BART took State Senator Scott Weiner on a tour Monday night to see BART’s newly designed fare gates, which will be installed in the transit system by summer 2025.
Wiener accompanied BART general manager Bob Powers on a ride from the Civic Center to West Oakland Station to inspect the readiness of the $90 million project, which the transit agency calls a “high priority.”
“We decided to do this because Bay Area public transportation is front and center for millions of people,” Wiener said. “We are coming out of the pandemic and we know the federal emergency is receding faster than passenger numbers are recovering.”
Weiner said voters have expressed concerns about transportation, especially BART.
“People are concerned about conditions on trains and some issues around homelessness and fare avoidance,” he said. “We are supporting BART’s efforts to improve the situation.”
For Emery Dora, who works in the biotech industry and commutes from Pleasant Hill to South San Francisco on weekdays for work, every day goes by without seeing someone offering a free ride.
“I usually board very early in the morning, around 6:45 a.m., and I see people jumping through turnstiles almost every day at that time,” he said. “I feel like my employees don’t really care. It might just be indifference, or they might just let it go, but BART is important, so I’ll pay my fair share.” It’s a great service.”
read more: Downtown San Francisco BART Fare Gates Removed Following Vandalism
The “Next Generation Fare Gate” project was passed by the BART Board in March with the aim of deterring fare avoidance and reducing maintenance of the system’s 700 or so fare gates, Slivia said. Mr. Lam, Deputy General Manager of BART.
BART previously announced that West Auckland station would be the first location to install the new gates due in December.
Mr Lamb spoke at West Auckland Station, pointing to the current sign in front of Fairgate as an area of changing infrastructure.
“We’ve already seen some marks where we’re scanning the floor,” she said. “It’s not just the turnstiles. Before we take down the turnstiles and install new turnstiles, we need to understand the infrastructure here. The rebar and the wiring. Everything is 50 years old.”
The new gate will fit directly into the footprint of the old machine, Lam said, a detail that inspired him to award the transportation board a $90 million contract. STRAFFIC AMERICA in April.
When she spoke to the media, a person jumped over the wicket, but Lam said the new size of the wicket would make that more difficult.
The new fare gate will be over six feet tall and lower than the ground to prevent fare evaders from crawling underneath, she said. The machine will also have the ability to recognize if someone is “piggybacking” a paying passenger, distinguishing it from someone carrying luggage or pushing a stroller.
“It’s clear that people are very creative and we will continue to monitor and address those issues,” she added.
BART originally said that all 700 gates in the system would be replaced by 2026, but announced during the tour that the schedule had moved up to 2025.
Powers said BART plans to move away from the fin-like gates riders are accustomed to seeing, but no formal design has been decided yet.
The agency will use information from the West Oakland prototype to advance the design of gates for the rest of the system, Powers said.