Bay Area Rapid Transit District

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, or BART, is a special-purpose district body that governs the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in the California counties of Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco. The system itself also serves northern San Mateo County and Santa Clara County; however, these counties have bought into the system and have neither a voting stake nor any representatives in the district proper.[1] The District currently operates 50 stations, 817 rail cars, 131 miles of track (33.5 miles on elevated railway, 65.1 miles of track at-grade and 32.8 miles of subway track.) [2]

A map of California, with the Bay Area Rapid Transit District highlighted in blue, non-member counties served by BART in yellow, and the former (unserved) member county, Marin, in red.
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The word "BART" in black letters above a dark blue lowercase letter "b" partially superimposed on a lowercase "a" of a lighter color blue with a clear background

History

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (occasionally abbreviated in early years to BARTD) was created in 1957[3] to provide a transit alternative between suburbs in the East Bay and job centers in San Francisco's Financial District as well as (to a lesser extent) those in Downtown Oakland and Downtown Berkeley.

Of the six Bay Area counties initially envisioned as participants—San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara—only Santa Clara County refused to join when the district was first set up; it originally included both San Mateo and Marin counties. San Mateo opted out in 1962, preferring to utilize funds to build its freeway and expressway system. Marin left a month after San Mateo, fearing that it would be unable to absorb its share of operating costs with San Mateo's withdrawal. Marin was also concerned by ongoing debate about the feasibility of running trains across a lower deck of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Expansion

The Silicon Valley BART Extension, managed by VTA is a 6-mile extension of BART service to San Jose and Santa Clara in Santa Clara County. Phase I was completed with the opening of the Berryessa/North San José station in 2020, which is the first BART station in San Jose. Phase II includes the build-out to Little Portugal with the 28th St/Little Portugal Station, Downtown San Jose with the Downtown San Jose station, Diridon Station, and into the City of Santa Clara with the Santa Clara Station.[4] Construction and testing is expected to be completed 2028–2030.

Governance

The BART district is split into nine electorals districts, each of which elects one board member. The elections are staggered so that directors serve four year terms, with half the board up for election every two years. Odd-numbered districts (1, 3, 5, 7, and 9) vote in presidential election years, while even-numbered districts (2, 4, 6, and 8) vote in midterm election years.

One board member acts as president. The board members hire and fire five officers: the general manager, controller-treasurer, independent police auditor, general counsel, and district secretary.

Current board of directors

As of November 2022, the current board members are:

District
No.		 Board Member County(s) Stations
1 Debora Allen Contra Costa Concord, Lafayette, Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre, Walnut Creek
2 Mark Foley Contra Costa North Concord/Martinez, Pittsburg/Bay Point
3 Rebecca Saltzman (President) Alameda / Contra Costa Bay Fair, Downtown Berkeley, El Cerrito del Norte (partial), El Cerrito Plaza (partial), North Berkeley, Orinda, Rockridge, San Leandro
4 Robert Raburn Alameda Coliseum/Oakland Airport, Fruitvale, Lake Merritt, 12th Street/Oakland City Center, 19th Street/Oakland, MacArthur (partial)
5 John McPartland Alameda Castro Valley, Dublin/Pleasanton, Hayward, West Dublin/Pleasanton
6 Liz Ames Alameda Fremont, South Hayward, Union City
7 Lateefah Simon[5] Alameda / Contra Costa / San Francisco Ashby, El Cerrito del Norte (partial), El Cerrito Plaza (partial), MacArthur (partial), Montgomery (partial), Richmond, West Oakland, Embarcadero (partial)
8 Janice Li San Francisco Balboa Park (partial), Embarcadero (partial), Montgomery (partial)
9 Bevan Dufty San Francisco 16th Street Mission, 24th Street Mission, Glen Park, Civic Center, Powell Street, Balboa Park (partial)

References
  1. "Guide to California Government". April 2016.
  2. "2022 BART Fact Sheet" (PDF). Bay Area Rapid Transit. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  3. "San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District". CalTransit.org. California Transit Association. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  4. "VTA's BART Silicon Valley Phase II". www.vta.org.
  5. Cano, Ricardo (2022-06-10). "BART board Director Lateefah Simon moves to Emeryville, settling dispute over residency". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
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