BART
Subtitle: the dramatic history of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system
By: Michael C. Healy ; foreword by John King
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 365
ISBN-13: 9781597143707
Subjects: Local transit; San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Calif.); History
Description: When BART opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1972, it became a catalyst for a renaissance in modern rail transit, both nationally and internationally. The concept as sold to Bay Area voters was gargantuan: by adopting aerospace technologies such as microchips for ground transportation, the new computer-operated rail system would bridge counties and curb urban sprawl amid a booming automobile culture. But it all came within a gnat's eyelash of not happening. The question raised by pundits and taxpayers alike was: would this space-age plan actually work, or be the biggest boondoggle in the country's history? In the first-ever history book about BART, longtime agency spokesman Michael C. Healy gives an insider's account of the rapid transit system's inception, hard-won approval, construction, and operations, ''warts and all.'' Written with a master storyteller's homey wit and sharp attention to detail, Healy recreates the politically fraught venture to bring a new kind of public transit to the West Coast. What emerges is a sense of the individuals who made (and make) BART happen. From tales of staying up until 3:00 a.m. with Bill Stokes and Jack Everson to hear the election results for the rapid transit vote or weathering scandals, strikes, and growing pains, this look behind the scenes of an iconic, seemingly monolithic structure reveals people at their most human-and determined to change the status quo.
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Foreword / by John King; title: Introduction; title: San Francisco, November 6, 1962; title: The birth of the San Francisco bay area; title: Seeking a way; title: The BARTD board begins its work; title: The composite report; title: What the voters voted on; title: Beginning on a turbulent road; title: The 1960s : various issues plague the work; title: Rebellion in Berkeley; title: The ripple effect from Berkeley; title: The tunnel and the tube; title: San Francisco subway construction presents new challenges; title: The contract for transit cars goes to an aerospace company; title: The BART board vs. Stokes; title: Days of the long knives; title: A critical decade ahead as ATC challenges persist; title: The specter of bankruptcy; title: The 1970s : precarious times continue; title: 1977 and 1978 see several improvements and added service; title: Close headways get the okay; title: The 1980s : a decade of progress and scandal; title: Loma Prieta becomes BART's finest hour; title: A rocky road to expansion during the 1990s; title: The 1990s are a bridge to the future; title: New challenges in the millennium; title: Acknowledgments; title: Index; title: About the author.