BART may reopen bathrooms at two stations, after 16 years
Q The only upgrade BART needs is to reopen its bathrooms. Some low-IQ TSA type got the “underground” stations closed, as if a terrorist would use the bathroom to wreak havoc rather than the platforms where people are.
I often shop in, see movies, eat meals in the Mission district in San Francisco, which is why I have had to learn to backtrack out to the Glen Park station to use the bathroom before returning home.
By the way, on Saturday I went for a ride to the new Warm Springs line, as I have on the first day of revenue service of every segment of the system starting in 1972. David Vartanoff Oakland
A While 35 BART stations have bathrooms open to the public, 10 underground stations have bathrooms that have been closed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. There is a project to reconfigure the bathrooms in two stations — Powell Street in San Francisco and 19th Street in Oakland — to meet security concerns, then reopen them.
Other stations with closed bathrooms are Embarcadero, Montgomery, Civic Center, 16th Street and 24th Street Mission in San Francisco and, in the East Bay, the Lake Merritt, 12th Street and downtown Berkeley ones.
QI’m curious about the new solar panels installed to cover much of the parking lots at the Lafayette BART station. Great idea to not only capture the power of the sun but provide shade for cars during the hot summers.
Will the solar energy power the trains or station, or something else? What is the expected power generation per month or year, i.e., equivalent of how many homes’ electricity? Donna Taylor Pleasant Hill
A The solar panels at Lafayette will be used to power the station. Excess solar generated beyond what is used at the station will be exported onto the PG&E grid for use at other BART stations nearby.
The solar panels are expected to generate over 1,600,000 kWh of energy during their first year of operation. That’s about as much energy as 233 California homes use in a year.
The Warm Springs station in Fremont has solar panels on both the station roof and canopies in the parking lots. And the Berryessa station in San Jose will have solar panels at the top of the parking garage.
Q With the enormous expansion planned for Valley Fair shopping center and the opening of the Apple space ship, why is the second phase of BART going to parallel the Caltrain tracks up to the Santa Clara Caltrain station from the Diridon station in San Jose and not those other areas? I think trains up or under Stevens Creek Boulevard to Valley Fair and then to the Apple dish area in Cupertino would fill a huge need for mass transit in a region that badly needs it.
And as a Tesla employee who has relocated to Oakland from Mountain View, I am extremely excited about the new Warm Springs station near the Tesla factory. Matthew Aldridge Oakland
A There will be a BART maintenance yard at the end of the line in Santa Clara across from Caltrain, which is one reason why trains will run through downtown San Jose. But there are no plans to run BART to Valley Fair or to the new Apple campus.