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BART’s effort to rebuild its aging infrastructure is on track and is delivering results by improving the system’s reliability and overall safety. That’s the main conclusion from a new annual report issued by the independent panel of experts overseeing the Measure RR rebuilding program. The report will be presented to the BART Board of Directors at its meeting today, August 24.

The independent Bond Oversight Committee’s new Annual Report says through March 2023 $1.57 billion of Measure RR funds had been invested in rebuilding the backbone of BART. There are now 152 RR-supported projects that are in planning, design, construction, or have been completed. A total of 48 projects are complete, up from 36 when the committee issued its previous annual report in 2022.
 
46% of all anticipated Measure RR work has already been completed. The Bond Oversight Committee wrote the progress is ahead of projections made by BART in 2016 when Measure RR was put before BART District voters. The committee wrote it “believes BART is delivering rebuilding projects in a timely manner and that the work is improving the reliability and safety of the system.”

Significant accomplishments in the last year include:

*Substantial completion of the 34.5kV (kilovolt) traction power cable replacement work in downtown San Francisco.
*Completed trackway demolition and restoration for the Transbay Tube retrofit.
*Station modernization projects completed at Powell Street Station in downtown San Francisco and 19th Street Station in downtown Oakland.
*The number of service delays due to rail-related issues dropped from 217 in 2021 to 95 in 2022.
*Issuance of $700 million in climate-certified Green Bonds to ensure uninterrupted funding of RR projects.

Bond Oversight Committee members have unrestricted access to BART documents, hold quarterly public meetings to review the progress of the Measure RR rebuilding program, and are focused on ensuring BART is spending bond money in a manner consistent with what was promised to voters. You can learn more about the committee at bart.gov/bondoversight.

Measure RR is a $3.5 billion bond measure that was approved by voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties in 2016. The Bond Oversight Committee is comprised of seven members who represent a diversity of expertise. The organizations represented on the committee include the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management section of the American Society for Public Administration, the Project Management Institute, and the League of Women Voters.

A modest fare increase and a deeper discount on fares for qualifying lower-income riders will both go into effect on Monday, January 1, 2024.

The Clipper START means-based fare discount for BART will increase from 20% to 50%, meaning low-income riders will pay half the regular fare. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission pilot program offers discounts for Bay Area residents aged 19-64 earning under 200% of the federal poverty level. Clipper START is accepted by more than 20 regional transit operators in addition to BART.

Fares will increase by 5.5% beginning January 1, raising the average fare by 23 cents to $4.43. A 12-mile trip from Downtown Berkeley to Embarcadero, for example, will increase by 25 cents to $4.75. For a 45-mile trip from Antioch to Montgomery Street, the fare will increase by 40 cents to $8.60.

The fare increase was approved by BART’s Board of Directors during the June 8, 2023, budget vote. The Board decided to deviate from its policy of approving a fare increase every two years. BART’s Inflation-Based Fare Increase Program, which has been in place since 2003, would have required an 11% fare increase in January 2024. To cushion the economic impact on riders, the Board directed staff to instead raise fares 5.5% in January 2024 and again at the same rate in January 2025.

BART’s Trip Planner and online Fare Calculator have been updated with the new fares. Riders can look up their new fare by selecting a date of January 1, 2024, or beyond. New fare chart decals will be posted at vending machines.

Fares Fund Operations

The fare increases are expected to bring in an additional $26 million in operating funds through FY25. 

Historically, BART relies on rider fares to fund safe, reliable, and clean service – more so than most other transit systems. This requires small but frequent fare increases to keep up with the cost of inflation. 

New Fare Gates Being Deployed

Because our riders are directly responsible for funding our operations, BART is rolling out new fare gates in 2024 to protect against fare evasion and self-enforce fare payments. 

Low-Income Riders Will Pay Less in 2024

Even with the fare increase, low-income riders will pay less for BART because the Clipper START discount is being increased to 50%.

BART Discounts

• Youth 5-18 years old get 50% off with a Youth Clipper card.
• Seniors 65 and over get 62.5% off with a Senior Clipper card.
• Low-income riders get 50% off starting Jan. 1, 2024, through the regional Clipper START program, available to adult riders earning 200% or less of the federal poverty level.
• The RTC Clipper card is a version of Clipper created for passengers under 65 with qualifying disabilities for 62.5% off fares.  
• BART offers a “High-Value Discount.” Adult Clipper cards get a 6.25% discount on cash value rides by buying $48 worth of value for $45 or $64 worth of value for $60 when autoload is set up. 

The BART Board of Directors annual workshop will be held Thursday, February 8, 2024, and for the first time, it will include a lively panel discussion with transit advocates, policy experts, and key stakeholders to discuss what is needed to develop and successfully pass a regional transportation funding measure to provide long-term funding for BART and all Bay Area transit agencies.

