The BART folks need to watch this. And they all need to uphold the mantra introduced here by the very designers, builders, and administrators of BART over 50 years ago: PAMPER THE PASSENGER. At present, they are beyond far from that simple and beautiful Mission Statement. That is key to everything.
Yeah, there's a lot to gripe at BART for. But BART didn't change. The people who ride BART changed. And I'm not just referring to safety or cleanliness. The engineers could not know that BART would carry more people in a day than it was designed to carry in a month. I can't remember the last time I saw a 5-car train in service. And the fact that it is (slowly) expanding to Livermore and San Jose shows how many more people will be using BART, despite its problems. BART is one of those things we all love to hate. But I would say that BART is just the system that moves around the things we hate.
I for one hate this "hate everything" mentality. People are just too negative and depressed these days. BART was and is a fantastic way to get around. Sure, it needs ongoing maintenance and new trains. But BART is doing exactly that right now. They are retrofitting most of the original tracks and getting modern new trains. The rest of the negativity seems to come from the safety and cleanliness issues that BART has let fester for the last 10 years. But here too the solution is simple. More cops and security guards on the trains and in stations. More and better cleaning staff. BART seems to be doing more of both these days too. Sure, we need to press the BART board to return BART to it's normal spotless, safe, and modern self. But we shouldn't trash the entire system by defunding it just because they have been having more issues than we would like. To the contrary, we need to fund BART better to make sure that it continues to be a system that we all _want_ to use! As is BART is the least subsidized rapid transit system in the country! Disinvestment always results in a mess of problems. We need to invest in transit if we want it to be good!
We need to rekindle the optimism and techno-futuristic ideas of this incredible system! BART is fundamentally a marvel of engineering. It is downright "luxurious transit". Or rather it could be if we let it be. We just need to invest enough money in the existing system to return it to it's normal self. Why can't BART figure out security and cleanliness? What is wrong with the current BART board? Why don't they just hire (and train!) more cops to patrol the trains and stations? Why can't they hire more and better janitors? Maybe janitors who don't take so much overtime and then sleep in the storage closets? Figure it out BART! You need to be better! The entire Bay Area relies on BART to be a viable means of transportation! It has to be safe, clean, and fast as BART was intended to be!
The problems with BART are centered squarely on its incompetent board. They are more interested in every social justice cause and have zero interest in running a transit system.
I hate you, you don't know what you're talking about. I rode Bart on it's opening day, they let us ride for free that day. The thing was a failure, it didn't live up to all the hype. The computers didn't work, cars on the freeway were passing the train. The noise under Oakland was deafening. I rode the train to every point that day. When I got back to San Francisco I knew we had been coned out a lot of money.
@@thestevedoughtyshow27 Dude, what are you talking about? Literal millions of people rode those early trains when they launched! And no one had the impression that you had. If there's something wrong here it is with you.
@TohaBgood2 What did Bart live up to? Speed? No! Cost? No! Quite? No! Fully computer controlled? No! In the 1980s, it cost me less to drive from Martinez to San Francisco than taking the Bart. Then there's the Bart police. A real danger to everyone. About 30 years ago they shot and killed a 16 year old boy for stealing a car radio. The execution of Oscar Grant. I myself had a real bad sugar drop in a Bart station, and two Bart cops came to arrest me. A station agent told them to get off of me, they got shity with her. She saved my life that day. You see I have to shoot insulin two times a day, and sometimes things go wrong. If they had taken me to a cell I would have gone into a coma and died. And my only crime? I took the Bart.
@@thestevedoughtyshow27 BART did deliver on the speed. It goes 80 mph on the straight sections, exactly as promised. It also averages 3x higher speeds than the likes of the NY Subway and the Paris Metro. It's the fastest rapid rail system in the Western Hemisphere. BART is actually cheaper than driving even if you just count gas and parking. Add in the bridge toll and BART ends up about 2-3x cheaper than driving to SF. BART is 100% automated and can run without operators. They are present for safety reasons. Those trains hold 2500 souls in rush hour. It was the riders that demanded that there is someone watching the system on each train and that's what we got. Your anecdotal experiences notwithstanding, all my recent interactions with BART cops have been extremely positive. They were real nazis back in the day, but most of the department was purged after the Oscar Grant killing. They're a completely different organization now and have multiple layers of oversight to prevent them from misbehaving. And it looks like that is working. You're just bitter and need something to whine about. BART has improved a ton over the last year. Choose a better target for your doomerism.
I chuckle that they talked about "50 years from now..." -- and that's pretty much right now. I think they did a great job. I'm sure there are plenty of quibbles in the comments here but given the the planning started in the late 1950s when cars still had tail fins, I think what they came up with was pretty solid.
