My First Time Riding BART in San Francisco
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART for short, is perhaps one of the most well-known transit systems in the United States. It stretches an impressive 131 miles (211km) on both sides of San Francisco Bay. It may come as a surprise to you that I have never visited the Bay Area yet, nor had I been on BART. Well, when we arrived into Richmond on Amtrak's California Zephyr, I set out to rectify that. We rode a Red Line train from Richmond to Powell Street, and got lucky enough to catch a ride on the 50-year-old Legacy Fleet just a few months before they were all pulled out of service for good.
Trains Are Awesome!
Date of filming: May 10, 2023
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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:27 Transferring from Amtrak to BART at Richmond
2:20 History of BART
5:27 Uninterrupted train noises
8:03 Running through Oakland
8:45 The Transbay Tube
10:05 Goodbye to the Legacy Fleet
10:42 Fleet of the Future
12:31 Powell Street Station - Auta a dopravní prostředky
6:30 The SOUND of BART is just unique. They’re unparalleled anywhere you go in the world. When I was in middle school I used to take these trains once a week on Thursday from Embarcadero to Millbrae for the Rotary/Interact club meeting. The clack of the tracks, the muffled announcement, and the high pitch stepped motor noises all form an intense auditory childhood memory for me (especially the A/B cars). The views and sounds of BART make me feel like I’m home, right here in the Bay Area.
for me they sounds a bit like S-Bahn Hamburg BR474
Sounds very similar to the London Underground, specifically the Jubilee line
Great video! Believe it or not, the first stirrings of BART were in the late 1940s . There is a video out there showing an experimental BART wide gauge car. Really cool stuff.
Some of the original blueprint drawings of what BART trains could have looked like are very cool
Loved the train noise section! The whine of the older legacy cars is what I think of when I think of BART
Thank you for this video. On all of my visits I have used the BART and it was always perfekt . Greetz from Germany.
Literally the only American train I've used. I caught it from the city to the airport
highly recommend trying the long distance amtrak trains. They are not high speed (no point because HSR would also be slow at these distances compared to flying) but it's a great ride, especially if you get a room on the train.
For example try flying to LA and getting on the Coast Starlight, riding in a room on that train all the way to Seattle. Great views, great comfort, meals cooked by a chef included with the cost of your room. 🙂
The train takes 36 hours.....but again, wheel on rail HSR would also be too slow because the distance is 1128 miles or 1815 km. Would still be a five hour ride at 321 km/hr, whereas the flight is only 2 hours, 18 minutes. 🙂
Amtrak was a great backup system for people who still needed to travel cross country on 9/11 and during covid lockdowns. Just not intended as a high speed system 🙂
I rode BART back in the summer it opened. A bunch of us kids from Kansas were in SFO for a marching band competition. We rose from the Montgomery Street station out to Daly City and back. That was something pretty cool for a bunch of teenagers from Kansas.
Thanks for sharing that cool story!
Growing up partially in the Bay Area, I can remember in Preschool and Kindergarten every Friday I took the Caltrain with my grandpa to go on a transit adventure. I loved and still love the diversity of transit in the Bay Area, and how you can take transit to many places. I went Minigolfing in Santa Clara and went to the San Jose Children’s Museum all on local transit like VTA, and especially loved taking BART all through the area. I am sad to learn that the legacy trains are gone, but I did go to San Francisco to visit my grandpa in early 2023 so I did get to ride the legacy series one last time. I still go on transit adventures for fun, and I gotta thank my grandpa and the transit in the bay area for making me a transit lover. RIP legacy series!
Fun memories :)
My fave BART story is from the first year of operation. The computer control system was not yet worked out. In fact, one train ran off the end of the track! So, the state of California demanded that BART implement a manual backup system. Here's how it worked. At each station there was someone you might call a station agent in a little booth at the end of the platform. He was connected with the agent at the next station by telephone. They could call each other and report the progress of trains. How did these agents communicate with the motorman in the train, who could manually override the automatic control system to hold the train at the station. The agent communicated by colored light signals, of course. A light switch in his booth could turn off the red stop signal and put on the green go signal. And what did they use for signals? They went down to the local hardware-garden store and bought backyard flood lights. Red and green flood lights!
This ultimate jury-rig system lasted until the state authorities were sure that BART's control system was working. It's all true. I saw it with my own eyes. And it's the last time I've ever claimed to understand how BART works!
