Meet the train-loving family who ride BART for fun
About a year after the start of the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, the Chapman family finally got back on BART. It was an occasion four-year-old Bryce had been dreaming of for months after an arduous year of sheltering in place with his parents, Kirsten and Russ.
Kirsten remembers the day of that first pandemic BART ride well. The family rode from their home in the East Bay to Embarcadero Station, hopped on the historic F Market and Wharves Streetcar, and rolled past the piers before disembarking at Fisherman’s Wharf. Their final stop was a visit to the San Francisco Railway Museum.
“It was a really big deal for us when we got back on BART,” Kirsten said. “It was one of those symbols of, are we finally going back to normal? Are we going to be okay? In that moment, it felt like we were.”
Kirsten had been taking Bryce on BART since he was a baby. He was nine months old when he took his first-ever train ride, to see the Union Square Tree.
As he grew, Bryce and his parents used BART to explore the city. They’d ride into San Francisco, jump on the cable cars, visit the city’s diversity of museums, or meander over to Golden Gate Park. Kirsten said she never felt uncomfortable taking her young son on BART.
(From left to right) First image: Bryce Chapman, age 6, wears a police badge given to him by a BART Police officer in July 2021 in front of Vaillancourt Fountain in San Francisco. Second image: Bryce and his mom, Kirsten, pose in front of a BART train on their way into San Francisco for National Train Day 2023. Third image: Bryce poses in front of a cable car on National Train Day 2023. On that day, Bryce and Kirsten took BART into San Francisco for a cable car ride and walk to Japantown, where they ate lunch ate Hikari Bullet Train and Sushi Bar.
“Bryce is the best behaved when he’s on a train,” she said. “He just sits there, rolling his wooden BART train car along the windowsill, staring at the scenery and pointing out the sights to us.”
Bryce doesn’t often smile when he’s on BART. It confused his parents at first, until they realized why: He was completely tuned into his surroundings and “couldn’t waste his time smiling.” On BART, Bryce seems to enter what some psychologists called a “flow state,” in which he becomes completely immersed in what he’s doing and experiencing.
There were times during various periods of the pandemic when the Chapmans didn’t know what to do with themselves or their young, energetic son. In those moments, “we’d just hop on BART,” Kirsten said. She’d answer her work emails, and Bryce would glue his eyes to the world beyond the window.
“BART’s the best babysitter we’ve ever had,” she joked.
Prior to the onset of the pandemic, Kirsten had been riding BART five days a week, twice a day, for more than a decade, solely to commute to and from her office in Downtown San Francisco. In those years, BART was a symbol of life’s daily drudgery; it got you where you needed (not necessarily wanted) to go. Kirsten admitted she took the transit system for granted.
“Before my son, I didn’t think much of the train ride,” she said. That changed in March 2020. All of a sudden, the BART trains passing through their East Bay suburb transformed into almost mythological symbols of “the good ol’ days.” When a train on its aerial trackway rolled by as if soaring through the sky, the Chapmans would wave as it passed like they were greeting an “old friend who’s just out of reach.”
These days, Kirsten works from home, and BART has become “strictly a vessel of fun.” When not riding for fun, Russ uses BART to commute a few days a week.
(From left to right) First and second image: Bryce and his mom take BART to San Francisco in September 2022. Kirsten said, “That day we rode BART, took Muni to Caltrain, rode Caltrain to Palo Alto for lunch before continuing onto San Jose, and then rode Amtrak to Hayward...A challenge, but fun! We plan to do it again in September.” Third image: Bryce and a BART train in the background with a BART foam train in the foreground.
“When we ride BART, we know we’re going to have a good time, wherever we’re going,” she said.
Getting back on BART, especially before the release of COVID vaccines, was admittedly uncomfortable for Kirsten at first. Like everyone, her number-one priority in the thick of those years was keeping her family healthy.
“But then I started riding it. It was so quiet, and every single person wore a mask. I realized quite quickly that it was one of the safer places you could be,” she said. Her apprehensions evaporated almost immediately.
The Chapmans specifically purchased their house in a suburb with a namesake BART station. They’d never even heard of the town before, but it had a BART station, so they took the leap.
“Having the capability to go from the sleepy suburbs, sit on a train for thirty minutes, and then land in a world-class city that’s famous around the world…That’s what BART is to me,” she said.
Kirsten’s “mom friends” didn’t always feel the same way as her, and she sometimes found herself evangelizing about the joys of riding BART with a child.
“I’ve convinced my mom friends who use BART to commute to take their kids on it for fun. Many admit they’d never thought of doing it before,” she said.
Those less familiar with BART are often more hesitant to try, Kirsten said.
“People have, not necessarily a fear, but an apprehension of the unknown,” she said. “The moms who already use BART…well, it’s easier for them to wrap their heads around it.”
Kirsten understands that feeling of apprehension herself. Her family isn’t only into riding BART, but riding trains in general. If they’re heading out to try a new railway, she carefully studies over the schedules and outlines a route. Being prepared is the key to being comfortable, she said.
For riding BART, she recommends parents take their children during “busier times.” Her favorite time to ride is around 9:30am on a weekday, when the commute is easing but plenty of riders are still buzzing about the train cars and stations. She and Bryce ride in the first car because they know another person will always be with them – the Train Operator in the cab.
Though Kirsten was well familiar with transit before the birth of her son – she worked as an environmental consultant on the BART to Antioch extension in 2008, and her specialty is infill development projects – it was Bryce who opened her eyes to the magic of train travel. She and her husband are looking forward to taking Bryce on trains throughout the world, she said. Already, they’re planning “train vacations” as Bryce graduates from the miniature trains at Concord’s Pixieland and Fairyland in Oakland.
Bryce and Kirsten wearing BART Old Boi/New Boi shirts while riding trains in Switzerland, May 2022.
“I realized that trains weren’t just a phase for Bryce, or for us,” she said. “I’ve known kids who love bugs, and I know kids who love firetrucks. Bryce loves trains.”
And Kirsten is glad to support that interest. The family regularly travels around Northern California in search of new rail experiences, and they’ve found their enthusiasm is contagious. Bryce often gets invited to tour train cabs and meet conductors, “really just because we’re polite, and Bryce is so interested,” Kirsten said.
Last month, she posted a video of a ride in the cab of a steam train – with the engineer and fireman – on her private Instagram account. No one seemed very interested. But for the Chapmans, it was an incredibly special moment, and Kirsten realized that she wanted to connect with fellow “train people” who could appreciate how awesome the moment was.
“I wasn’t offended, but I wanted to share the hours and hours of train footage I have on my phone with people who are just as excited as I am,” she said.
On June 20, she made her first post on her new @railfanfam Instagram account – a video of a gloriously sunny ride through the majestic blanket of trees in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park aboard the Santa Cruz Beach Train. A BART train made its first appearance six days later – a photo of Bryce waving at an incoming legacy train as Kirsten holds his toy BART train in the foreground. “May your commute this week be safe and efficient,” the caption reads.
Gaining followers is not Kirsten’s end goal. Rather, it’s more about holding the memories close in one space – and sharing them with a community who completely, indelibly understands that trains are motion, are enchantment, are joy.
(From left to right) First image: Bryce on his way to San Francisco to look at the holiday displays in hotel lobbies in December 2022. Second image: Bryce on a BART platform wearing his Thomas the Tank Engine backpack.