BART's Mark Nagales honored his grandmother’s memory with one final trip on a legacy train

Mark Nagales is pictured at Millbrae Station with the program from his grandmother's 2015 memorial service. 

Mark Nagales’s earliest childhood memory is riding a BART train with his grandmother. He can recall the colors most of all – the blue seats, golden carpet, all the ads and people and scenery streaming by the giant windows.  

“Growing up, everything in my house was white, so it stuck out to me how vibrant the BART trains were. I’ll never forget the colors of those legacy trains,” said Mark, who joined BART in 2023 as a Senior Government and Community Relations Representative.  

Every weekend for years, preschooler Mark and his grandmother, Juanita, would take BART from their home in South San Francisco in search of adventure. Often that meant simply riding the Yellow Line an hour or so from South San Francisco Station to Concord. 

“We didn’t have a lot of money, so going to Concord to see relatives was like a vacation,” Mark said. “I didn’t get out of the sphere of South San Francisco often, so looking out the windows on BART, I was wide-eyed. I’d never seen so many places before. It was like traveling to a new world.” 

On BART days, Mark remembers waking up early with his grandma and going to McDonald’s for a 20-piece McNuggets meal – a quick snack before they walked to the station and caught a train. Grandma Juanita didn't like driving outside of her small neighborhood, “but she always felt comfortable on BART,” Mark said.  

Onboard, Mark stayed glued to the windows, his hands and nose leaving tiny streaks on the glass. He admits that he sometimes had trouble sitting still onboard – there was just so much going on, so much to see! Grandma Juanita didn’t mind the high energy.  

“She just loved that I was happy,” Mark said. “And she loved that I was with her.” 

When Mark learned the last in-service legacy train would be taking its final ride on Sept. 10, 2023, (BART officially retired the legacy fleet at a celebration in April 2024), he knew he had to be on that train. And he knew he had to bring his grandmother, who passed away in 2015, with him.  

So Mark gathered his wife and two children, and together, they rode the old BART train into San Francisco. During the ride, he held the program from his grandmother’s memorial service.  

Mark Nagales and his family pose on the concourse at Millbrae Station. 

“It was a full circle moment for me,” he said. “That ride was a way to say thank you to my grandmother and to honor her memory.” 

That legacy train ride was something of a transit party with lots of people taking photos, shaking hands, and swapping their favorite BART memories tied to these old trains.  

Mark expected the experience to be a bit emotionally challenging, but once the ride began, it was nothing but celebration and good cheer.  

“I couldn’t stop smiling because I just kept thinking about my grandma and how proud she’d be if she could see me now. And the best part was that I was able to experience it with my own family.” 

Mark immigrated from the Philippines to South San Francisco when he was one year old. Many of his earliest memories revolve around his grandmother, who took care of him when his parents were working multiple jobs at San Francisco International Airport. It was rare for Mark to have both his mom and dad home at the same time.  

“The constant in my life was my grandma,” Mark said. “She taught me how to be loving, caring, and kind because that’s how she treated me.”  

At one point, Grandma Juanita took a part-time job at the airport. She didn’t have to work, but wanted to in order to make sure her grandson could have everything he might need.  

"We didn’t have much back then,” Mark explained. “But love was always abundant.” 

Mark is the first person in his family to not to work at SFO. He nonetheless honors his family’s transportation lineage through his work at BART. When he received the official offer letter, Mark said all he could think about was being five years old, holding his grandmother’s hand on BART.  

“To be able to work at the transit agency that opened the world to me...there are no words,” he said. “When I started working here, it felt like home. It made me think about all the things my grandma and family experienced and all the families who are currently experiencing the same things. I know BART is making a difference for them like it did for us.” 

Mark Nagales and his family pose for a selfie on a legacy BART train.

Mark and his family still live in South San Francisco and even serves on the city council. His parents are just a few minutes down the road, and like Grandma Juanita, Mark’s mom loves to spend time with his eight-year-old daughter, Josephine, to take her around the Bay on BART. 

Now that he has children of his own, Mark gets to experience the same feelings his grandmother experienced when she got to watch him play and learn and grow. 

“When you’re a kid, you don’t realize how happy it makes your parents or grandparents see you experience joy,” he said. “When my kids get to be my age, they’ll look back like I’m doing now and realize how much these special moments meant to their dad.”  

Mark’s final ride on the legacy train was one such special moment, and to share it with his beloved Grandma Juanita and his own family meant everything to him.  

And it turns out the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  

“On the train, my kids do exactly what I used to do -- putting their hands on the windows, playing around on the seats. I’m always like, ‘Don’t do that!’” Mark said. “You know, I bet my grandma once said the same thing to me.”