And now here in DC we’re still dealing with authorities who believe automatic train operation is to blame for everything. As a result, we get to wait 18 seconds before the doors open at each station.
@@Thom-TRAFor what it's worth, at least the current head of WMATA doesn't seem to be in the camp of people who believes that anymore!
I can just hear a passenger banging on the door and screaming "Let me out!!!"@@Thom-TRA
One day I gotta make it to SF to ride the BART. The station at Powell St looks gorgeous and I'm glad you're showing downtown SF is not all doom and gloom.
Downtown was very nice! Wouldn’t recommend spending too much time outside at night but during the day it was one of the most beautiful American cities I’ve ever seen.
Powell station is the hub of our city. Must start there .
powell station is awesome but, prepare for the smell when you walk outside lol
@@its__russian284
"repare for the smell when you walk outside lol"
Like what? I've lived in the bay area since 1984 and I have never noticed a bad smell at Powell Street BART.
You must be maga, so we can all dismiss that opinion
seabasstian, don't listen to the people who say doom and gloom regarding California/The Bay Area....the bottom line with them is that, if people of color are present in any large numbers, they don't want to be there, and if the local government is not extremely far off to the right, they also don't want to be there. Such people are not welcome in the Bay Area. 🙂 smh at them. 🙂
They were taken out of scheduled service on *September 11th* of this year.
As of right now, they run at least 2 to 3 Legacy Fleets for supplemental service throughout the day, usually on the Orange or Blue lines and occasionally on the Green Line. They will have a final farewell run, scheduled for 2024 before they are officially retired for any and all service.
I really love this video, it truly captured my childhood on BART. Glad you enjoyed the many aspects of BART's Legacy Fleet like many of us in the Bay Area did as well. I have a few BART Content of my own if you wanna give that a look, and I'll definitely be checking out your next video on BART when it releases. Take care!
When I first read that BART has a "Legacy Fleet," my mind flashed to PCCs somehow running on BART. What can I say? I'm an old lady in her dotage!
I will for sure have to make a pilgrimage before the last of the legacy fleet are pulled. One last ride with the all the quirks and sounds the legacy fleet make.
Welcome to the Bay Area Thom! It’s been an honour to have you ride my local transit system. Thank you for covering it and sharing it with the world. Hopefully more visitors to San Francisco would like to ride it when they come!
That is also my favorite way to explore a city :)
Oakland got its name from Horace W. Carpentier! He, Edson Adams, and Andrew Moon founded the settlement in the 19th century. Horace started a trans-bay ferry service to San Francisco and acquired a town site in 1851 to the west of Brooklyn (today a part of Oakland), naming it Oakland for the oak trees on the grassy plain. Carpentier and his associates extended the area and incorporated it as the Town of Oakland in 1852 before re-incorporating it as a city in 1854. The area that is now downtown Oakland was once called Contra Costa or "opposite shore". The area was first inhabited by the Huchiun tribe, who belonged to the Ohlone.
BART likes to claim they were the first transit system in the US to use automatic train operation, when that title actually belongs to the PATCO Speedline system between New Jersey and Philadelphia! PATCO began operations in 1969, compared to BART's 1972 opening that you mentioned!
I still remember the Full House episode where the girls thought they had snuck on a plane to Oakland, when it was in fact headed to Auckland
@@TohaBgood2 whether something is a system or not is not defined by the number of lines
@@TohaBgood2 okay. I’ll file that one under my growing list of facts fabricated by you.
Cool video! I visited the Bay area only twice, but I coupd feel that the city of San Francisco is a wonderland for transit fans, because it has a commuter rail system, a heavy rail metro system, a light rail system, streetcars, trolleybuses and even a ferry system at the same time. I look for your video discussing about them!
I had a great time there!
More like a nightmare. It has _just_ enough of a transit system that you can rely on it instead of owning a car, but the service provided is very poor. If you show up somewhere an hour late and blame Muni, nobody will even blink because that sort of thing is common enough to be a regular occurrence.
@@Belgand but it looks like it's the best overall in US/Canada. Vancouver has the best system but it lacks coverage.
I was in San Francisco in July/August 2023. It was fun. I took BART from MacArthur to Embarcadero.