The panel discussion is free and open to the public and will take place from 9am-noon in the BART boardroom (2150 Webster Street, Oakland) and on Zoom. This is an exciting opportunity for the BART board, BART employees, news media, and members of the public to hear a variety of perspectives about what transit operators need to do in the next 30 months to achieve a successful transportation measure in 2026, including improvements to the customer experience and policy reforms. 

In addition to the experts on the panel, Rebecca Long from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission will help us set the stage for the discussion, as they are leading the effort to secure long term funding for transit.

Public comment related to the panel topic will be taken at the end of the panel discussion. 

The second half of the Board Workshop will include informational staff presentations on BART’s operating budget projections and BART’s capital program to fund and deliver projects that ensure safe, reliable, and frequent service. Staff will also introduce a new customer commitment and review the changes underway to improve the customer experience. 

View the agenda and presentations.

Panel Details

Moderator: Karen Philbrick, PhD, Mineta Transportation Institute, San Jose State University

Panelists:

• Alicia John-Baptiste, President and CEO, SPUR

• Darrell Owens, Policy and Data Analyst and Advocate, East Bay Transit Riders Union

• Emily Loper, Vice President of Public Policy, Bay Area Council

• Ian Griffiths, Co-Founder and Policy Director, Seamless Bay Area

• Jeff Shaffer, President/Business Agent, Local 1277, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)

When: February 8th, 9am-noon

Where: In person in the BART Boardroom, 2150 Webster Street, Oakland, or via Zoom by calling

833-548-0282 and entering access code 822 5984 8450 or logging in to Zoom.com and entering

access code 822 5984 8450.

BART officials will be joined by community partners at two safety events as part of the Not One More Girl initiative to educate riders about safe bystander intervention tactics and preventing sexual harassment on BART.

Event Details

• Thursday, September 28, 2023, at Downtown Berkeley BART Station from 12pm-3pm. View the Flyer.
• Thursday, October 5, 2023, at Lake Merritt BART Station from 12pm-3pm. View the Flyer.

The Not One More Girl team will host these "Bystander Safety Zone" events to hand out our new bystander intervention safety cards and other informational material from the campaign, while speaking to riders about tangible things we all can do to make BART safer for youth.

Not One More Girl is a BIPOC youth-led initiative in partnership with community-based organizations and BART to end gender-based violence. Phase II of the campaign launched last month. 

• View a PDF of the "I Got You" bystander intervention card. 
• View a PDF of the "You Got Me?" bystander intervention card. 

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Bystander Intervention Cards for Riders

Two distinct wallet-size cards are now available to riders to discreetly hand to people to signal they need help or support, or to notify someone being harassed that you are there to help and support them.

These new bystander intervention cards are a concept developed by the youth design team, who expressed the need for options when asking for help or approaching a situation of potential harm. The cards include the slogans “I Got You” and “You Got Me?” with a list of actionable items riders can take to help a situation, from reporting the harassment to simply standing with someone. As young people are still trying to find their voices and figuring out how to navigate and decipher harassment, a physical card you can hand someone is an effective tool to precipitate the shift from being a bystander to becoming an agent of change.

The cards are available for pick up at each Station Agent booth at BART, and Ambassadors and Crisis Intervention Specialists will carry the cards and give them out when engaging riders. BART and the Betti Ono Foundation will also work to distribute the cards to youth through community organizations, events, and schools.   

Reyhana Shephard rides BART to Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) every day, but she had never seen a BART paper ticket before her fashion class began designing garments made with the old tickets for BART’s Project Doneway fashion show. The runway show was held last Saturday, Sept. 14, in the Rockridge Station parking lot and featured 35 original outfits created by more than 80 students at OSA, Academy of Art, San Francisco State University (SFSU), and City College of San Francisco (CCSF). The designers were cheered on by a crowd of hundreds. 

After weeks of designing, 17-year-old Shephard became perhaps too familiar with the paper tickets, which BART retired in 2023 in favor of Clipper cards. Her hard work paid off; Shephard won First Place in the high school category for her dress, entitled “BART of Hearts,” which was modeled by Jeylei Hernandez.  

“I couldn’t even say how many hours I spent on it,” Shephard said, revealing she used at least 1,000 tickets for the dress. “The tickets are so hard and stiff. It’s a challenge but also an opportunity.”  

There was only one rule for the competition: transform the paper tickets into high fashion. They created their looks using more than 150,000 paper tickets collectively. The students delivered, displaying garments inspired by everything from topographical maps and the Oakland skyline to cauliflower fractals and the Oakland Athletics. There was even a special Christmas tree dress created by OSA’s Meleina Beasley, 16, for her four-year-old sister Naxa Moon to model.  

