BART Subway Trains in California's San Francisco Bay Area

Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART for short, has been carrying riders around the San Francisco Bay Area since 1972. The operation is unique in many ways, including everything from its iconic aluminum subway cars to the 5 foot 6 inch broad gauge track system, a one of a kind for North America. September of 2022 marks 50 years of BART service. To commemorate this special occasion, I decided to put together a video showcasing BART trains - my first subway video in over seven years on the channel. Other than station platforms, the system has very few locations where the trains can be seen in action, posing an interesting challenge for this video. Most suitable locations are on the east side of San Francisco Bay, and that will be the focus of our exploration of BART. We will see the new Bombardier and Alstom built subway cars as well as the original "Legacy Fleet", which is in the process of being retired.

This video was made possible by my supporters on Patreon
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Brian Zimmerman
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And many more!

CoasterFan2105 is the home of all sorts of train and railroad related video content. Stop by every Friday at 9 AM Pacific time for an all new railroading adventure and be sure to check out all of my social media pages @coasterfan2105 for even more great railroad content. Thanks, and I'll see you down the line!

©2022 Mike Armstrong Media

[nelskrogh]

I was living in Concord when they were building BART. It was originally designed to include more areas than it ended up serving although it was later expanded. The thing to realize about BART is that it is more of a commuter system than a city subway system (like London or NYC). It delivers people from the suburbs to the metro area and does a pretty decent job in that regard. If you actually need to get around the metro areas service is very limited.

[rms]

BART is so cool… 8-10 car trains, semi-automated, wide gauge, the tube under the bay, and has proven its success. All built in early 70s.

[Noblemarq]

I remember riding this as a kid in the early 80's. Get on at the Concord station, ride it into San Francisco, an back. Was a great way to waste a Saturday, on the cheap

[ryalexstudios]

2:53 Funny hearing those tiny little "toot toot" horns and not

[Obi_Wan_Kenobi_]

Whenever I’ve had the displeasure of being stuck in Bay Area traffic I always think “Damn, I should of took BART!” It’s even worse when your going a measly 5 miles per hour and a train flies by at 50+

[DNP_]

About the last thing I expected from this channel was a video dedicated to BART, seeing as the videos here don't tend to feature subway trains. I was pleasantly surprised by this video! Absolutely love BART, so this was an interesting video to see your own spin on filming the San Francisco Bay Area's subway.

[fan]

It's very impressive to see the BART in the middle of the highway 👍🏻 Greetings from Austria 🇦🇹

[yoyobass]

I always viewed the BART trains as a West Coast counterpart of the ATL MARTA and DC Metro because they are all similar in design and some of America's modern subways.

[adventuresofamtrakcascades]

I've never seen a subway system set up like this. Great video as usual! If you ever film more of Trimet Max Light Rail in Portland Oregon in the future, Could you possibly upload a video on that? I see them all the time

[TohaBgood]

Interesting! The new Bombardier trains really are a lot quieter even than the old cars with new re-profiled wheels. I thought that this might be mostly due to the better soundproofing, but it seems to be true even from the outside.

[RandomRailfan]

Another great one Mike! Cool subway
System and how they have been stout for over 50 years!

[thealmightydoge]

Never in a million years have I ever thought you would ever film a subway-related video

[TranscontinentalRailfan]

Awesome video! Another subway system to check out is Washington, DC’s Metro/WMATA.

[WMAC_Master]

glad you could film this unique train line!

[underseaowl]

This is so cool seeing my home area on your channel, some of these shots are less than a mile from my house :)

[gabrieloverfield]

I remember this one. That was a good memory train.

[brickhaus]

Grew up on the Coaster, now transit on BART

[hotbone]

It's great to be a rail fan as well as a operator for this system, and recognize mostly all filming locations, except 1:53 - 2:03 my guess it's somewhere on the concord line out side of Pleasant Hill, sometimes you don't have a view of what you travel under. Great video keep them coming 👍

Great subway trains video
CoasterFan2105

[kevp]

Happy Last Day of September 2022, Mister Mike Armstrong ! !