BART begins rollout of $90 million fare gates to stem evaders

BART announced earlier this month where they plan to install its new fare gates, including San Francisco stations.

The transit agency first installed the new 6-foot tall fare barriers, meant to prevent fare evasion, at the West Oakland station at the end of December. Sylvia Lamb, assistant general manager of infrastructure for BART, said staff are working on a few kinks, including the lag time between when a passenger taps their Clipper card and when the gate opens.

Lamb said BART plans to install the new fare gates at the following locations:

  • Civic Center
  • Powell Street
  • Montgomery
  • 24th Street Mission
  • SFO
  • Fruitvale
  • Richmond
  • Antioch

BART staff also listed alternative stations if issues arise with any of the eight stations. The backup stations include:

  • 16th Street Mission
  • 12th Street Oakland City Center
  • Downtown Berkeley
  • Coliseum
  • Embarcadero
  • Rockridge
  • Dublin/Pleasanton
  • Warm Springs

A timeline shows BART will begin installing the new fare gates at the eight stations sometime this year, but there was no exact date in the presentation. The remaining timeline shows the completion of the project in 2025, a goal that the agency will need to meet to receive retinol and state funding.

The cost of the project to replace all of 700+ fare gates at every station is $90 million.

San Francisco is chipping in funding to help with costs associated with installing the fare gates at stations within the city.

Last October, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority board approved allocating approximately $12.5 million of Proposition L sales tax funds for the project.

Last modified January 21, 2024 11:17 pm

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.

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