, zero out of service.

Light traffic, and I get a seat. Oooh, this is comfortable!

Embarcadero ::: There's a flurry of activity as new faregate installation continues.

Well, there's been a lively discussion about the long connecting train delay at 12th Street, but no one seems to know the answer. Time to ask World Famous BART Spokesman Mike Healy:

TO: mhealy@bart.gov
FROM: LWB
DATE: February 26, 2003
RE: Long wait at 12th street
Dear Mr. Healy,
Why do early morning and evening/late night sit at 12th street for 4 minutes before continuing on? Back on the "old" schedules, SF-Pittsburg trains would meet Fremont-Richmond trains at 12th Street, pause for the usual 30 seconds, and then continue. Now on the "new" schedule, when these trains meet (which they only do before 7am and after 7pm) they both sit at 12th Street for 4 minutes before continuing. This delay is built into the schedule but no one seems to know why. Can you please put me in touch with someone at BART who can explain? Thanks.

Embarcadero ::: New faregates are being installed!

My Richmond train arrives on time, but after emerging from the Transbay Tube things are less great. Apparently a train went on the blink (a daily occurrence, according to Mike O) and threw off traffic. We creep and stop and creep and stop all the way to Macarthur.

Ashby ::: Faregate report...one entry, two exit, zero out of service.

19th Street ::: Passengers are queued up to enter train, as usual. First guy in line enters train, immediately stops in doorway, drops briefcase, and blocks half of the doorway while others on platform file past him onto the train. Note to riders: don't do this; it's terribly inconsiderate to other passengers.

News Flash -- Richmond line stiffed again!

Yes, the BART Board has chosen the replacement for outgoing board member Willie Kennedy, and they went with a SF resident. Never mind that this district includes only teensy bits of SF. Or that SF already has two board members. Or that this seat is the only one that represents the Richmond line. We'll be represented by a SF resident.

Forecast calls for continued inattention to Richmond line concerns.

Ashby ::: I exit the train and head to the exit gates...there are zero functioning exit gates. Ms. Ramirez is working on one, but she seems to recognize the futility and waves us towards the swing gate. Free ride.

Ashby ::: Only one functioning entry gate, and there are 8 or 10 people queued up to enter. Line moving slowly. Here comes the SF train. Damn! C'mon, c'mon!! Get through just in time and sprint to the train.

Mike O knows BART operations like nobody's business. He's walked us through his reasoning on why BART no longer has a transfer connection between the Pittsburg line and the Fremont-Richmond line. It goes like this:

BART, as we know, is old. Though BART has renovated some of its train cars, it's still a challenge to keep barely enough cars in functioning condition. So, the schedules are designed to turn around trains as quickly as possible at the end of the line--otherwise it could take more cars to provide the same level of service, and BART doesn't always have more cars. (Another reason for this is probably to avoid the cost of staffing extra trains.) It's gonna get even trickier when (ahem) the SFO extension opens, because BART will need 39 more cars each day. Okay, so BART had a schedule that allowed transfers at 12th Street and that also had trains turn around asap at the end of the line. But with SFO, there's a new end of the line. And when you make a schedule that quickly turns trains around at the new terminus, then juggle things around so that schedules don't conflict at choke points like the transbay tube, well, it just turns out to be impossible to save the transfer at 12th Street.

Keep in mind, this is only a theory. No one at BART has said this or confirmed it. But, seeing as BART says nothing, this theory is all that we have to go on.

Lots of bad new in this morning's papers. Including bad BART news:

BART to SFO has fallen behind...AGAIN! The contractor missed the target to hand the project over to BART for final testing. Whenever that finally does happen, BART will take another 2.5 months (minimum, to be sure) to test, etc. LWB predicts opening in Mid-July.

BART's budget situation continues to worsen, says the Chronicle. Ridership (and fare revenue, of course) has tumbled from 340,000 to 299,000, and sales tax revenue that BART gets is also down. Look for more fare increases or service reductions. Big bummer.

Meanwhile, the Chron also reports that nine people have applied to replace Willie Kennedy on the BART Board. Quite a few of them are from the Berkeley-Richmond region, which is promising. But it's up to the remaining members of the Board to select, and it probably is all about politics from here on out.

Embarcadero ::: Your faregate report follows...one entry, one exit, two out of service.

On the platform, three BART cops are playing with their fearsome attack dog. When a train arrives, they wander off to peer in through the windows, looking for evildoers.

Richmond train arrives on time. At 12th Street, another Richmond train (late from Fremont, apparently) arrives on the opposite platform.

