50 Years of BART | A Vision to Reality

[@A_FEMALE_MAN]

Fun fact my Grandfather was the First person to CRASH a bart train! Donald Aguilar was a test train driver in late 1971 and while out on a test run and error occurred and he was throw onto a siding where another train was parked. Crashed into it at 45mph and both trains were heavily damaged, He lived but was injured. However BART took care of him and provided him and our Family over 25 years of income and stability. Thank you BART!

[@itwontcomeout5678]

Wow!!

[@rcstann]

I was a systems technician for what is now United Technologies when we built the Bart cars for PBTB. We manufactured primarily airliners and their components, so the design was essentially an airliner with no wings. I became the first person to sit in the first seat, of the first Bart Car. .

[@Jeff-uj8xi]

I stood a few feet away from San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto when he cut the ribbon at the BART ceremony. I filmed color movies of and rode the first train. Afterwards, I filmed the first day train operation and crowds. At the ceremony, it was announced that BART was the first automated rapid transit system. I blurted out loud enough to be heard, "What about PATCO". PATCO runs from Philadelphia to the Southern New Jersey suburbs and was automated. I was the first passenger on PATCO, which opened shortly before BART. I sat in the first seat on the first PATCO train. The officials at the BART ceremony were highly embarrassed and expressed "shhhh" in unison !! They didn't expect anybody from Southern New Jersey to be standing there.

[@ronaldcheng1857]

BART was well ahead of its time. Still serves as a vital transit artery today connecting all regions of the Bay Area.

[@rcwilliams4959]

My Grandfather designed the electrical for The Tube. He left a warm spot in my heart when I used to commute from S.F. to Berkeley back in the 90s. Considering that this was made in the 60s, this was incredibly amazing.

[@HiFilover168]

Believe it or not, there are many electronic component inside the Transit Bay Tube and Berkeley Tunnel still running after 50 years of service.

[@Alfetta158]

Quiet and smooth, yeah right.

[@KennethStone]

Fascinating history.

[@johnpritchard5410]

incredible!

[@mrfilamfishing]

It's so stupid how back then, Marin County don't want anything to do with this so Sonoma County didn't get BART even though we wanted it. Fast forward to today, we now have SMART trains up here. So we got trains anyway. Stupid decisions was made back then.

[@Zealant]

The county was in favor, but the directors or whatever of the Golden Gate Bridge didn’t like that people might use the bridge less. Hilarious.

[@leeeeooooo]

The blame for Marin withdrawing from the district lies with San Mateo County, who withdrew first and without the tax base of the peninsula put the entire project in jeopardy, and with the Golden Gate Bridge District. Myriad politics, infighting, racism, conflicting interests, and one of the original GGB engineers who didn't like the way trains would look under the bridge led to the pared back version of BART we have today. We're lucky to have such a system - but it hurts to imagine what could have been if the original vision was brought to fruition.

[@stenbak88]

If we continued to innovate and invest in transportation I bet we would have such better roads and a system as a whole

[@celebrityrog]

It’s a system that isn’t living up to its mission. We need not just more new trains but we need more lines. Further into San Jose, down Peninsula and north into Marin, Benicia, Vallejo, Tracy, etc. It needs to have floor to ceiling fare gates where no one can sneak into the system or out without paying. Also keeps out the undesirable people who ride transit and cause issues and since they don’t pay their fare they don’t give a shit. We need security on EVERY SINGLE TRAIN and on EVERY SINGLE PLATFORM. Also BART needs to prevent these so called “medical emergencies” aka suicides on the rails, we need automatic open and close platform doors that do not allow access to tracks or tunnels. Lastly, it needs to be cost effective. It isn’t. Unlimited fares need to be introduced and it needs to cost less to go ANYWHERE on BART than a gallon of gas.

[@cyber4052]

BART is breaking down. The most recent time that I took it, I had to be careful to avoid a stop where a BART train had been sitting for about a half hour. The train that I was on arrived to its destination late, and I almost missed my connecting once-an-hour bus. On the way back, the train stopped three times in the tube. The first time it stopped for about 10 minutes. There were no announcements about why the train had stopped.

[@xygomorphic44]

BART's issues are just one symptom sadly. The whole SF/Oakland area has turned into a shithole.

[@jcee2259]

How......to WOW. At least I got to 50 before BART. How I met BART is funny but it wouldn't be worse.

[@evanswinford7165]

The last thing BART is, is quiet. Why was Albany skipped? A Solano Ave station might have been a good idea.

[@DavidHuber63]

WOW! Your vision of reality, not mine 🙏🏼

[@thork6974]

Is that Leonard Nimoy narrating?

[@blakemcnamara9105]

The thing about these modernist systems is that they tend to decay aesthetically in worse ways than the systems of the turn of the century since these rely on their newness and sterility to appear presentable.

[@LionheartLivin]

BART is a shining example of how garbage of a public transportation system we have, Asian and European countries are SHALLACKING us in this field and also Bart is too often unsafe to ride, THE BAY AREA DESERVES SO MUCH BETTER!!!;)

[@jvperrin]

Agreed it could be a lot better, but "garbage" is pretty harsh for how useful of a system it currently is and how many people use it every day. I also wouldn't call it "unsafe to ride" especially during the day with other people around. I rode it just this last Tuesday back from the Oakland Airport at night and it was fine. Much better than a $45 Uber ride anyway!

[@ronaldcheng1857]

Our public transportation system isn’t the one that is garbage. It’s our politicians, Department of Transportation, bureaucracies, and justice system that are garbage 🗑️. The US could’ve had a high-speed rail system built back then during the 60s-80s when it was still a brand new technology, but the oil, automobile, and airline industries shot it down. The money that should go towards improving our transit system, upgrading our social infrastructure, and keeping homeless and criminal off the streets instead is going into our politicians’ wallets or being blown on funding wars overseas.

[@sporttourersss]

Guess this would be called a propaganda piece.