San Francisco 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. 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.) History The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (occasionally abbreviated in early years to BARTD) was created in 1957 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. Construction and testing is expected to be completed 2028–2030.