Bobby LeeJust in time for the Thanksgiving travel rush, BART has opened the new BART to OAK Airport train extension. The long waits and inconsistent service travelers endured from the old AirBart bus shuttle service is now a thing of the past.
The new cable-drawn, automated train whisks travelers on a 3.2 mile elevated track over Doolittle Drive from the Oakland Coliseum station to the Airport. The ride takes about eight minutes, compared to 10 to 15 minutes (or more) on the old AirBART.
E’villians will enjoy a more comfortable ride and overall time savings headed to OAK. From MacArthur BART, travelers can reach the airport in as little as a half-hour, as compared 40 minutes or more previously, based on published schedules. Although, travel times will vary.
More importantly, the extension provides consistent and predictable service, regardless of traffic conditions on the road. This includes more accurate and on-time arrival/departure, with trains running as frequently as every five minutes.
The service will cost $6 each way (double the cost of AirBart). West Oakland riders who were used to paying $2.10 to go to the Coliseum station and then an additional $3 for the AirBart shuttle will now be paying $8.10 total. Comparatively, the surcharge to ride the existing BART service to SFO is $4 each way (Now if we could only get that Emery Go-Round route or Streetcar to West Oakland BART!).
One unusual aspect to this service is where the fares are actually charged. BART has installed fare gates and a station agent only at the Coliseum side of the airport extension. That means travelers will be charged the $6 fare leaving from or arriving to the Coliseum station. Riders will not have to make fare payments to enter or exit the Airport station.
BART extension costs:
- BART anticipates that 3,200 riders will use the connection on a daily basis
- $484 million budgeted construction costs
- $6.7 million in annual subsidies
How-to video guide on how to ride BART to OAK:
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How-to video guide on how to ride BART from OAK:
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A POV video from the Airport to the Coliseum station:
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More information and tips for riding the new Oakland Airport BART Extension.
More information about fares & Schedules can be found here.
Wish I could love OAC, but its monster cost and lack of utility, insofar as having only a single stop at the airport, make it a pork-filled project that got done not for the benefit of public transit users but for the insiders at the Port, BART and MTC.
I guess we can all hope that the thing will work out and prove to be a good investment of the half billion bucks it cost to build, but let’s see in a year from now when ridership numbers can be confirmed, whether that investment can even be justified in terms of making the Bay Area more accessible for everyone concerned, rich and poor.
Can a poll can be taken at this time next year to see how many Emeryvillians actually used the thing and will continue to do so because the cost and convenience are so fabulous? If so, we can
rejoice in the streets; if not, we can maybe begin to think about all the great stuff that could be happening along the EBOTS corridor but just won’t be due to the allocation of MTC funding for this part of the East Bay – since we already used up our quota on OAC…
Still grumpy after all these years…
– S