Comments on: All-Night BART Highlights the Need for Track Expansion

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:07:31 +0000

@Joel, yeah, im not sure how much track they would need (or where) to make it happen, but sufficit to say it would be a huge project, especially in the underground sections.

By: Joel

Joel — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:30:47 +0000

@ Brandon, that’s a fascinating idea. Wouldn’t BART need to install some bypass tracks though to make this happen?

By: Brandon

Brandon — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:58:15 +0000

As someone who has recently come to the Bay Area from the New York City area, it comes to mind every time i ride BART that it should have express trains. I wouldnt even model them on the Caltrain express trains, id model them on the Long Island Railroads express trains, which does groupings of smaller stations rather than only going to major ones. My BART example express to SF (I live near the North Berkeley BART) would go North Berkeley, Downtown Berkeley, Ashby, MacArthur (or maybe Oakland City Center, I havent decided on that part), and then directly to the Embarcadero BART. Likewise, there could be another express that goes Richmond, El Cerrito Del Norte, El Cerrito Plaza, and then directly to SF, not stopping at my part of the line.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:05:43 +0000

Nick, thanks for your thoughts. The argument that track limitations have prevented 24/7 service is the official argument, but like you, I am also not convinced that this completely excludes the opportunity for late night service, especially an hourly service, which it seems would still allow substantial time gaps for maintenance on sections of track. Perhaps more likely is that it is a combination of revenue considerations and a desire to at least maintain flexibility with how maintenance and upkeep are carried out. At any rate, it’s an issue I hope to probe into more in the future. The point here is that an extra set of track would really just help flexibility of operations in many ways.

Good point also about the infill stations. This is a big topic in terms of BART’s future, as the agency is in the midst of realizing what work needs to be done to transform the system into something more akin to a true urban metro. Ideally, though, we shouldn’t be choosing between new tracks and infill stations; we could really use both. What we don’t need is a BART extension to San Jose.

In any case — all this is too much for a single post. This post is pretty much a preliminary comment in response to the recent press BART has gotten with the Bay Bridge closures. More to come later. :)

By: Nick/295

Nick/295 — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:32:39 +0000

A few thoughts–

I’m not convinced BART’s inability to operate 24/7 is due to track limitations. After all, the whole system is double tracked, and I bet a skeleton service (hourly?) could be run even if lines were occasionally single-tracked for maintenance (as long as the powered down tracks can be electrically isolated, of course).

Passing tracks are still a good idea, of course. I think, though, that instead of adding express trains, BART should be building infill stations and adding more local service. There are plenty of really long gaps between stations in the BART system, and I suspect there’s an unmet demand for shorter trips.