All good this morning...coming in a little late today (been a tiring week) and traffic is lighter so I get a seat. :)

Embarcadero ::: Hmm...Richmond train is late...will take Pittsburgh train, transfer blah blah blah.

Hey, this is nice! Seeing as another Pittsburgh train just passed by three minutes ago, this one is not very crowded. Everyone gets a seat. :) Life is good on the Pittsburg line.

12th Street ::: Fremont-Richmond train arrives just as we do, for a mucho convenient connection. Just like back in the good old days...

MO writes to ask what's up with the BART SFO extension. Has the contractor finished its work and turned the project over to BART for testing? Anyone heard anything?

BART runs its Operation Control Center workstations on Linux! Way to go, BART! Stable, secure, and cheap!

On the other hand, the same article mentions that BART equipped its new OCC workstations with 24" Sony W900 HDTV monitors. These monitors are currently clearance priced at $2,100 and up...new, they must have been easily over $3,000 each. I mean, WTF? Do they get Herman Miller Aeron chairs too?

West Oakland ::: Train pauses for a few moments while a BART cop walks alongside the train and glances inside. I was wondering if we'd be seeing this again, what with the "level orange alert" and all. Not sure what the police can actually see from outside the train, but at least there's not a significant delay in getting to SF.

Embarcadero ::: Hey, the platform escalator is back in service! Didn't see that coming! :)

...aaaaand, down on the platform, here comes a train. My Richmond train? Time is right...but no, it's Pittsburg. Must be late. Might be a minor delay, might be a major one. Better hop on this train and switch in Oakland.

Macarthur ::: Fremont-Richmond train should be along in 4 or 5 minutes, if the delayed SF-Richmond train doesn't get here first. Time passes. And here comes the Fremont-SF train right on time. Still no sign of the one from SF. Glad I took that Pittsburg train.

Onboard, we get a beautful post-sunset view of SF Bay as we roll above MLK Jr. Way. The water looks almost like it's illuminated from beneath.

Ashby ::: All three faregates are in service; two entry, one exit.

Embarcadero ::: Needless to say, the platform escalator remains disassembled.

Montgomery ::: New faregates! :)

Richmond train is late! :(

Embarcadero ::: Yes indeedy, that escalator remains disassembled. Is this a major renovation, rather than simply a quick fix? If so, it will be out of service for quite a while, but there's no sign or anything to suggest this.

Embarcadero ::: Platform escalator still fully dismantled. There's some tools sitting around, so I guess there's work in progress, but no sign of an actual mechanic.

Embarcadero ::: Ah, shoot. I was wrong. There's no progress on the faregates. It was a false alarm. And the platform escalator remains fully disassembled and blocked off.

Ashby ::: Faregate report...one entry, one exit, one out of service.

Embarcadero ::: Yup, that platform escalator remains out of service...with a vengeance. At least there is now a guy working on it, but it looks like it's going to take a while. Meanwhile, it looks like they're maybe getting ready to think about installing them new faregates! No people around, but there are signs of activity.

Embarcadero ::: Platform escalator is out of service and cordoned off. With extreme prejudice. In addition to the usual barricades, big sheets of plywood are blocking it off. Ah. I see. For good reason. It has been almost totally torn out; nearly all of the steps are gone. I can't imagine that it will be back in service by tomorrow morning.

Ashby ::: Faregate report -- one entry, one exit, one out of service.

Train is on time and I get a seat; good trip.

12th Street ::: PA is telling some long and involved story about a train out of service at Balboa. I can't keep up with the details, but it seems that the upshot is that there are big delays in SF and to the East Bay. Fortunately, I'm already in the East Bay, so my trip to Ashby should be uneventful.

Ashby ::: Some sort of announcement on the PA as I arrive. I've missed most of it, but caught something about "restarting train traffic through Embarcadero." Sounds bad. Fortunately, I'm going to Oakland today, and the Fremont train arrives on time. Unfortunately, it then spends more time sitting than rolling, and I arrive late at my meeting. Oh well, it's only a meeting.

Montgomery ::: New faregate installation in progress!!!

16th Street Mission ::: New faregates are installed!!!

12th Street Oakland ::: Transferring from Pittsburg train to Richmond train (as you know, you cannot make this connection during the day, but you must make it in the evening). This used to be a nice smooth stop, but now both always trains sit at 12th Street for 4 or 5 minutes. What's up with that? Maybe I need to ask the folks at the ATU 1555 message board.

Ashby ::: Your faregate status report follows -- one entry gate (with queue), one exit gate (with queue), one out of service (with station agent poking around).

Onboard ::: Car is bursting with small children, apparently a class on a field trip. They're all hopped up on frosted flakes and root beer, and they're bouncing off the walls. It's like Chuck E. Cheese on wheels.