That’s a good stretch to get a first impression
Yeah that Oakland Airport Connector is very interesting. As you brought up, it's cable-hauled! The guideways and Cable Liner vehicles were built by Doppelmayr Cable Car. This Cable Liner system is the same system used on the Luton DART system, the Hamad International shuttle, Toronto Terminal Link, Aria Express, Venice People Mover, and Mandalay Bay Tram. There used to be a bus called the AirBART which connected Coliseum station to the airport starting in 1977 but of course, the bus ran into traffic, so the solution was to replace it with the Oakland Airport Connector. It opened in 2014 thanks to 484 million in funding (over 623 million in 2023 dollars), with 275 million coming from local government funds
What would become Oakland International Airport was first planned in 1925. The announcement of the Dole Air Race for a flight from California to Hawaii provided the incentive to purchase nearly 700 acres for the airport in 1927. The Dole Air Race was a deadly air race from Oakland to Honolulu in August of that year. There were eighteen unofficial and official participants with three aircraft crashing before the race started and three people ended up dying. Out of the eight aircraft that officially participated, only two aircraft made it to Hawaii. Oakland also served as the beginning of Amelia Earhart's final flight in 1937, and Charles Kingsford Smith's historic Transpacific flight between the US and Australia in 1928.
Next time I’m in the Bay Area I’m going to check it out for sure! I did ride something else that’s cable hauled while I was there…
Wondering…wondering 🤔
The Oakland airport people mover is unfortunately quite slow and, like all things transit in America for some reason, cost way too much for what it is. Like most things we make it winds up making compromises without much benefit to show for those compromises. At least SFO has direct BART access, but instead of doing the smart thing and punching BART through to the center of the airport and connecting to all the terminals via moving walkways, it expects people to make yet another people mover connection (though for terminal 3 and 1 it's usually faster to just walk. Adding direct moving walkway routes to terminals 3 and 1 would make the airtrain only useful for terminal 2).
I'm glad you got to ride BART and enjoyed it. I grew up on BART, so the noise sounds like home to me. I am going to miss the sloped nose BART cars though. They had a cool retro-futuristic look.
It's only been recently that BART has been referring their lines by color. Before that, it was the Richmond Line or the Fremont Line. Now, that BART's new stations have some long names, Berryessa/ North San Jose or Pittsburg/ Bay Point, it's just easier to say Orange Line.
Back in the day, there was a distinct culture difference between BART and Muni. During rush hour, people would stand in line quietly behind the door markers on the platform for an orderly enter/exit procedure whereas, one level up on MUNI it was always a mob scene w everyone pushing and shoving to get on and get off at the same time. The overcrowding was ridiculous. You may have to wait for the next MUNI train to get on. I always found that surprising. I don't know if it would still be like that since neither BART nor MUNI are jam-packed anymore.
I thought BART referring to trains by terminal was cool! Since all trains made all stops, and there was only one route to anywhere on BART, who cared where the train came from--only where it was going.
The only wrinkle in that was the three-track subway in downtown Oakland. I think it's two tracks on the upper level (one in each direction) and the overflow track on the lower level. Cool changeable signs pointed you to the right level for your train. Do they still use that third track?
@@rikkichunn8856 I think it was easier to identify the lines based on their terminal stations. I still orient myself geographically on BART relative to the terminal stations. Richmond is the Northern Line, Concord is the Eastern Line, and Fremont is the Southern Line. San Francisco and Daly City was the City. The Bay Area's geography is pretty clear cut and crystal clear. "Red" or "Yellow" Line means nothing to me.
The 3 tracks are still used. The upper 2 tracks are used by all NB trains and the bottom level third track is used for all SB trains.
9:30 Thom having an existential crisis 😂
You’re really lucky to have had a chance to ride the legacy fleet before it’s retired. Watching the video brings back great memories to me. I lived in the Bay Area 28 years ago and loved the ease of getting around on public transit especially compared to where I live now, Southern California. I also love the noise the legacy trains make. When I was a kid in the 70’s I thought it was the sound of the future.
I felt very lucky! One of the reasons I insisted on taking BART as much as possible
Fantastic! I lived int the Bay Area for decades, and used BART, MUNI, and the Capital Corridor for some 30 plus years. Transit is really awesome out there. I hope you two stay in California for a good while and keep making videos out there! Have fun.
We enjoyed the few days we spent there!
Looks like you had a great BART experience!!! And you got to ride a legacy train!!! Awesome!!!
I visited SF back in late 2021 and took BART to Berkeley from SF. it was fun! I really liked the historic cable car, light rail, and streetcars downtown as well. transportation in SF is pretty amazing.
edit: I also took a ferry, that was fantastic. I love ferries as public transit.
