North Berkeley station

37°52′26″N 122°16′57″W / 37.873915°N 122.282552°W / 37.873915; -122.282552Line(s)BART R-LinePlatforms1 island platformTracks2Connections AC Transit: FS, J, 51B, 52, 88, 604, 688, 800
Golden Gate Fields ShuttleConstructionStructure typeUndergroundParking822 spacesBicycle facilities58 lockersAccessibleYesArchitectKitchen & Hunt^[1]HistoryOpenedJanuary 29, 1973Passengers20241,719 (weekday average)^[2] Services

Preceding station	Bay Area Rapid Transit			Following station
Downtown Berkeley toward Berryessa/​North San José		Orange Line		El Cerrito Plaza toward Richmond
Downtown Berkeley toward Millbrae		Red Line

Location

North Berkeley station is an underground Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station located in the North Berkeley neighborhood of Berkeley, California. It is bounded by Virginia Street, Sacramento Street, Delaware Street, and Acton Street in a residential area north of University Avenue. The main station entrance sits within a circular building at the center of a parking lot, while an elevator between the surface and the platform is located at the parking lot's Sacramento Street edge. The station is served by the Orange and Red lines.

History

The site was originally an open area across which the Key System constructed its Westbrae streetcar line, subsequently given the letter designation "G". The tracks ran diagonally across the property in virtually the same alignment as today's underground BART tracks. Homes began to be constructed along the periphery of the site, and after the G-Westbrae line was closed in 1941, filled in most of the rest of it. All of these were demolished in the 1960s to make way for construction of the North Berkeley station. Early proposals included replacing the demolished homes with apartment buildings, but these did not come to fruition. Instead, the area around the station became a parking lot.^[3] The BART Board approved the name "North Berkeley" in December 1965.^[4] Service at the station began on January 29, 1973.^[5]

Pursuant to a law passed by the state of California in 2018, the City of Berkeley and BART are beginning to plan the development of transit-oriented housing on the station parking lot, with a deadline for zoning due to the district in 2020.^[6] The station site is only partially suited for housing due to the presence of the tracks and station box underneath. The Berkeley City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with BART in December 2019.^[7]

Thirteen BART stations, including North Berkeley, did not originally have faregates for passengers using the elevator. In 2020, BART started a project to add faregates to elevators at these stations. The new faregate on the platform at North Berkeley was installed in October 2022.^[8]

See also

• List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations

References

External links

Media related to North Berkeley station at Wikimedia Commons

• BART - North Berkeley