BART trains suspended in Contra Costa County next weekend

On Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28, BART will suspend train service between Concord and Pleasant Hill, the first of four planned suspensions in coming weeks so that crews can replace aging tracks on the yellow line.

According to BART, the agency will run buses between the Contra Costa County stations during regular commute hours, which will create significant delays and lead to some suspension of service overall:

Passengers traveling through this area should add 20 minutes to their planned trip. Passengers traveling toward San Francisco, who typically park at Concord, North Concord, or Pittsburg/Bay Point stations, may choose to drive to the Pleasant Hill Station and park for free to avoid the bus bridge.

The last two trains scheduled to depart Antioch at 11:23 pm and 11:45 pm will be cancelled. The connecting southbound trains from Pittsburg/Bay Point to Concord will run out of service to Concord.

BART will repeat this routine on May 11-12, May 25-27 (a three-day Memorial Day weekend), and finally on June 8-9.

The tracks on the hind end of the Antioch line are nearly 50 years old at this point. The “track renewal” is part of BART’s spending related to Measure RR, a 2016 bond that netted $3.5 billion for BART maintenance, with some $625 million of that set aside for track replacement.

Of 19 planned track replacement projects, BART has finished only two so far. Six more track replacements are still being designed and 11 are being bid on by contractors, according to the latest status and milestones report.

The first Measure RR oversight report, released in June of last year, notes that thus far the track replacement element of the plan is ahead of schedule.