The transit scene in SF really is unmatched
come up to Seattle. Many ferry commuter and long distance routes. Auto and passenger only.
Although I've yet to have the privelege of riding BART, 12:15 that was my exact observational thought as I have rode the 7000 series in DC a number of times.
The complaints of BART being noisy have partly (mostly) been addressed. It was really, really bad five years ago when I commuted into San Francisco from Oakland, especially during the high speed part of the bay tube. The reason was noise from the steel wheels SCREECHING on the rails. (Unlike Washington DC, and the Paris Metro, these wheels don’t have rubber tires.) BART had specified a flat, or nearly flat, wheel camber. For those who don’t know, tapering the wheels keeps the train centered on the tracks, but gives trains the back and forth rocking you may be familiar with. I think BART was trying to minimize that rocking to make it a smoother ride. However, with delayed / deferred maintenance, this lead to the screech. Eventually they stepped up resurfacing the rails, and began grinding the wheels with more taper. It took a while, but the results are quieter trains.
The Washington Metro doesn't use rubber tires, but other than that, this is a helpful explanation!
Yayyyy my local transit system!
I read somewhere that the Tokyo Metro 6000 series’ cab was based on the BART A car I think
Could be, the 6000 series entered service one year earlier, in 1971.
I noticed the similarities are very real between both vehichles
@@TohaBgood2 the 6000 series is older than the 7000. The 7000 was based off of the 6000.
@@TohaBgood2 the 6000 and 7000 have the same cab design. So the 6000 was based off of BART, and the 7000 was based off of the 6000.
Embarcadero means Embarkment, derived from the term embarcar. So Embarcadero simply refers to the historic piers! The artwork seen above you at Powell Street at 12:40 is called Elysium, created by San Francisco artist Stephen Galloway. The work is a large LED lightbox. The imagery was digitally printed onto film and the film is squished between two panes of glass like a sandwich. Installing the artwork was challenging. The piece is located at the former site of a breakroom and structure that held ticketing machines. All of that had to be removed, and the area had to be abated for hazardous materials, as well as cleaned and fireproofed.
Once that was finished, electricians installed the wiring for the LED panel. Then the heavy lifting began, as the glass panels of the piece, all 13 of them, weighed about 150 pounds. To create the artwork itself, Galloway began by walking. He strolled the neighborhood around Powell St. for hours, covering about eight blocks by eight blocks in each direction, to get a sense of what a person would feel and notice while ambling around the area. Then he started taking hundreds of photographs of the buildings around Powell St. He brought those photos back to his studio, where he roughly collaged a composition and then created a digital graphic.
I think the artwork looks very good there. It’s great when artists honor the community around them.
Oh yeah I did read that the BART A cars greatly influenced the design of the Tokyo Metro 6000 series previously on the Chiyoda Line (and the derivatives 7k and 8ks). And some of the original stock of the Sao Paulo Metro as well
@@TohaBgood2 Chiyoda Line had the 6000 series, which was the initial design that was based off the BART train. The Yurakucho Line 7000 series was a derivative of the 6000 series and is newer. The Hanzomon Line 8000 series is a further evolution and is the newest of the family.
I’ve ridden trains in Japan, Seoul, Shanghai, New York and Miami. BART definitely has a distinctive howling sound.
Great video! I remember hearing that BART train cars were bigger than most other subway cars but I had no idea they used a wider gauge. I wonder what the rationale was behind that decision. Also fun fact - Oakland is basically the heart of the BART system due to the fact that every line on the system passes through the Oakland Wye junction.
I would've guessed the wider track gauge (Which is just off Iberian 1668mm gauge) would've been for extra lateral capacity¹ or greater stability at speed. Normally a wider gauge can allow physically taller cars (Again; More stable) but BARTs cars seem to be not much taller than ours in the UK which are built to very restrictive clearances. 🚈
(¹ - Wider cars = More seats in theory...But Bart is still 2+2. If we had BART-width cars over here, we'd probably be putting 6-7 seats in each row! 🚈🇬🇧😲)
BART cars were intentionally made wide and squat to give them greater stability at speed, particularly since they had planned for a track across the Golden Gate Bridge, which would be subject to sway. You'll note that BART is an exceptionally stable ride despite having far poorer tolerances vs. systems in countries with better transit maintenance.
BART is a really cool and unique system. While I have only been on a small section of the system within the San Francisco city area, I have enjoyed it a lot. As you say it is like an “Intercity Metro” with its really high speeds and really wide broad gauge track. The new trains are also great! I wish to explore the system more in the future! I also very much enjoy the sound of the BART trains.
