Written by David C. Lester, Managing Editor
BART
Free buses will support BART track shutdowns in Union City on 10 weekends in 2022, with the next shutdown scheduled for Aug. 13–14.
A large construction project is now underway in southern Alameda County. Crews are replacing critical trackway components between the South Hayward and Union City BART stations as well as advancing preliminary work to create a new storage facility at the Hayward Maintenance Complex for hundreds of Fleet of the Future cars.
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Crews made significant progress on upgrading the BART trackway between South Hayward and Union City in 2021. Accomplishments of the BART work team include:
- Laid 3,000 feet of new rail
- Replaced outdated wooden rail ties with 600 more reliable concrete versions
- Placed 800 tons of new rock ballast to improve track stability
- Installed 1,700 feet of electric third rail to enhance power reliability for trains
Upcoming construction will build off last year’s successfully completed work. The project will require a series of weekend track shutdowns between South Hayward and Union City.
There will be no train service between South Hayward and Union City on the following weekends:
- August 13-14
- September 3-5 (Labor Day weekend)
- September 10-11
On all these weekends free buses will replace trains and riders should plan to add 20-25 minutes to their trips. Bicycles are welcome on the bus bridge. AC Transit buses typically have a capacity of three bicycles per bus. The work will require some late-night train cancellations on shutdown weekends.
BART is targeting stretches of trackway in the system that are in the greatest need of replacement and prioritizing work on those sections. This critical work will replace nearly 50-year-old track infrastructure. Many of these aging track components have been in operation since the beginning of BART service in 1972 and have outlived their design lives. Funding for the track replacement work is coming from voter-approved Measure RR. Funding for the new rail car storage facility is provided in part by a $1.17 billion grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The storage facility is part of the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program, which will dramatically increase the number of trains BART can run through the Transbay Tube.
For more information, please check BART’s Fact Sheet and Frequenty Asked Questions materials for this project.
Read more articles on passenger rail.
For brief news updates and commentary, please follow me on Twitter @davidclesterRTS
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