Sure it does! The structure is exactly the same it always was. It's just that BART decided that disinvesting from security and patrolling is a reasonable thing to do. And we got the mess everyone predicted we would get! We just need to force them to put more cops on trains and in stations. That's it!
Wow, this is amazing and tragic at the same time, it shows how much the US, the Bay Area and BART have fallen... I can't help but be in complete awe of the ambition of a long past era of cutting edge space age design and world-leading engineering with years of R&D to build a 100+ mile system in less than 10 years designed from scratch, very much of the technological and forward-thinking spirit of the era that put a man on the moon. The riders are all well dressed, the trains and stations are spotless, the system is well planned in a way that we could only dream of today, the engineering way ahead of its time (ie reusable fare cards). They weren't building one or two stations like today, they weren't building a single line either... they were building an extensive system with carefully planned interchange stations, trunk routes and branches and a unique underwater tube.
@@DavidNgo86 Don't forget junkies too, smoking their crystal and fet onboard trains. And the organized gangs of thugs who mob a train car then steal everyone's phones and jewelry. "Bay Area Values" as Rev Jim Jones once called them.
BART it has to be said, in virtually every area is amazing and ground breaking: apart from the decision to use wide gauge and a different wheel profile.
Would be awesome if we could figure out a way to stop fare jumpers, you know, so that we wouldn’t have to start cutting service as they’re threatening to do. Different turnstiles and fencing perhaps.
It's interesting let us use the production company from Seattle and the 1963 World's Fair which included the Space Needle also had its own monorail train system which is definitely sort of a BART precursor, although on paper the Bay Area rapid Transit District goes back to the late 1950s.
All of these cars are now gone. Only 8 now exist, only 3 are on their truck sets... none of which will ever operate again. They probably won't operate their auxiliary systems like HVAC and lighting either. The dream is over after 51 years of service. It's unbelievable how merciless the decommissioning has been. BART scrapped them all... most of their aluminium was sent overseas... no through about keeping it stateside... or selling any of the metal for special uses. BARTs actions in the 2020s won't age well.
There will be HO Scale models of BART that will be released in 2024. They’re made by a company named Rapido. Search up “Rapido BART Ho scale” and it will pop up. They’re on preorder.
Too bad the Bay Area turned into a third world country. It was bad enough 24 years ago when I left. I rode Bart hundreds of times. It was an awesome way to get around. I don't think I'd be brave enough to ride it today.
It's not that bad now, I rode it just this last Tuesday back from the Oakland Airport. The whole set of complaints about cleanliness and security are mostly overblown, although sure there could (and should) be improvements on both of those.
I had a bicycle there the other day and it wasn't stolen. You people really like to exaggerate how dangerous BART is. It's a pretty safe system with a considerably lower crime rate than most of the Bay Area.
In all fairness, that was an incredibly stupid idea. BART had a lot of great innovations for a transit system. But the carpet floors and cloth seats were not among them. You can't win them all! The new Bombardier trains are incredible though! They really scored a win with these new trains!
Just took the BART yesterday. There was a pile of shit some pos left on the floor. At least the person had the foresight to bring toilet paper and wipe since that was also left there. BART removed cloth elements from its trains beginning in 2011 due to fecal bacteria not being easy to remove. Yes people where cleaner in the 1970s minus of course the hippys.
Does anyone remember the headline. The flying dutchman. Testing the computer, that didn’t work, the train left the track and landed in the parking lot. We were told it would be fast and quiet, it was nether. It would be inexpensive to use. That was untrue. And the Bart police were dangerous to the public, too.
Ummmmmm... It was a lot more dangerous and dirtier than now. BART was more exclusive back then but the cops were real nazis. I doubt that people today would be OK today with how abusive the BART cops were back then.
I love watching these videos while stuck on a train that isn't moving while a drunk homeless lady stumbles around and screams that everyone is racist for staring at her.
I'm a former BART Director. BART has been mismanaged since Day #1. Its ridership doesn't justify the tremendous sales tax revenues and state and federal subsidies BART gobbles up. Japan has a far better rail system all PRIVATELY OWNED. Japan's system is better because it's not run by politicians. California should follow Japan's example and PRIVATIZE BART.👎
The BART folks need to watch this. And they all need to uphold the mantra introduced here by the very designers, builders, and administrators of BART over 50 years ago: PAMPER THE PASSENGER. At present, they are beyond far from that simple and beautiful Mission Statement. That is key to everything.
Yeah, there's a lot to gripe at BART for. But BART didn't change. The people who ride BART changed. And I'm not just referring to safety or cleanliness. The engineers could not know that BART would carry more people in a day than it was designed to carry in a month. I can't remember the last time I saw a 5-car train in service. And the fact that it is (slowly) expanding to Livermore and San Jose shows how many more people will be using BART, despite its problems.
BART is one of those things we all love to hate. But I would say that BART is just the system that moves around the things we hate.