Thank you! I have video I took on 09/10/2023 of these cars; the last day of service for them
I love trains too but think the ride into Transbay Terminal on AC Transit has amazing views from the Bay Bridge. In Emeryville walk down Horton and catch the F Bus into The City
fun fact, you actually don't enter the actual tube until your ears pop which is when the trains run through the ventilation shafts connecting the tubes to the underground sections.
I remember when riding the Legacy Fleet as a kid, I just called BART, the”silver train” although that can be applied many other subway systems. And in fact the A and C cars are responsible my interest in the Tokyo Metro 7000 series too.
Fun facts about Bart
Original Bart Train designs were conceived by Syd Mead who was a visual/ concept artist who worked on Tron, Star Trek The motion picture, Aliens and Blade Runner.
That screaming noise was so terrifying it was used for the horror video game Dead Space
I have been on the three systems mentioned (BART, Marta and DC Metro). It has been many years since I have been on any of these. The old BART legacy cars as well as the similar ones on the DC Metro were/are my favorite. Marta used a different make car from what I remember. The new Bart trains are not as aesthetically pleasing as the legacy trains in my opinion. I believe I saw that Bart was going to sell or auction off the old train cars. This was a couple years ago. I have also ridden the Los Angeles Metro, just the red line (underground). Many of the above ground trains utilize the old train rails, or the tracks may have been replaced on the old RR right-of-ways. When I would ride BART under the bay, I always loved how it accelerated beyond the speed it went above ground and through the city.
I remember seeing the Legacy fleet in a movie called THX-1138.
As a person who grew up outside of the US and fell in love with trains internationally, there's something to appreciate with electric traction (which is probably why I like the Metra Electric system so much as well). With this in mind, I appreciate the section of the video of "Interrupted train noises". A very unique addition to the video which I do commend you on. It actually did make me think I was riding the BART. I've never known much about BART and I appreciate this video. Thanks Thom and Lindsey! :)
So glad you loved it! Where did you grow up? I grew up outside the US as well.
@@Thom-TRA I grew up in Australia, but moved back to USA after I graduated high school. I fell in love with V/Line and Metro (back then it was The Met), as well as the tram system there in Melbourne.
1:13 for future visitors: unless you want a physical card as a souvenir, you can avoid the card issue fee and the need to use the ticket machines by getting a digital Clipper card in Apple or Google Wallet
The app SUCKS. Worst transit card app I’ve ever used in my life. Save yourself a headache, buy a ticket and use the machines.
Very enjoyable video.
I'm a rail fan that grew up riding Boston's MTA (then MBTA, then T) back in the 50s and 60s. When I moved to San Franciso in the early 70s, one of the first things I did was to ride Bart. Those "legacy" trains were brand new at the time. It was so cool. Compared to the antique trolleys, trains and stations in Boston (which I loved), I remember the feeling of everything being so modern.
Thanks for posting.
I can imagine it all felt very futuristic at the time!
I remember learning somewhere that the reason that BART was built using 1676mm gauge was to give the trains increased stability while on a viaduct in high winds. Otherwise, a standard gauge train would have required additional weight to keep from tripping over.
That would make sense
loving this another BART (beside the Simpson) lol 😂😂😂
Experienced the BART system a few years back, was totally cool, and like entering a dystopian sci fi future from the 1970s. Love the look of those legacy Train cars.
I love the noise BART makes too :)
The old fleet looks really cool. Love the old futuristic look
Great channel Thom, I enjoy everything you do and I'm glad you got to the Bay Area to check out our many transit options. I just wanted to add one improvement the new BART fleet has over the old is the new cars have three doors per side where the old fleet only has two doors making getting on and off the trains much easier during rush hour, it also makes for more even loading. I'll say that we are very happy to have the new cars, the old one's were ready to be replaced years ago so very happy to see the old cars retired, some have been in service since 1968!
Rode Bart in 2018 when it was still all legacy fleet, I was very surprised at how incredibly fast it was compared to the NYC subway. The design of the older fleet reminds me a lot of the M3 fleet we still have on the Long Island Railroad (or rather the original M1s they were based off of). The LIRR in 1970s seemed to be sort of modeling these modern metro systems with it's rebuilding of the Babylon branch on the south shore, eliminating all grade crossing and making some of the stations very modern looking by 1970s standards.