Wanna join the BART Board of Directors? Contra Costa Times says:

BART seeks applications from people interested in filling a vacant seat on its nine-member board. Director Willie Kennedy of San Francisco resigned her position effective Jan. 31 for personal and health reasons. Two years remain on her term. Submit by 5 p.m. Feb. 12, letters of interest and biographical data to the Office of the District Secretary, BART, 800 Madison St., Oakland, CA 94607. The board will conduct interviews in February. To be eligible, you must be a registered voter and reside in District 7, which includes Albany, Richmond, East Richmond Heights, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Rollingwood, San Pablo and portions of Berkeley, El Sobrante, Oakland and San Francisco. Candidates must also be citizens of the United States and at least 18 years old. To verify eligibility, call BART at 510-464-6087.

This district includes a tiny sliver of San Francisco, and Willie Kennedy lives in -- and primarily represents -- SF. (Perhaps explaining why the Board was silent when BART eliminated half of the service between Richmond and SF.) It's time that the Board had a member who lives in and strongly represents the Berkeley-Albany-El Cerrito-Richmond corridor.

Ashby ::: Faregates are back in service.

Onboard ::: Headphone guy is singing along with his tunes...getting louder...positively belting out the tunes. If you can call it that. Is he just making this up? Completely tuneless, no rhyme at all...is he crazy, or just obnoxious? No one seems willing to find out by telling him to shut up.

Onboard ::: Full train. Fuller at 12th street. Jam packed at 19th Street. Crush load at Macarthur.

Ashby ::: Flood off the train. One exit gate. Ms. Ramirez is trying to unjam the other exit gate...flips the top down, and it's working again. I'm out. By now there's an exit queue all the way across the station and descending down the platform stairs.

C'mon, BART, let's get going with those faregates! If there's a station more in need of new/more gates than Ashby, I'd like to know what it is.

Ashby ::: Zero entry gates in service. One faregate sports the dreaded orange "out of service" sticker across its mouth. Station agent is pointedly ignoring us as we hesitantly approach the handicapped gate. No other way to the train, so we finally walk on through. Free ride!

Platform escalator is back in service.

Montgomery ::: Richmond train is late.

Ashby ::: I swarm, along with the usual crowd, up the sole staircase, but we are battling a smaller crowd trying to head down the staircase. Ah, I see...the (down) platform escalator is out of service and cordoned off. Handy.

Rumor has it that new faregates are being installed somewhere in the SF Mission area -- 16th, 24th, or Balboa. Anyone seen this?

MK writes to remind LWB not to forget the BART ticket machines. Yup; they're always either broken (the original IBM ones), or utterly baffling to use (newer credit card machines). In fact, MK has let us know about an online BART ticket machine simulator that was apparently developed by a professional interaction designer [what is interaction design?] as an example of lousy design. Check it out! Especially if you work for BART and are responsible for purchasing the purported new generation fare machines. K? K.

Been pretty uneventful around the ol' train system lately. No disasters, no annoyances. This is good. On the other hand, nothing exciting to report either. No progress on faregate installation, for example.

JMC says that he has a gif that shows the configuration of 5 new faregates for Ashby. World famous BART spokesman Mike Healy must have miscounted when he told me 6. This is unfortunate, as it probably means that BART will run 3 in the peak direction and 2 in the off-peak. That will be an improvement over the current 2-1, but maybe not enough of an improvement, considering the much slower response time of the new gates.

Montgomery ::: Richmond train is late. Must admit, though, this is the first late train that I've had to wait for since December 19. Not bad.

Circa Childrens Hospital ::: PB, you're right! There is some sort of weird lurching, klunking thing going on here. Never noticed it before; perhaps it only afflicts some trains. Well, we have absolutely no idea how BART works, but...the problem is definitely a defective speed control unit.

Montgomery ::: Those pallets of new faregates continue to sit untouched in the back of the station. As far as I know, there have been no new faregates installed since Rockridge in November...has anyone seen work in progress anywhere?

No problems on the train, and I get a seat.

World famous BART spokesman Mike Healy says that Ashby station will get a total of 6 new faregates installed "this coming summer." Presumably these gates will operate with 4 in the peak direction, and 2 in the off-peak. This will be a huge improvement over the current 2-1 arrangement.

Further observation: we've learned that if you have a question for BART, don't bother asking a station attendant (won't know) or writing to BART Customer Service (won't respond). Just send an email to world famous BART spokesman Mike Healy.

Word from PB :::

Do you ever use BART Plus tickets? Instead of displaying the available fare left on the ticket, the faregates should print the predicted probability that the ticket will work next time. I've had a faregate at Civic Center eat my bart plus ticket repeatedly. It's gotten to the point that I get off at powell to avoid BART Plus roulette.

