BART to OAK

Great work of engineering — walk up to the terminal from Coliseum, Its fast, fun and frequent.
Beats the heck out bus connector hell — I will put Oakland International back on my list.
Urban planning 101 passed.
Only issue is price — but that is true for all of BART.
Rates to both airports are off the hook.

It took me way too long to try the Oakland Airport Connector, or BART to OAK as it’s now called – sadly; tragically; impermanently, I’m almost sure.
THE GOOD
+ It’s quick. The rides takes about four minutes fewer than AirBART ever did, even on its original faster route.
+ The trains are still very clean.
+ The views are very interesting and diverse. You can see the hills, the airport, the bay, the golf course, and the encampments of homeless people beneath the Nimitz Freeway. I like it when we can see and are forced to think about the physical and social environments we live in.
+ You don’t ever have to leave the security of the paid area of the BART station in order to get to the airport. There was way too much skeeviness going on everywhere when you had to wait at the curb for AirBART.
THE BAD
— Six dollars? That’s a huge ripoff. It shouldn’t cost more to get to Oakland International than it does to get to SFO.
— The trains are automated. You might think that makes them cool, but it also means that in addition to eliminating the AirBART bus drivers’ jobs, this project resulted in a net loss of permanent jobs. Yes, there are permanent maintenance jobs, but there were with the AirBART buses as well. And it’s also a fairly long ride to be cooped up with complete strangers and no access to BART personnel or police. What if someone completely flips out? Decides to try to break out of the car? Assaults you or a loved one? I guess the answer is you have to wait until you reach your destination.
— The new Oakland International Airport BART Station is farther from the terminals, particularly Terminal 2, than the AirBART stop was. Boo hiss.
THE UNEXPECTED
~ The stop at The Wheelhouse is pretty cool. It feels like the middle of a Disneyland ride.
~ You can technically ride from OAK to Coliseum BART and back for free, although you’re not supposed to. How? For some reason, they chose to place the only fare gates at Coliseum BART, so you can walk on at the airport and ride without paying. This doesn’t really serve any purpose other than to allow people who have arrived way too early for their flights to do a little joyriding.
It’s better than I expected it to be. We’ll see how it holds up over the next three years.