I lived in daly city for 3 years and I commuted on bart to my work in Bay Point. Its loud but the train sounds are awesome. I have always been used to the quick Korean trains so this was a shock but a welcome one.
That’s a long commute!
@@Thom-TRA yes! but it was necessary to make a living. I always had to wake up early
@@HENDERY.SoWonJun-ADRIVE I was in a similar situation last year. Blessed to live closer to work this year.
Very helpful video thanks! Planning to ride those new BART trains in a few months. Looks like a great way to explore the East Bay area without the hassle of getting a rental car.😀
Do not get a rental car, you will hate your life. This will be cheaper, faster, and more flexible.
You have no idea how good your plan, by going with BART and ditching the rental, will turn out! Unless you somehow avoid ever crossing a bridge, the first time you did would be an exercise in frustration as you creep and crawl your way in thick traffic - while the subway whisks along at light speed, crossing the Bay in a mere few minutes. Supplement with Uber in a pinch and spare yourself the traffic 🙂
@@thomaselliott2425 I took BART and eBART to Antioch and the trains go as fast as most of the traffic on their 65mph limit highways. Maybe not as fast as the fast lane but about the same as the middle lane.
@@brentsummers7377congrats Brent and hope your explorations were the best!
These videos are great.
Thank you!
BART ridership is still struggling post COVID. Thanks for the great video. The original legacy BART cloth seats were infamous for being filfthy. They were finally refitted with wipeable vinyl. Thanks for the positive perspective!
I’m excited to come back and explore more
Similar to WMATA if BART doesn't get funding it could go to one train per hour headways on its lines (its around 20 mins now), its also had slower post COVID ridership recovery 40% compared to WMATA's 55%. Good video though, its strangely similar, but different then WMATA.
BART will not be going away despite the doom talk. They were trying to scare everyone just like businesses are trying to get breaks on their rents. In fact BART has taken these trains out of service, gone to eight cars and have decreased train times. In addition everytime I take BART now I always see law enforcement on them. HUGE difference from earlier in the year and safer than I seen in the decades I have taken it. I cannot stress enough to you that with Nancy Pelosi as our rep BART is not ceasing service or going to once hourly
They did seem unusually wide when I rode. I never realized they used broad gauge track. I love the sound they make too. The new trains are pretty, too bad they got rid of those old seats though, they were so comfy. I didn't realize that MARTA and DC Metro were so similar because they came out at the same time. They ate probably the top 3 US underground metro systems I've ridden.
Can you review Caltrain and Muni Light Rail while your there? Great to see you riding Bart.
Wait patiently and you won’t be disappointed
Sweet! Thanks.@@Thom-TRA
OMG, you found my BART plate train! Now that train is retired! Thank you so much much ❤😭
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing the excitement of your first ride on the system - since you were lucky enough to enjoy it in, near enough, its original form, how well do you feel the engineers fulfilled their brief? Particularly interested by how the broader gauge might inform ride quality. Thanks again - so much to look forward to \m/
I don’t think it really made much of a difference. I’ve been on plenty of narrow gauge lines that had a good ride quality. It did feel like the trains went nice and fast, however.
@@Thom-TRA oh, of course, forgot you have wide experience of Japanese services to draw upon - never yet been to SF myself but remember reading about BART when it was new and, apart from the sci-fi feel, one of the chief characteristics mentioned in the railway press was the speed, glad your impression bears that out \m/
Great video! Thanks!
I am enjoying your videos. I love how you share you're experience and the history..
I appreciate it!
Thanks you for acknowledged Marta
Thanks for another interesting and informative video. I was in San Francisco several years ago and enjoyed riding the cable cars and the trolleys.
My mom's best friend from college used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area and she rode the BART to work in downtown San Francisco and she now lives in Palm Springs.
The new BART trains have another set of doors to make boarding easier. Fewer seats, though. I like their cheerful, cleaner appearance. While you are here in S.F., make sure you check out the new Muni subway (T line) that was opened in January. It starts from Chinatown and runs south through downtown and past the Giants stadium and the Warriors arena. The cars are really nice.
I did check out the Central subway!
I’m eager to try them out! Maybe after APEC 😁
I'm a little surprised there wasn't any mention of the George Lucas film "THX 1138". Some of the scenes of the movie were filmed in the Transbay Tube sections before they were submerged, and the trains themselves appeared in a few scenes too.