I for one hate this "hate everything" mentality. People are just too negative and depressed these days. BART was and is a fantastic way to get around. Sure, it needs ongoing maintenance and new trains. But BART is doing exactly that right now. They are retrofitting most of the original tracks and getting modern new trains.
The rest of the negativity seems to come from the safety and cleanliness issues that BART has let fester for the last 10 years. But here too the solution is simple. More cops and security guards on the trains and in stations. More and better cleaning staff. BART seems to be doing more of both these days too.
Sure, we need to press the BART board to return BART to it's normal spotless, safe, and modern self. But we shouldn't trash the entire system by defunding it just because they have been having more issues than we would like. To the contrary, we need to fund BART better to make sure that it continues to be a system that we all _want_ to use! As is BART is the least subsidized rapid transit system in the country! Disinvestment always results in a mess of problems. We need to invest in transit if we want it to be good!
We need to rekindle the optimism and techno-futuristic ideas of this incredible system! BART is fundamentally a marvel of engineering. It is downright "luxurious transit". Or rather it could be if we let it be. We just need to invest enough money in the existing system to return it to it's normal self.
Why can't BART figure out security and cleanliness? What is wrong with the current BART board? Why don't they just hire (and train!) more cops to patrol the trains and stations? Why can't they hire more and better janitors? Maybe janitors who don't take so much overtime and then sleep in the storage closets?
Figure it out BART! You need to be better! The entire Bay Area relies on BART to be a viable means of transportation! It has to be safe, clean, and fast as BART was intended to be!
The problems with BART are centered squarely on its incompetent board. They are more interested in every social justice cause and have zero interest in running a transit system.
I hate you, you don't know what you're talking about. I rode Bart on it's opening day, they let us ride for free that day. The thing was a failure, it didn't live up to all the hype. The computers didn't work, cars on the freeway were passing the train. The noise under Oakland was deafening. I rode the train to every point that day. When I got back to San Francisco I knew we had been coned out a lot of money.
@@thestevedoughtyshow27 Dude, what are you talking about? Literal millions of people rode those early trains when they launched! And no one had the impression that you had.
If there's something wrong here it is with you.
@TohaBgood2 What did Bart live up to? Speed? No! Cost? No! Quite? No! Fully computer controlled? No! In the 1980s, it cost me less to drive from Martinez to San Francisco than taking the Bart. Then there's the Bart police. A real danger to everyone. About 30 years ago they shot and killed a 16 year old boy for stealing a car radio. The execution of Oscar Grant. I myself had a real bad sugar drop in a Bart station, and two Bart cops came to arrest me. A station agent told them to get off of me, they got shity with her. She saved my life that day. You see I have to shoot insulin two times a day, and sometimes things go wrong. If they had taken me to a cell I would have gone into a coma and died. And my only crime? I took the Bart.
@@thestevedoughtyshow27 BART did deliver on the speed. It goes 80 mph on the straight sections, exactly as promised. It also averages 3x higher speeds than the likes of the NY Subway and the Paris Metro. It's the fastest rapid rail system in the Western Hemisphere.
BART is actually cheaper than driving even if you just count gas and parking. Add in the bridge toll and BART ends up about 2-3x cheaper than driving to SF.
BART is 100% automated and can run without operators. They are present for safety reasons. Those trains hold 2500 souls in rush hour. It was the riders that demanded that there is someone watching the system on each train and that's what we got.
Your anecdotal experiences notwithstanding, all my recent interactions with BART cops have been extremely positive. They were real nazis back in the day, but most of the department was purged after the Oscar Grant killing. They're a completely different organization now and have multiple layers of oversight to prevent them from misbehaving. And it looks like that is working.
You're just bitter and need something to whine about. BART has improved a ton over the last year. Choose a better target for your doomerism.
"Over the hills, and all along the way... We're building a dream for tomorrow."
This could be the subject of a reaction video by current staff or engineers explaining how the original elements have been updated over time.
I chuckle that they talked about "50 years from now..." -- and that's pretty much right now. I think they did a great job. I'm sure there are plenty of quibbles in the comments here but given the the planning started in the late 1950s when cars still had tail fins, I think what they came up with was pretty solid.
20:10 Unfortunately I wouldn’t say Civic Center has a “stately” atmosphere anymore.
Sure it does! The structure is exactly the same it always was. It's just that BART decided that disinvesting from security and patrolling is a reasonable thing to do. And we got the mess everyone predicted we would get!
We just need to force them to put more cops on trains and in stations. That's it!