In other news, Didya ever notice the RICHMOND train act strangely between MacArthur and Ashby stations? (OK, this is a loaded question) Shortly out of Mac station, as the train starts to accelerate through the underpass up to the overhead near the childrens hospital, it suddenly lurches back with a lound metallic CLANK! Sometimes it does this 2 or 3 times. Don't tell me this is normal operation. Maybe it's that power sagging thing?

new faregates for everybody.

World famous BART spokesman Mike Healy responds (!) that Ashby will get new faregates "this coming summer." I've asked Mike to put me in touch with the faregate program manager for more details. Stay tuned...

Flashback to yesterday evening ::: Transbay Tube ::: Full stop. Train operator comes on the PA, sounding for all the world like a commercial airline pilot. "Well, folks, we, ah, we've hit a little congestion heading into West Oakland station. We'll be having a little stop and go for a bit. Ah, sorry about the delay... once we get past West Oakland, should be smooth sailing." And please keep your seat belts buckled low and snug across your lap.

About a 10 minute delay results. On the plus side, this is the first significant schedule delay that I've hit in the past month or so, and it's not a bad one.

Well, again more than a week has passed and BART has not responded to our polite inquiry about installation of new faregates. (Mind you, I don't expect a personal response to any crackpot email that I fire off, but if you run a transit system and have a "customer feedback" page on your website, well, I expect at least to get an automated email that says "thanks for writing; we regret that we can't respond to every email.") Well, the Chronicle always quotes "BART spokesman Mike Healy"... think it's mhealy@bart.gov?

TO: mhealy@bart.gov
FROM: LWB
RE: New Ashby faregates?
Dear Mr. Healy,
Can you tell me when new faregates are scheduled to be installed at Ashby, and also confirm that BART will increase the number of gates (currently 3)? Apologies for contacting you directly; BART Customer Service has not responded to several inquiries on this topic.
Many thanks.

Our train operator is a big Raiders fan. Announces, "Your next station stop is 12th Street, Raider Nation."

Montgomery ::: There's a big ol' temporary cage set up, and it's full of pallet after pallet of new faregates!!

Smooth.

It's all good.

Powell ::: Platform escalator is making a loud, rhythmic, and ominous banging noise. Hope it's not heading for a breakdown. Up on the entry level, it's... the new faregates!! Yay!! Funny, though...I'm starting to notice how much slower they are than the original gates. Generally not a problem, but this WILL be a major problem at Ashby if BART doesn't add more faregates.

Embarcadero ::: On the plaform, I pass a man wearing his jammies, slippers, and a coat. He doesn't look like he's homeless or a fratboy, but he must be victim of some sort of practical joke. He seems to be taking it well.

Ashby ::: Ms. Ramirez is standing by to unjam the two exit gates, but they work fine. Nonetheless, they can't keep up -- there's a huge queue of people waiting to get out. (Still no response from BART Customer Service to our inquiry about replacement faregates at Ashby.)

Ashby ::: one entry gate in operation, and 25 or 30 people are queued up trying to enter the station. Station Agent strolls over and reverses one of the exit gates, giving us two entry gates. Just in time...here comes the SF train.

Embarcadero ::: The street escalator has returned to service!

Embarcadero ::: I was wrong. They did not get the street escalator working yet.

12th St ::: New faregates! Yum!

Linoleum floor test vehicle. I like the linoleum floor. Much cleaner than the carpet floor, and should stay nice longer.

Ashby ::: Ms. Ramirez is poised to immediately unjam the balky Ashby faregates, but I get through before they jam.

Embarcadero. Street escalator remains out of service (day 5), but repair team is back on the job. I've got a feeling that they'll have it working by this evening.

Embarcadero. Street escalator still out of service. Repairman has left the scene.

All good with the train.

Ms. Ramirez is working at Ashby tonight. :)

Nuthin' new here, but the Chron has an article about delays in the BART extension to SFO. The interesting part is that the contractor is being penalized $65,000 per day for having failed to finish in November 2002. Three months of penalties could add up to around 4 million bucks.

The weather is absolutely beautiful this morning, and BART runs without a hitch. A nice start for the week.

At Embarcadero, the street escalator remains out of service and cordoned off (since Thursday morning), but at least there is now someone working on it.

Embarcadero. Street escalator STILL is out of service and cordoned off, with no signs of a repair effort. Down on the platform, the electronic sign says Richmond train in 21 minutes. Hmm. The one scheduled to arrive in 2 minutes? Dunno. And I just let a Pittsburg train go by. The people queued up ahead of me are confused. So am I. Is it coming or not? We continue being confused for a few minutes. Richmond train arrives. Everything goes fine from here on out.

