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Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to SFO


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#1 BillMagee

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Posted 22 August 2003 - 11:26 PM

The final three nights of our short west coast trip were spent in downtown San Francisco at the Hyatt hotel in the Financial District. We had previously dropped off our rental car so we were now car-free. Our return to the airport offered the opportunity to try the newly opened extension of BART to San Francisco International Airport.

BART uses a stored-value farecard system with magnetic coded tickets purchased for a set dollar amount and trip costs deducted as rides are taken. The cost of a one-way ride from downtown San Francisco to the airport is $4.70 (compared to $15 for the hotel vans, and $35 for a cab). To minimize our hassle, we pre-purchased two tickets in advance. This was in recognition that we occasionally cut our timing pretty close (to be truthful, I cut it close. My wife would be at the airport 4 hours early).

Our return flight to Philadelphia was at 12:20pm. We checked-out of the hotel at 10:10am and went to the BART Embarcadero Station located just outside the hotel. One hassle with using BART is passing luggage through the faregates. Even with the small carry-on bags we were toting, it still required lifting the bags over the faregates as you insert and retrieve the farecard: a bit of a juggling act. Someone with large bags, more bags, or both would find getting through BART fare collection a neat trick. Using the handicapped gate might be the solution. BART, like most transit systems, is not set up for people lugging stuff.

In downtown San Francisco, BART is in subway under Market Street. The Embarcadero Station is at Market and Drumm and is a three-level station. The upper level is for fare collection, the middle level is the station for the Muni light rail, and the lower level is the BART station. Embarcadero is the first San Francisco stop for westbound trains after coming through the TransBay Tube from Oakland.

The Embarcadero Station is bright and spacious. A nice feature of BART is the trackside message boards that provide updates on the destination, arrival time, and length (number of cars) of the next couple of trains. A nine-car airport train was listed for arrival in 4 minutes. As advertised it arrived at 10:20am. Since rush hour was over, ample seating and room for our luggage was available. We were on our way.

For those of us used to east coast transit, BART is like subway heaven. It is clean, quite (except for occasional rail singing), and very smooth. BART uses a wide 5’ 6” track gauge and I think that adds to the smoothness and stability of the ride. The subway aspect certainly limits sightseeing opportunities on the San Francisco segment. However, in the Daly City area, the line emerges above grade and runs alongside I-280 on a ridge. From here, there was a nice view of the surrounding residential areas with that uniquely San Francisco look. To the west was a not-too distant view of the Pacific. It was a short-lived above ground view, but a very nice one.

Daly City was the western terminal of BART from 1972 to 1996. Leaving Daly City, BART enters trackage that was the first step toward connection with the airport. The 1.5-mile extension from the original 1972 terminal at Daly City to Colma was opened in 1996. Leaving Colma the line returns to subway construction and enters the new section of the line that saw first revenue service on June 22. Construction of this final section of the SFO extension began in 1997 and took 6 years to complete overcoming a multitude of political and physical roadblocks.

The BART SFO extension is not just a simple stub-ended extension to the airport. It is a two-ended line with the mainline extending from Colma to a terminal at Millbrae (a transfer station for the CalTrain commuter rail line). Between San Bruno and Millbrae, a “Y” extension heads east from the mainline to the airport. Train operations are equally complicated. Trains originating at Dublin/Pleasanton in the East Bay go through San Francisco and directly serve the airport. Trains originating in Pittsburg/Bay Point go through San Francisco and directly serve Millbrae and CalTrain. BART operates a shuttle train between Millbrae and the airport for CalTrain access to SFO.

After Colma, the SFO train makes stops at the new South San Francisco and San Bruno stations, both in subway. Leaving San Bruno, the train takes the “Y” extension to the east, emerges from the subway, climbs on viaduct over a wetland area, crosses the Bayshore Freeway (US 101), and enters the airport. The final stop is a three-track, two platform stub-end station located one level below the AirTrain stop. We arrived at 10:53am, 33 minutes from Embarcadero.

Although you are indeed at the airport, you are really at Garage G of the airport, a somewhat remote location from the domestic side of the operation. The new International Terminal is located just past the east end of the stub-end train platform and is an easy walk. Access to the domestic terminals is either by a very long walk or the AirTrain Red Line. With time becoming an issue (my fault), we opted for the AirTrain. Boarding at the Garage G stop (located right next upper level of the BART station) we backtracked our prior ride to Terminal 1, got off and took the trek to the garage, down the elevator, under the access roads, and back up two escalators to US Airways ticketing. We took our place in the check-in line at 11:10am; exactly one hour after leaving the hotel. After an extended check-in process, we arrived at the gate with a full 10 minutes to spare before boarding. Lots of time!

If you are traveling light, BART is a great way to San Francisco International.

By the way, it was Phillies 8, Giants 6 in 10 innings. A great trip all around!

Edited by BillMagee, 23 August 2003 - 10:33 AM.


#2 ICGsteve

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Posted 23 August 2003 - 12:21 AM

In Frankfurt and Munich using the U-bahn is a normal part of starting one's innercity travel, thus each station seems to have a person who watches out for such travelers and helps them if needed. I would expect that if the SFO extension takes off BArt will over time do the same thing. So Bill, are you of the oppinion that the extension was $1.5 billion well spent?

#3 BillMagee

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Posted 23 August 2003 - 11:25 AM

In Frankfurt and Munich using the U-bahn is a normal part of starting one's innercity travel, thus each station seems to have a person who watches out for such travelers and helps them if needed. I would expect that if the SFO extension takes off  BArt will over time do the same thing.

So Bill, are you of the oppinion that the extension was $1.5 billion well spent?

Steve:

$1.5 billion for 8 miles of transit: is it worth it? Gee, that is a good question.

I guess I would look at it this way. A major international airport is a primary origin and destination point in any city. Forgetting the transport of air passengers for a moment, if SFO is like Philadelphia International, it is likely one of the larger if not the single largest employment centers in the Bay Area (PHL employs more people in Philadelphia than any other single entity). If all BART did was provide transportation for airport and airline employees, that alone might justify building the line. It opens up employment opportunities to a wider geographic area. It also makes SFO far more accessible to Bay Area travelers and could cut down on the need for parking expansion. A traveler in Pittsburg can now take a traffic free ride to SFO, with no Bay Bridge or 101 hassles, for a little over $6. The fact that some out-of-town travelers might also use BART just adds somewhat to the equation.

But, is all that worth $1.5 billion? Well, you already have a transit system that probably has a year 2003 replacement value of about $10 billion (as if you had to build the entire line today, if you could even imagine that). The fact that the system was so close but did not serve the major area airport was a serious shortcoming. I think that providing that link to SFO (and to the Peninsula via CalTrain) is fulfills a key transportation need that can only become more obvious and valuable as time passes. So, in short, I think that 5 or 10 years from now, that $1.5 billion will look like money very well spent.

It should be noted that several hundred million of that cost came from the San Francisco International Airport’s Passenger Facility Charge fund. Much the same as the Newark Airport station on the NEC, and the soon to open AirTrain (original name!) at JFK in New York, airports here are beginning to believe what European airports have known for years. A rail connection to the central business core (even disjointed, like the JFK one will be) is essential to the future of the operation.

Bill




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