“Our paper ticket designs have long shown up in artistic Bay Area cultural references,” said BART Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost, who came up with the idea for the fashion show. “This event was inspired by a dress made out of BART’s iconic blue paper tickets by Sean Porter nearly ten years ago, and I wanted to offer students who rely on BART to get around the opportunity to showcase their talents.” It was also a great opportunity to reuse tickets that would otherwise head to the shredder, Trost said. 

Prizes were awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the high school and college categories as well as “best use of paper tickets.” Winners received Clipper cards and Amazon gift cards at various price points, and the first-place winners will get the opportunity to collaborate with BART on new merchandise. All the garments from the show will be on display at BART Headquarters in the coming weeks. See the full list of winners below.  

OSA middle schoolers were also awarded prizes for designing “mini outfits” that were displayed on mannequins for the public to vote on. Za'Moria Spikes took 1st place and 2nd place went to Penelope Yap and Sophia Jones.

An extra award was added to the program for “best accessories,” which went to Academy of Art’s Jackson Tait and Ashlyn Springer for creating a t-shirt, crocheted belt, and crocheted bag that had the audience oohing and aahing and asking for replicas to purchase after the show.  

The show was judged by three local fashion luminaries: Charleston Pierce, Randy Wells, and Mary Campbell, who praised the designers for their creativity, craftsmanship, and hard work. The judges were effusive onstage as they announced the prizes. “We are so proud of you guys,” Pierce said multiple times during the ceremony.  

In the high school category, designers Evie Burger, 16, and Lila Damany, 17, came in second for a fierce two-piece outfit constructed of red BART tickets modeled by Lily Fritsch. Third went to 14-year-olds Isadora Oznowicz, Naomi Brack, and Patty Barajas for a green and yellow dress intended as a “farewell to the Oakland A’s.” Their garment was modeled by Gabbi Luevano.  

SFSU students Sebastian Vogelmann, Lux Anne Vargas (who also modeled the garment), Keeley Ward, Lexi Ulloa, and Hikari Nakatani, won 1st place in the college category for an incredible outfit that judge Wells said, “proved there are no limits to creativity when it comes to material.”  

An unusual feature of the garment was a repurposed car bumper, which model Lux wore as a collarbone embellishment.  

“I got into a car accident going to school, and this bumper fell off, so we just used it,” said Nakatani. “Now I take BART to school.” 

The team also won the award for “best use of paper tickets.”  

Second place went to SFSU designers Madison Macneill, Emma Wolfe, Dyllie Gilson, Grace Balelo, Sofia Cereghini, for a red design that “blends natures’ geometry with avant-garde fashion" and was inspired by the “alien appearance of cauliflower.” The team’s model, Mya, began bawling once she exited the runway – she was so proud of her team and their accomplishment.  

Finally, third place went to SFSU’s Katelyn Camacho, Edgar Garcia, Jude Ramos, and Eugene King for a garment inspired by the blue Power Ranger.  

“It’s just so creative, and we all love Power Rangers,” said judge Campbell.  

After the show, students were laden with bouquets and cards and cheered by the many people who came out to watch the show. It was proof that BART is so much more than a transit system – it's a means of connecting communities and creating space for art and creativity. It’s also a practical means of transportation for field trips to fabric stores, said Stephanie Verrieres, the head of the fashion department at OSA.  

"We are on BART all the time,” she said.  

The class took BART along with their fantastical paper ticket garments from their school in Downtown Oakland to the show at Rockridge, full of smiles and some butterflies. Many of Verrieres’s students had never participated in a fashion show outside of school, but up on the runway, they looked like absolute pros.  

“This fashion show is a really nice way to recycle the tickets. What else are you going to do with them?” said 75-year-old Liz Scotta, who is transit-dependent. Liz sewed an Elizabethan-style dress fit for a queen, entitled it ElizaBARTan. She broke five needles and burnt out her sewing machine in the process of creating the dress, which took her around 100 hours.  

Like many participants, Project Doneway was Scotta’s first ever fashion show. It had been on her bucket list for a long time.  

“Better late than never!” she said. 

Winners

High School Level 

All high school participants were from Oakland School for the Arts

1st Place High School

• Reyhana Shephard (designer)
• Jeylei Hernandez (model)

2nd Place High School

• Evie Burger (designer)
• Lila Damany (designer)
• Lily Fritsch (model) 

3rd Place High School

• Isadora Oznowicz (designer)
• Naomi Brack (designer)
• Patty Barajas (designer)
• Gabbi Luevano (model)

College Level

1st Place College AND Winner of Best Use of Paper Tickets

From San Francisco State University: 

• Sebastian Vogelmann (designer)
• Lux Anne Vargas (model- and designer) 
• Keeley Ward (designer)
• Lexi Ulloa (designer)
• Hikari Nakatani (designer) 

2nd Place College

From San Francisco State University: 

• Madison Macneill (designer) 
• Emma Wolfe (designer) 
• Dyllie Gilson (designer) 
• Grace Balelo (designer) 
• Sofia Cereghini (designer) 
• Mya (model)

3rd Place College

• Katelyn Camacho (designer) 
• Edgar Garcia (designer and model)
• Jude Ramos (designer)
• Eugene King (designer) 

Best Accessories

From the Academy of Art:

• Jackson Tait (designer and model)
• Ashlyn Springer (designer)  

BART offers alternative bus service called the Early Bird Express for weekday service before BART opens.