BART to SFO in March 2003? Maybe, maybe not, says the Chronicle. BART says that it will miss the January 2003 target, but isn't yet setting a new target.

First target: Late 2001
Second target: December 2002
Third target: January 2003
Fourth target: ?

Transbay Tube: Train operator announces that they're having problems with the "track antennas" in the tube, which is why we keep stopping.

Embarcadero: Street escalator is still out of service and cordoned off.

Well, it's a brand new year; maybe BART is preparing to go on a flurry of new faregate installations. How about we try sending another question to BART Customer Service to try to find out?

TO: BART Customer Service
FROM: LWB
SUBJECT: PLEASE REPLY: New Faregates
Hi BART, I'd like to know the schedule for installing the new faregates at each BART station. Particularly interested to know when new gates will be installed at Ashby and if additional gates will be installed (i.e., more than the current 3) to handle passenger loads. Thanks.

Run run run. Pant pant pant. Run run run. Richmond train in 2 minutes. Next one in 17 minutes. Don't want to miss this one. Run run run. Pant pant pant. Wow, I'm out of shape.

Montgomery. Made it, and seem to have a minute to spare. Phew.

The Mercury News says that the BART extension to SFO will open in "a month or two," but the Examiner (whose publisher is a BART Director) says it won't be until March. Sigh. More delays.

Greetings friends. It's a new year, and things start off pretty well for BART. Ashby parking lot is practically empty (must be a lot of people taking the whole week off), BART has taped announcements about the fare increase to each faregate, train comes on time, I get a seat. Not bad.

A little less good at Embarcadero. No new faregates, no notice about the new fare increase, and the street escalator is out of service and cordoned off.

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!

Ever heard of "power sagging"? Neither have I, but the Coco Times says that BART is at the limit of its electrical system and may experience problems with further system expansion. There's some disagreement over how to correct the problem.

Phew. That, my friends, is what they call "crush load." Adding insult to injury, a couple of hundred passengers manage to extricate themselves from their packed cars, only to immediately get stuck in a long queue to exit through the balky Ashby faregates.

PB sends this report from the field:

Saturday (11/23): Big game day at UCB and thousands come to see it. Signs everywhere encourage people to take mass transit (see the BART shuttle banner at Embarcadero).

Usually BART plans pretty well for these, but not today. Five car trains running to Berkeley in the late morning - absolutely packed. Despite the fact the big game happens every year, I could almost forgive this. But post-game the same situation occurred. You couldn't even get near the train if you wanted to. I gave up and decided to wait a couple hours, but it didn't help.

12th Street Oakland, who should board my car but the one and only Frank Chu! Wow!

Richmond trains pulls out of Embarcadero and... stops. And creeps. And stops. And creeps. Etc. Etc. "Sticky brake," says train operator on the PA. Creep. Stop. Etc. Etc. Train operator says he's going to reboot the train to try to unstick the brake and that the lights will go out. As promised, the lights go out. It is dark. It is quiet. Time passes. Nervous titters are heard. A passenger pulls a small flashlight out of her purse and waves it around, provoking chuckles. Eventually the lights come back on, but the brake is still stuck. Train operator says that an onboard mechanic (does every train have one of those?) will try to fix it. Time passes. More time passes. Etc. Etc. We move again, much more smoothly and quickly. "Thanks Donald," says the train operator. Yes indeed.

Later, Donald walks through my car. Donald wears large wire frame eyeglasses, tattered blue Dockers, and has blond hair tied back in a pony tail. Donald looks more like a high school Social Studies teacher than a train mechanic, but he seems to know his stuff.

Well, it's been over a week since I sent an email to BART Customer Service to ask about installation of new faregates at Ashby. There's been no response. I am concluding that either (1) BART Customer Service does not read email sent by its customers, or (2) BART reads the email but has such disdain for its customers that it feels no need to respond in any way.

Must be Thanksgiving week; plenty of parking available at Ashby this morning.

All the faregates are locked open. But I run my ticket through anyway.

Train arrives Ashby on time. After Macarthur, we park. And sit. No announcement of any kind from train operator. We wait. The hum of the ventilation system keeps us placid. Time passes. Eight minutes. We lurch into motion, onward to 12th Street.

Message sign says: Pittsburg train in 1 minute... Richmond train in 19 minutes.

Um. What about the Richmond train in 4 minutes? Say, Mister PA operator, a little information would be helpful here. No such luck. I hop on the Pittsburg train; I'll wait in Oakland. Train operator says that the train immediately behind us is "now" also going to Pittsburg. Whatever.

