BART (Bay Area, California)

I think we're about the feel the wrath of BART in the form of a Transit Strike scheduled for Monday, August 17. While I lived in Rome, transit strikes were pretty frequent, usually scheduled for a day and back to normal. Suburbs don't exist there (seriously), so they lack the commuter problems that will likely cripple any movement to and from the east bay here. Should be a boon for MUNI anyway. Too bad most of that is above ground and thus subject to the same traffic woes as cars. Fail.

I love BART. In 4 years living in the Bay Area, I only had one delayed trip, and it was because of a fire close by the rail. BART makes life easier for those who don't have a car, like myself. It's always on time, so you can rely on it. The BART website is also very helpful and accurate on trip schedules. http://www.bart.gov My only complaint is for those carpeted cars that look and are super dirty. They should change those carpets asap.

A safe, reliable, and efficient public transportation system. The BART workers are unilaterally, almost inhumanly cheerful, helpful, and sympathetic. I have yet to meet a mean one. My only complaint is that some of the trains smell pungently like homeless or dead people.

BART was really a great service. I took it over to Berkley and was pretty amazed at its speed and efficiency! It was on time and semi- clean(in terms of public trans). I felt the prices were a little high, but welcome to the new millennium!

I am very happy BART is around in this area. Yea, there's things I do and don't like. For starters, can someone please tell me what has gone down on some of those seat cushions? The stains, the colors??? I think I'd prefer to stand, thanks! But it's fast and it gets you where you need to go if you don't drive. And it's a great straight shot to sporting events and concerts over in the East Bay. Like I said I am not complaining...ok, well maybe a little. But just about the cleanliness of those seats!!!

Could go to more places in the peninsula but all in all this thing is brilliant.

Slower than molasses.  I took it from SFO to Millbrae once, and it took over 40 minutes, due to a whole bunch of random happenings.  Even when it's running normally, and when they have direct service between SFO and Millbrae, it's friggin' slow.  It's also really expensive (like $5 for a lot of common destinations).

bay area rocks

trains are usually on time. Somehow I always end up seated next to someone who is crazy/drunk/high/car sick/not wearing deodorant whenever I'm on the Richmond-Fremont line

I have ridden it over to Berkeley primarily. I think it could use a few bucks for refurbishment.

After commuting to work on the London tube for one week, BART seems like a luxury train. On the other hand, the schedules suck, it is highly unreliable, and very expensive

This is a fast and efficient subway system for moving people from the peninsula and the east bay to the downtown market street corridor. Big, sleek 10-car BART trains put the rapid in rapid transit. The cars are reasonably clean although the stations are not.

Great system, fairly modern, the trains have elbow room for its passengers and it will take you just about anywhere in the Bay area. Convernient for getting to SFO airport, Oakland, Berkely, Walnut Creek etc, would be nice if it was more extensive to get around San Francisco itself. In the city your limited to Market Street or Mission and transferring over to the bus or the very slow and limited MUNI trains.

I like how fast and affordable BART is. I especially like the ticket card--it sure beats having to pay exact fare each time you want to ride. What I don't like is how loud the train is inside the cabin. (According to bartrage.com, the noise is because "BART does not grind the rail head as often as they should. They are deferring maintenance.") Also, the train cars aren't marked very well. They don't have destination signs (you have to find a platform marquee to figure out where the train is going), and the trains aren't color-coded with the line colors on the system map. So it can be confusing for outsiders to use.

Try to schedule your life around BART if you plan to live in the East Bay; I had to rely on an Oakland bus for a couple of years and I would NEVER recommend it to anyone. If you can manage to take only BART (like if you're going to UC Berkeley, for example), you're in great shape. Though D.C. residents may not be willing to hear it, BART is even cleaner than METRO. Doesn't always run often enough but at least an efficient notification system always tells you long you need to wait (can't say the same for MUNI, where the system seemed, as of '06, intent on deceiving you).

I was never a major BART guy. Pricey, it will typically cost you $3 - $5 each way to get you in and out of San Francisco. And frequent delays last year...

You can go from Oakland to the heart of San Fransisco within a half hour or less. You are also able to ride just about anywhere throughout San Fran and get there quickly and not get confused about where to go next or have to wait long for the next bus/BART to come by.

Truly one of the best, and it is getting better every week. They are clean, up-to-date, reliable enough to take you to any place in the most populated parts of the Bay Area, and now they are painting the trains to look much prettier. Since they are now planning to connect to San Jose Airport and its Amtrak/ACE/Caltrain Station, they should have more room for luggage. I would wish that the trains are not crowded in order to move your luggage through the aisles and seats if you came from or going to SFO or OAK Airports during the commute hours, but that is normal. However, I have heard that BART is the best transit system in the nation (by a survey). After being on many transit systems, I should agree because they are starting to remodernize their stations. If you go to San Fran, stop at Montgomery, Powell and Civic Center stations, it has changed a lot since the 1970's.

The BART itself is fantastic, even futuristic loooking, but unfortunately it only goes to and from San Francisco, the airport, and the surrounding region. Once you get off of Market Street in downtown San Frnacisco, you have to use the local buses, which are far less reliable.

Not bad. While the local bus systems don't even seem to have a schedule, you can almost set your watch by BART. Although it doesn't exactly go everywhere, it covers an impressive amount of ground.

BART itself is fine. The rest of San Francisco's transit system is a disaster.

I like BART. It's clean, easy to use, and efficient. The problem is that, other than downtown and the Mission, you can't get anywhere on Bart in the city. The old money in the city's rich neigborhoods have effectively blocked it from expanding to most of the city. That leaves you with MUNI (buses), which can take an hour to go 2 miles (the 22 for example).