Not a very well known movie
@@Thom-TRAGeorge Lucas fans have now blocked and reported you!😅
So great to see your coverage on my region's train system! Looking forward to the rest of the content while you're in town.
You won’t have to look forward, it’s all already uploaded
Welcome to my neck of the woods. Love the videos and hope y’all enjoyed your stay. ❤
We loved it there! Can’t wait to go back
glad you enjoyed our local subway system!
as someone from richmond im happy you got to see our train station.
It’s a convenient station!
@@Thom-TRA yep. i used to ride bart from there everyday but i had never been on amtrak until recently and i was surprised how easy it is to access there
Very interesting, have a nice day
Great video. Living in the Bay Area and visiting DC I have always thought the DC Metro reminded me of BART. Maybe by your next visit to the Bay Area, the new Stadler EMU's will be running on CalTrain.
I did see them in the yard!
Great video. Another Big difference with fleet of the future is well is that they have three boarding doors per train allowing for faster boarding
True!
I enjoyed the video👍👍
5:55 the BART sounds very similar to some lines on the London Tube
Those BART trains sound like R188s.
The "A" cars and "B" cars were built by Rohr, who also made the Amtrak Turboliner RTL, and the 1000 series Washington Metro cars. Both the Turboliners and 1000 series have been decommissioned, making the BART cars some of the last Rohr trains that you can still ride.
Hi Thom...
I like that you're a fan of the sounds of electric traction motors. My favorite is the R160B Siemens Propulsion that I operate on every now and again, however the Alstom propelled R160's outnumber the Siemens so I rarely have a chance at them on some nights...😅
Btw, the BART Legacy equipment sounds like the NYCT R142-R143 cars...
Awesome. The future belongs to transit-loving young people like you! Save the planet!
We’re trying!
good vibes good work keep it up 👍 😅😊
Thank you for the train noises.
From what I understand, the reason BART uses broad gauge tracks is because there were originally plans for a line that would have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County, by adding a lower deck to the bridge to accommodate the tracks. Broad gauge was needed there due to the winds the trains would have encountered on the bridge. But Marin County pulled out of the BART system, and the line was never built. But by that point BART was already committed to broad gauge.
How I wish that connection would have been built
fun fact the bart Embarcadero station (under construction) was used for one of the Planet of the Apes films in the 1970's .
and bart trains were stand ins for the LA metro system in 1990, which was still under Construction.
the bart trains & underground tunnels (Oakland city center 12th Street) & interchange were used.
bart also Starred in a Japanese film about a Wheelchair woman , this was filmed at Ashby Station, Berkeley.
As a child i saw these trains in some books as the newest in railtransport. Help i am getting old 😉.
Fun fact: From Downtown Oakland, BART’s East Bay line toward Fremont parallels or is elevated above the original Western Pacific California Zephyr route. From Fremont, at the old town of Niles, the California Zephyr turned East and passed through Niles Canyon and then over the Altamont Pass. The ACE commuter train (Altamont Commuter Express) between San Jose and Stockton, uses the Niles Canyon/Altamont Pass route that now belongs to Union Pacific.
I rode around on the BART a few years ago, and the old trains were "interesting" but wayfinding was pretty poor on them. I think there was only one dimly lit indicator on the front of the train displaying which line the train was...no signage on the sides where the passengers were actually boarding IIRC. Once you boarded the train, there were no indicators confirming which line you were actually riding on either. The new trains have much better communication inside and outside. It was always a relief to see a "new" train coming into the station because you'd be able to clearly tell, "Ah yes, here's the red line to Richmond" instead of "Ah...wait, what train is this?" I did like that the Clipper card is pretty much the universal access card for transit in the Bay, though I wish it worked more like an Oyster card in London, where TfL basically runs the show and the fares/transfers are fully integrated. Too many uncoordinated transit agencies in the Bay, IMHO.
I think they’re working towards better fare integration
What’s kind of funny is that I honestly don’t remember the line names being a thing when I grew up in the Bay in the early 2000’s. I just remember stuff like “9 car Pittsburg Bay Point train now boarding platform 2”
@@FlyNorthrop The announcements only started including the line color very recently. There was also a transitional period where the message was "9-car, 2-door (or 3-door) train to Antioch now approaching, platform 2", so you could know where to stand. Once they phased out the old fleet, the message was changed to "9-car, yellow line train to Antioch".
The manufacture Rohr who built WMATA's 1000 series railcars also had built railcars for BART.