Four trains backed up at West Oakland. We creep. We stop. We creep. Etc.

Macarthur. Sign says Richmond train in 2 minutes. This is good. It's the 5 car train from Fremont. That all worked out okay, no thanks to BART.

Fare gate out of service out Ashby; mechanic fiddling deep in innards.

Fare gate out of service at Embarcadero; no sign of a rescue attempt.

Stop and go traffic through downtown Oakland. Stop and go traffic in tube approaching SF.

Late night SF: Pittsburg train arrives 14 minutes late. Or is it 6 minutes early? Impossible to tell, as there are no announcements. This is a LWB pet peeve: at this hour, BART is running all of 6 trains per hour eastwards from the city, and for some reason can't manage to keep even that small number of trains operating on time. I don't ride often at this hour, but enounter schedule problems way too regularly.

Another highly useless 60 cent ticket. Get a lot of these, as the largest available ticket ($48) lasts less than 2 weeks. Got a whole drawer full, as a matter of fact. Time to cash them in. Have to go to one of the designated stations, during designated hours. Find the guy. Give him my stack. He looks at me distainfully, then begins adding up the value by hand on a little 10-key adding machine. Swipes ticket to read value when print is illegible. Voila. A new $20 ticket. What a system.

SF Chron reports that the opening of the BART SFO extension is going to be further delayed. As I recall, it was originally supposed to be opened in 2001. Yeah, I know, these big projects always run over timeline, but it's still disappointing.

All three gates functioning at Ashby, but only one set for entry (the dominant flow in the morning). I wonder, does the attendant switch a gate back and forth with the flow of passengers? In any case, there's just a crying need for more faregates at Ashby. Still no response from BART to my email inquiry on this topic.

New faregates being installed at Powell! It's kind of a mess over there; construction all over and huge crowds contending with few operating gates -- it would have been nice if BART could have done the construction at night -- but at least the new gates are here.

Platform escalator is out of service and cordoned off.

Train is on time.

Hey, BART has posted their most recent Quarterly Performance Report, saying that they're doing pretty well. I'd say that my own experience (as reported here) is quite a bit more mixed.

Oh, by the way... another good ride on BART this evening. Seemed to be some delays on Pittsburg, but Richmond was fine. Crazy crowded, that is, but on-time. Two exit gates in operation at Ashby, one quickly jams up and the long, slow slog to exit through one gate begins.

Shoot, no sense just wishing and wondering when the new faregates will come to Ashby... I'll just send an email to BART Customer Service and ask! I mean, that's what they're there for, right?

TO: BART Customer Service
FROM: LWB
RE: Ashby faregate replacement
DATE: Monday, November 18 2002
Hi, I'd like to know when Ashby station is scheduled to get the new faregates installed. And will the number of faregates be increased (currently only 3) in order to eliminate the long delay in exiting the station?
Thanks,
LWB

Think I'll get a response?

Another trouble-free trip.

One faregate out of service at Embarcadero. With the little orange sticker covering the ticket intake slot. No repair effort is apparent.

Trouble-free ride home. It's a good day for BART. Best since starting this blog.

Pretty smooth this morning. Only problem is some stop-and-go traffic after Macarthur, but at least the train operator keeps us updated over the PA system.

Some kind of construction in progress at Embarcadero faregates. Sure hope it's preparations for the new gates.

Richmond train arrives early at Embarcadero. Richmond train departs early. So early that I am just stepping off of the escalator. Wow. Never saw that before. Now I've got a 15 minute wait for the next train, thanks to the new schedules. Catch the next Pittsburg train. Will wait at Macarthur, maybe catch the Fremont-Richmond train.

Macarthur. Fremont-Richmond train is late. Jam packed with people when it arrives. SF-Richmond train should be just 3 minutes behind this one, but the signs say nothing about it, so I force my way on.

Holy crap, that was one jam packed train.

SF Chron says BART starts signing up reserved-parking buyers.

Come Dec. 2, BART will offer guaranteed reserved parking to commuters willing to pay a $63 monthly fee -- as the BART board of directors decided in July. Up to a quarter of the spaces at each of the 29 stations that offer parking will be set aside for reserved parking subscribers. The rest will remain free to those who arrive early enough to snag them.

This will probably upset a lot of people, but it makes sense in a way.

10 minute delay from 12th St to Richmond, according to the radio. Either I just missed it, or I didn't notice. Now that you mention it, though, that train was pretty darned crowded.

12th St. Oakland: New faregates! Whoo hoo!!

Wait a minute........ why won't this brand new faregate accept my ticket? Sigh. The elation is short lived.

