To learn the story of BART, look to its system maps
BART's maps tell a story of their own. From the original system map, with its dark blue and gray background, to the most recent map, take a voyage through time by way of BART's maps.
Read Full Story
One man’s fight to make BART accessible for all
Harold Willson advocated for a BART system that would be accessible for all. Thanks to his efforts, BART was the first American public transit system to be fully accessible.
Read Full Story
The Pursuit of Happyness
Some BART stations became movie sets in 2005, when "The Pursuit of Happyness" came to the Bay Area to film.
Read Full Story
Why BART uses a nonstandard broad gauge
BART famously uses a nonstandard broad gauge, or track width, of five-feet-six-inches. A recently unearthed engineering study from 1964 helps explain why.
Read Full Story
Inside the original BART cars
The original BART cars look very different from the Fleet of the Future today. We take a trip down memory lane and reveal how the original trains looked and felt.
Read Full Story
A look back at BART’s electric opening day
On September 11, 1972, BART finally opened for service to great enthusiasm and excitement by locals and journalists worldwide. We look back at what BART's opening day was like.
Read Full Story
BART could have been an elevated monorail and other fascinating facts from the Parsons-Brinckerhoff report
Published in January 1956, the Parsons-Brinkerhoff report is a crystal ball, peering into an idealized future of BART and the Bay Area of the 21st century.
Read Full Story
BART tickets through the years
Though the magnetic ticket may be bygone these days, we dug deep into the archives to unearth some of our favorite tickets (and ticket holders) of yesteryear.
Read Full Story
Everything found in BART’s 30-year-old time capsule
Thirty years ago, on BART’s twentieth anniversary, we buried a time capsule deep in the ground at Lake Merritt Station and Plaza in Oakland. On the occasion of our 50th anniversary, BART recently pulled the time capsule from the earth and peered inside.
Read Full Story
Thousands attend BART’s 50th anniversary celebration
At 8 am on Saturday morning, Lake Merritt Station and Plaza were already abuzz with activity. Train tracks — un-electrified third rail included — sprawled across a small section of the plaza. An A-car nose (the pointy part at the front of the train) stood shining, awaiting the many selfies to come. And hundreds of workers rushed from place to place to ensure the station was ready for its big closeup.
Read Full Story
The most iconic BART ads
Through the years, BART has run dozens of ads across newspapers, digital sites, billboards, and the like. Some of them are funny and absurdist. Some rely on riders’ real voices and opinions. And many have become iconic pieces of Bay Area pop culture history.
Read Full Story
Rarely seen photos of the prototypes that started it all
The iconic original BART car could have looked very different.Industrial design firm Sundberg-Ferar, which created the concept and design of the original car, recently unearthed a trove of photographs from the 1960s that show BART in its earliest stages.
Read Full Story
The story of BART’s iconic bubble tiles
Long a fascination for riders, the white hexagonal tiles with a domed center have been capturing the Bay Area’s attention since the opening of BART’s Powell St. and Montgomery St. stations in 1973. The tiles were even incorporated into the new ceiling artwork, “Elysium” by artist Stephen Galloway, at Powell St. Station.
Read Full Story