The industrial designer Syd Mead, who helped design the original BART trains, also did work on the popular movies Blade Runner(1982) and Aliens(1986).
The SFO Bart extension opened during the 90's recession with low ridership numbers, but it bounced back after a few years. I'm hoping this extension bounces back as well. But at least the cost overruns and delays aren't as bad as the California bullet train!
I saw one of the new BART cars on a truck going through Bishop, California.... Way, way out of the way, but I guess it could not go up Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevadas so went the lower elevation route around the southern Sierras. It was a weird sight for sure.
I recognize the exact legacy train you're on from some scratched graffiti on one of the other windows (spot it at 5:37). I'm gonna miss those older trains but the new ones do have a certain appeal as well
You really missed the slightly older BART trains. What you rode on there was a refreshed version with new flooring and seat covers. The transition took place in the mid-'10s and saw the replacement of the carpeted floors and cloth-upholstered seats that were truly filthy. Of course, they spent a ton of money on this just before they scrapped the trains themselves.
I met a very special someone on the opening day of the Fremont line.
Welcome to the Bay Area! Should've gave me a call and I would joined you. I started riding both BART and the C-train regularly and both systems have an interesting history. BART's legacy cars are 90% gone. The 10% remain are used for overflow or backup service. One legacy car going to a local train museum. MARTA also has an old vehicle in a trolley museum. The train at 0:40 is the capitol corridor, it's operated the same format as the Pacific Surfliner. Have you also considered riding SMRT in Singapore? BART is loud but makes the same sound as SMRT. Same "eeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeer" sound. Reminds you of the Tokyo mentro 7000 series? OMG I feel the same way.
Used to be a long line at the kiosk. No more! People can reload their clipper cards with their phones or even watches.
We rode BART in 2019 and wished we had vlogged it! We vlogged some of our time in San Francisco but didn't really focus on trains. Darn it! Great vlog Thom!
Some of the Washington Metro transit trains made weird sounds when arriving at a station. It could have been the breaks. Sounded like a siren of different pitches. I’ve ridden the Washington metro transit trains 3 times in my life as I’ve been to Washington D.C. 3 times in my life. I usually stayed at an Embassy Suites hotel in Alexandria on the Virginia border. The Kings Street Metro station is right across the street from the hotel. I didn’t realize till my high school days there’s even an Amtrak station across the street from the hotel too. Utilized by Amtrak and the VRE commuter trains. I definitely plan to take a train to Alexandria VA and use the Metro or VRE trains to get to D.C. Washington D.C. is like passenger train alley.
Awesome video. I hope you had enough time to check out Caltrain as well.
I did!
@@Thom-TRA Sweet! It’s my daily commute to SJSU so I’ve been wanting to see what you thought of it + the new Stadler units we’re getting
And the legacy fleet use to have the C Cars C1 and C2 all 80 C2 Cars were scrapped and some C1 Cars were scrapped but they have 2 of them for now
BART just connected with VTA at milpitas station 4 years ago. Maybe try Green line to transfer with VTA
I find it really lucky are you guys were able to get on a legacy Fleet BART train since they were taken out of Revenue Service on September 11th
It helps that the video was filmed in May, 4 months before the legacy fleet was taken out of service
@@Thom-TRA yep a few days ago on Saturday I was lucky that I was able to catch a legacy Fleet on the red line
Took the BART last year from San Jose to Powell and back. The noise is interesting and…reassuring? It was an enjoyable ride and I still have $0.20 left on my digital Clipper card. lol
The A/B cars remind me of Supertrain (from the old TV show). And you’re right: BART feels a lot like WMATA.
I prefer riding the BART, VTA and Caltrain when I’m in the area, have done so going back to 1982. The system(s) have come a long way.
San Francisco has the best transit system on the West Coast. When I say that I mean city, not regionally. The city just has so much to offer in such a compact area. Sure there’s room for improvement, and there is.
So true. I loved trying it all out. I’m a big fan of variety.
I have not yet been on BART but it does look a good system. The thing I find annoying about many Transit systems is the need to pay for a card when you may never use that system again. I hope eventually contactless will be widespread as it’s much more straightforward and avoids unnecessary costs.
I like collecting the cards though
Eventually one will be able to use credit card / phone at the gate, swipe again at exit. Gates will eventually be replaced (due to fair gate jumpers). New design appears more friendly to persons with mobility issues and parents with strollers.
i saw a recent legacy fleet train just a few days ago
Cool!
@@Thom-TRA yeah! it was crazy