Well, still. These new gates are going to be a huge improvement. Can't wait for them to get fully installed.

"There is another Pittsburg train 3 minutes behind this one," says the PA. Huh. That doesn't sound good. Dunno what's going on, but I'll jump on this Pittsburg train and do my waiting at Macarthur.

Yep, something screwy. Waiting at Macarthur, no sign of the SF-Richmond train. I wait. I catch the Fremont-Richmond train. Electronic message signs still say nothing about the SF-Richmond train. Good thing I didn't wait in SF.

Jeez, that parking lot is full! Is the recession over already?

Nice ride to SF this morning. Have to stand the whole way, but that's one of the few things that I don't complain about. Passengers arriving at Ashby, they're greeted with zero operating exit gates and no apparent activity to change that situation. Blah blah blah faregates blah blah blah.

Well, I'm sure glad I wasn't trying to get to Dublin/Pleasanton. My ride on the Richmond line was pretty much unaffected. And thanks to all the folks who didn't have to work on Veterans Day, I even got a seat! Arriving at Ashby, two exit gates are in service. At least momentarily. Once actually used, one jams. Station agent appears on the scene and starts fussing. Must not have been an easy fix, because several minutes later there's still a huge queue of passengers slowly filing out one exit gate.

It's only been a couple of weeks, and I'm already tired of reporting on fare gate problems. Clearly the least reliable element of the BART system. I'm eagerly awaiting the new gates; Life With BART postings will slow down considerably.

Dunno if this is going to hose my trip home, but the KQED traffic report says that BART is experiencing 20 minute delays to Dublin/Pleasanton and has no direct service between Fremont and Richmond. Switching problems all afternoon.

One out of service fare gate at Ashby. These fare gates are even more of a problem that I had realized. Should be much better when the new gates get installed.

Okay, just browsed around the BART Home Page to see if they say when gates will be replaced at each station. No information. Just this overview.

Ray asks, why not also mention the good parts about riding BART? An excellent question, and one that I had intended to address at the start.

For the most part, BART is fast, convenient, reliable, comfortable, and reasonably priced. When going to SF, I'd never consider driving when I have the option of riding BART. All this is due to those folks who, around 40 years ago, agreed to invest billions and billions of dollars to construct the world's most advanced local rail system. No expense was spared, giving BART all-new exclusive rails, computer controlled 80 mph trains, underground stations, and an independent elected Board of Directors. In spite of this solid foundation, the current state of BART is embarrassing, resulting from years of neglect by BART's political and executive leadership. At least that's my feeling while riding BART. I thought that perhaps I'd put that perception to the test by keeping a log of my BART riding experiences. Maybe I'll find that things aren't as bad as I thought. Maybe.

That said, I take Ray's question seriously. And I've actually been planning to make note of the positive experiences that stand out -- e.g., a particularly helpful BART employee, new faregates, etc. -- as well. There just haven't been any yet.

Platform escalator at Ashby out of service and cordoned off.

Q: What do you call an out of service escalator?
A: Stairs.

Q: What does BART call an out of service escalator?
A: Cordoned-off no-access zone.

Oakland Tribune says that BART issues false warning of chemical spill to riders.

"BART's gremlins are back," says the Trib. I guess I missed the part where they were gone.

Zero entry gates in operation at Ashby. 30 or 40 people queued up, while BART Station Agent fumbles with gates. Gets one working. It breaks. Gets two working. We're in.

SF train is late.

We play stop-and-go in the tube approaching Embarcadero.

Two fare gates out of service at Embarcadero; long queue of passengers filtering out through single operating gate.

Another beautiful day in BART's neighborhood.

I now realize that I should have called this blog "Travels With BART." Shoot. Oh well, live and learn.

SF Chronicle says BART searches for answers after retrofit defeat. I dunno; doesn't seem so mysterious to me. I mean, they only lost by a whisper; not like it was a crushing rejection. If BART had run a real campaign, or put forward a proposal that promised to protect and improve BART, it probably would have passed easily.

Absurdly, that same Ashby faregate remains out of service, with its panels removed and a mechanic (still, 24 hours later) poking and prodding around. You might think that BART would keep on hand a few sets of renovated faregate mechanicals that could be swapped in at times like this. You might think that. But you would be wrong.

Well, THAT sucked. Crammed so tightly into the train, I'm certain to have head to toe bruises tomorrow.

44 minutes for a 21 minute trip.

That out-of-service Ashby faregate that had its hood up this morning? Still got its hood up. One functioning exit gate.

