Welcome to San Francisco from BART!

ROBERT POWERS
General Manager
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)

On behalf of all the employees of BART, I want to welcome you to San Francisco for the 2025 APTA Rail Conference. The Bay Area is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world, with unparalleled scenic beauty, an incredible array of cultural experiences, and countless fine dining options.

BART is a fantastic way to explore the rich diversity of the Bay Area. Our heavy rail system spans five Bay Area counties and serves 50 stations along 131 route miles of track. This includes direct service to both San Francisco and Oakland international airports.

There’s no better time to be in San Francisco than right now. The start of the Rail Conference coincides with the annual Pride Parade through the heart of downtown San Francisco. This is San Francisco’s 55^th annual Pride Celebration, and it has grown into an event that draws an estimated one million attendees each year. Pride is always one of the busiest times of the year on BART and allows us to demonstrate how vital transit is to the Bay Area as we safely and conveniently carry tens of thousands of people to this massive public celebration.

I hope you’ll take this opportunity to ride BART as well as the other transit agencies that serve the Bay Area. We are working together as true partners to coordinate schedules and signage as we welcome more riders back to transit.

When you enter our stations and ride our trains, you’ll experience what I like to call the “New BART.” We are now running all-new Fleet of the Future trains that bring a modern feeling to BART and are making tremendous strides in installing new fare gates. Next Generation Fare Gates are now installed in 36 stations, and we plan to have them in all 50 by the end of this year. The new gates are not only improving safety but increasing access with LED lighting and state-of-the-art sensors that can detect when someone is entering with luggage or a stroller. These major projects, coupled with a big boost in cleaning and our -visible safety presence, are transforming the rider experience.

There’s so much to see at the APTA Rail Conference. BART will host a series of tours, including a trip into the Transbay Tube, which remains an engineering marvel after turning 50 years old in 2024. The 3.6-mile-long Tube was unlike anything the world had ever seen when it was installed in 1974, and we’re making sure it has a long and successful future thanks to an earthquake retrofit that will help it be ready for the next “Big One.”

On behalf of everyone at BART, I want to thank APTA for organizing another excellent Rail Conference. I’m confident you’ll have a wonderful experience networking with colleagues, touring the inner workings of BART, and learning about the latest trends in public transit. Welcome!