Due to low bus ridership on several routes, limited funding, and increasing demand for bus drivers from partner agencies, BART will make a series of service reductions to the Early Bird Express service in 2024. BART will retain eight trips that serve 90% of riders and will eliminate seven trips, impacting 10% of riders. 

The changes will impact fewer than 20 riders.

The first change occurred on April 28, 2024 and June 16, 2024 and then again on August 12, 2024.

The full details of service changes, maps, and suggested alternatives can be found on the Early Bird Express page.

BART and partner bus agencies will do targeted outreach about these upcoming changes.

*This article was originally posted on March 13, 2024 and is being kept up to date.

BART PD has arrested a suspect in connection with a vandalism spree that hit three downtown San Francisco stations and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. 28-year-old Saqueo Delcidmontenegro of San Francisco was spotted aboard a BART train Tuesday evening by a BART PD Transit Ambassador who recognized him from an informational flyer. Officers were called to the train, and they arrested Delcidmontenegro.

Since October 5, 29 large glass panels have been damaged at the entrances to Embarcadero, Montgomery, and Powell Street stations. Many of the destroyed panels are part of new canopies that are being built over the entrances to downtown San Francisco stations. The canopies are required by state law to protect new outdoor escalators that are being installed at BART’s downtown San Francisco stations. The work is a vital part of BART’s efforts to improve the daily rider experience. The total cost of replacing all the damaged panels is estimated at more than $500,000.

Delcidmontenegro has been booked into San Francisco County Jail on five counts of felony vandalism.

"Some people read, some people work, some people apply makeup,” says Joanna Sokua of riding BART. “I draw.”  

Since 2017, Sokua has been creating what she calls “BARToons” during her morning and evening commute. You might say she is a seasoned BARTist. In the past seven years, she has drawn more than 170 BART illustrations. While on the train, she snaps photos of scenes and passengers that spark an idea, and when she gets home, she’ll sketch them out or, most often, superimpose pop culture figures onto the images using a digital pen.  

The drawings depict Scooby Doo and Shaggy waiting for a train; Van Gough seated near the doors with a pipe and bandage over his ear; Doc Brown and Marty McFly from Back to the Future standing on a legacy train; Clark Kent looking at his phone with his Superman suit peeking out. Sometimes, she’ll just draw a passenger as they are, sitting on the train engrossed in whatever they’re doing. 

Sokua works in banking, helping small business owners secure financing for their ventures. She is one of many artists who have been inspired by their BART rides, from photographers roused by the system's striking angles to novelists who wrote their books almost entirely onboard. There have even been plays set on BART trains. 

On her BART ride from the East Bay to her office in San Francisco, Sokua is not thinking about her data-and-dollars day job. Mostly, she’s looking for subjects to draw. The creative exercise helps her unwind, and it’s deeply entertaining for those who keep up with her work on her Instagram (@the_und3rwrit3r), where she regularly posts her latest drawings.  

The artist said she doesn’t board a train with an idea for her next drawing. She simply waits for inspiration to strike. 

“People always ask me how I decide what to draw,” she said. “It just comes to me. I see something, and I know exactly what I want to do.” A drawing of Jack Sparrow was born after seeing a fellow rider in a headband on her train, for example.  

BART proves ripe for inspiration because “you see people from all walks of life,” Sokua said. She’s even made friends onboard.  

“I take the same train every day at the same time. You see the same people over and over,” she said. “It becomes a sort of community actually." 

Most of the time, people don’t know Sokua has used them for a drawing, though sometimes they find themselves or their loved ones on her Instagram page. One memorable instance was when she drew a man who “looked like Jesus” sitting next to a woman praying over a rosary. It's one of her favorite drawings, least of all because the man’s wife saw the drawing on Instagram and commented, “That’s my personal Jesus!” Once, she drew an Oscar the Grouch cartoon, and the person operating the train found the image on Facebook, commenting something to the effect of, “Hey! I was operating that train!”  

Sokua said she creates her BARToons to “make people laugh and make their rides more fun.”  

She doesn’t want to offend with her drawings, she just thinks everyone can always use a healthy dash of humor in their day.  

“You might as well make the most of your commute,” she said, adding that she “100% recommends” doodling on BART.