***delays*** there is a medical emergency at the montgomery station so trains are being single-tracked through the montgomery street station. delays of 15 minutes from montgomery to daly city/colma and least 7 minutes from 24th street to all east bay locations. (updated at 4:50 pm)

Huh. I don't usually bother to check BART status before leaving work (on account of only the most catastrophic events are even reported, and usually not updated frequently enough to be useful). May have saved myself some waiting around on the platform. Thanks, KPIX Traffic! (Special prize to anyone who can explain why BART doesn't have this information on their own web page.)

Life With BART is ready to call the BART bond election: it failed. But just barely, with 64% support, very strong support considering the lousy non-campaign that BART ran. No yard signs, no mailers, no door hangers, no phone calls. No sign of the BART Board of Directors -- no community forums (forae?), no appearances at BART stations. Gotta wonder how committed to the measure they really were.

Montgomery: two fare gates out of service.

On train: Crazy man, twitching wildly in seat.

Civic Center: Awaiting train. Arrival sign shows Richmond Train. No train arrives. Sign continues to show Richmond. Train continues to not arrive. Sign goes black. I feel like I'm waiting for Godot.

Fare gate out of commission at Ashby. Looks serious -- hood up, mechanic up to elbows in innards.

Well, looks like the BART seismic retrofit bond is going down. Hard to say for sure; right now it's winning big in SF with all votes in, sucking wind in Contra Costa County with 59% in, and right on the fence in Alameda County with 60% in. Which implies overall 63% support; not quite good enough.

Won't know for sure until tomorrow.

Ah, back to normal. Embarcadero platform is packed with people, PA operator is saying something about stuck train doors, and a Richmond train is sitting on the platform with doors closed. Eventually (some of) the doors open and I hop on. Not sure what train this is but it's clearly been delayed, and it's solid people inside. Nice.

BART Security Escorts still at Ashby, but fewer of them.

BART Booth Attendant is nowhere to be seen.

Tomorrow we vote on BART's $1 billion seismic retrofit bond.

No problems this morning. Train is on time, nice clean renovated car, only one spell of sitting motionless between stations (19th & 12th). Even got a seat at West Oakland.

Tom Bates was campaigning at Ashby again; wish I had a chance to stop and talk with him but had to sprint to catch my train.

5:22 pm Richmond train arrives at Embarcadero at 5:34 pm, after some vague announcements of “delay due to previous incidents” by a very tired sounding PA operator, and after a late Pittsburgh/Bay Point train limps through the station reeking of burning brake pads. Surprisingly, in spite of the delay, the Richmond train is no more crowded than usual. Which is to say, it is very—but not painfully—crowded.

Manage to hit the Ashby exit gates at the front of the pack. Good thing; only one exit gate is functioning and even that one breaks shortly after I exit. Hundreds of poor chumps left queued up, waiting impatiently to pay and get out.

Oh, and what's up with that cluster of “BART Security Escorts” that has appeared at Ashby in the past week? Never seen BART Security Escorts at Ashby before. Maybe they showed up with the time change and the earlier sunset. Or maybe BART rolled them out in hopes of getting a few more votes for their bond measure on November 5th. Let’s see if they’re still there on November 6th…

Life With BART

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Monday, April 21, 2003

Friday, April 18, 2003

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Monday, April 14, 2003

Friday, April 11, 2003

Thursday, April 10, 2003

Monday, April 07, 2003

Friday, April 04, 2003

Thursday, April 03, 2003

Monday, March 31, 2003

Friday, March 28, 2003

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Monday, March 24, 2003

Friday, March 21, 2003

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Monday, March 17, 2003

Friday, March 07, 2003

Thursday, March 06, 2003

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Monday, March 03, 2003

Friday, February 28, 2003

Thursday, February 27, 2003

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Friday, February 21, 2003

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Friday, February 14, 2003

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

Monday, February 10, 2003

Friday, February 07, 2003

Thursday, February 06, 2003

Wednesday, February 05, 2003

Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Monday, February 03, 2003

Friday, January 31, 2003

Thursday, January 30, 2003

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Friday, January 24, 2003

Thursday, January 23, 2003

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

Friday, January 17, 2003

Thursday, January 16, 2003

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Monday, January 13, 2003

Friday, January 10, 2003

Thursday, January 09, 2003

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

Monday, January 06, 2003

Friday, January 03, 2003

Thursday, January 02, 2003

Friday, December 20, 2002

Thursday, December 19, 2002

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Monday, December 16, 2002

Friday, December 13, 2002

Thursday, December 12, 2002

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

Monday, December 09, 2002

Friday, December 06, 2002

Thursday, December 05, 2002

Wednesday, December 04, 2002

Monday, December 02, 2002

Saturday, November 30, 2002

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Monday, November 25, 2002