Bay Area Rapid Transit

The Bay Area Rapid Transportation (BART) system is a mass transit commuter travel system in Northern California that uses electric trains to connect the city of San Francisco with many other cities in the Bay Area. Bart currently runs several lines including from Richmond, CA to Fremont, from Pittsburg, CA to Millbrae, and includes the transbay tube, an underwater tunnel spanning the bay from Oakland to San Francisco. The system has expanded over the years and now includes service to the San Francisco International Airport. The BART system is similar to other large transit systems such as the New York and Chicago subway systems.

Bart workers went on strike on July 1, 2013,^[1] leaving 400,000 commuters trying to find alternate ways to get from the East Bay into San Francisco. Traffic was gridlocked during commute hours, with a routine 1 hour drive across the Oakland Bay bridge turning into 4 or 5 hours. Some Bart riders were able to take the AC Transit bus or the ferry service across the Bay, but it was a huge inconvenience for many. Governor Jerry Brown did not opt to impose a 60-day "cooling off period" as he had during the previous strike, saying that the end of the cooling off period would coincide with the planned closing of the Bay bridge to complete retrofitting work required after the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Bart workers returned to work on July 5, 2013, but only for a 30-day period while contract talks resume.^[2]

References[edit]

1. ↑ http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_23571889/bart-strike-union-leaders-meeting-decide-whether-resume
2. ↑ https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-starts-rolling-after-5-day-strike-4648160.php

External links[edit]

• BART Official Website
• BART Map showing stations