Wow, this is amazing and tragic at the same time, it shows how much the US, the Bay Area and BART have fallen... I can't help but be in complete awe of the ambition of a long past era of cutting edge space age design and world-leading engineering with years of R&D to build a 100+ mile system in less than 10 years designed from scratch, very much of the technological and forward-thinking spirit of the era that put a man on the moon. The riders are all well dressed, the trains and stations are spotless, the system is well planned in a way that we could only dream of today, the engineering way ahead of its time (ie reusable fare cards). They weren't building one or two stations like today, they weren't building a single line either... they were building an extensive system with carefully planned interchange stations, trunk routes and branches and a unique underwater tube.
Homeless lol.
Well said and I agree.
@@DavidNgo86 Don't forget junkies too, smoking their crystal and fet onboard trains. And the organized gangs of thugs who mob a train car then steal everyone's phones and jewelry.
"Bay Area Values" as Rev Jim Jones once called them.
Frisco was queer what with its laughably uptight corporateers muttering on & on in Corporate-speak therabouts..!
@@trainrover What does Texas have to do with this?
BART it has to be said, in virtually every area is amazing and ground breaking: apart from the decision to use wide gauge and a different wheel profile.
The wheel profiles have been changed to traditional from conical.
3:23 when San Francisco didn’t suck!
still doesnt
Would be awesome if we could figure out a way to stop fare jumpers, you know, so that we wouldn’t have to start cutting service as they’re threatening to do. Different turnstiles and fencing perhaps.
I love the opening!
I already miss the 😉 trains
Does anyone know the song that plays in the opening montage?
It's interesting let us use the production company from Seattle and the 1963 World's Fair which included the Space Needle also had its own monorail train system which is definitely sort of a BART precursor, although on paper the Bay Area rapid Transit District goes back to the late 1950s.
All of these cars are now gone. Only 8 now exist, only 3 are on their truck sets... none of which will ever operate again. They probably won't operate their auxiliary systems like HVAC and lighting either. The dream is over after 51 years of service.
It's unbelievable how merciless the decommissioning has been. BART scrapped them all... most of their aluminium was sent overseas... no through about keeping it stateside... or selling any of the metal for special uses.
BARTs actions in the 2020s won't age well.
I want that model of bart
There will be HO Scale models of BART that will be released in 2024. They’re made by a company named Rapido. Search up “Rapido BART Ho scale” and it will pop up. They’re on preorder.
38 stations… Man… How that has changed over the years…
Sadly lots of these beautiful stations have become dark and dingy and filled with drug users…
I miss the optimistic tone that this film has. I wish things could get back to this instead of every thing sucks and is doom and gloomy.
Damn little to celebrate about...
Too bad the Bay Area turned into a third world country. It was bad enough 24 years ago when I left. I rode Bart hundreds of times. It was an awesome way to get around. I don't think I'd be brave enough to ride it today.
It's not that bad now, I rode it just this last Tuesday back from the Oakland Airport. The whole set of complaints about cleanliness and security are mostly overblown, although sure there could (and should) be improvements on both of those.
Maybe you’re just a wimp 🤷♂️
10:16 Today, every one of those bicycles would be stolen.
I had a bicycle there the other day and it wasn't stolen. You people really like to exaggerate how dangerous BART is. It's a pretty safe system with a considerably lower crime rate than most of the Bay Area.
Carpet floors… that did not last.
In all fairness, that was an incredibly stupid idea. BART had a lot of great innovations for a transit system. But the carpet floors and cloth seats were not among them. You can't win them all!
The new Bombardier trains are incredible though! They really scored a win with these new trains!
"Pamper The Passenger"
@@TohaBgood2 carpeted floors was a product of its time... they carpeted everything in the 60s-90s.
Just took the BART yesterday. There was a pile of shit some pos left on the floor. At least the person had the foresight to bring toilet paper and wipe since that was also left there. BART removed cloth elements from its trains beginning in 2011 due to fecal bacteria not being easy to remove. Yes people where cleaner in the 1970s minus of course the hippys.
Does anyone remember the headline. The flying dutchman. Testing the computer, that didn’t work, the train left the track and landed in the parking lot. We were told it would be fast and quiet, it was nether. It would be inexpensive to use. That was untrue. And the Bart police were dangerous to the public, too.
The Bay Area was more classy back in the day.
Ummmmmm... It was a lot more dangerous and dirtier than now. BART was more exclusive back then but the cops were real nazis. I doubt that people today would be OK today with how abusive the BART cops were back then.
(👁️ba)
I love watching these videos while stuck on a train that isn't moving while a drunk homeless lady stumbles around and screams that everyone is racist for staring at her.
I'm a former BART Director. BART has been mismanaged since Day #1. Its ridership doesn't justify the tremendous sales tax revenues and state and federal subsidies BART gobbles up. Japan has a far better rail system all PRIVATELY OWNED. Japan's system is better because it's not run by politicians. California should follow Japan's example and PRIVATIZE BART.👎
There is some truth in what you say. Japan, however, is a law-abiding society and doesn't have anything like the level of street crime that we do.