North Berkeley station is an underground

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...

(BART)

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

located in the North Berkeley neighborhood of

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

. 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 A parking lot or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface. In most jurisdi ...

, while an

elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...

between the surface and the platform is located at the parking lot's Sacramento Street edge. The station is served by the

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

and

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

lines.

History

The site was originally an open area across which the

Key System The Key System (or Key Route) was a privately owned company that provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany, and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area ...

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. The BART Board approved the name "North Berkeley" in December 1965. Service at the station began on January 29, 1973. Pursuant to a law passed by the state of California in 2018, the City of Berkeley and BART plan to replace the surface parking lots with transit-oriented housing. The station site is only partially suited for housing due to the presence of the tracks and station box diagonally underneath. The Berkeley City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with BART in December 2019. BART selected a development team of three affordable housing nonprofits and a private developer in 2022. Plans call for about 750 housing units, a childcare center, of retail space, a bike station, and public space with an extension of the

Ohlone Greenway The Ohlone Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle path in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The path is named for the Native Americans in the United States, Native American Ohlone, who live in th ...

over the station box. While most of the parking spaces would be replaced by the development, up to 120 BART parking spaces would be added in a garage, and 80 spaces in auxiliary lots north of Virginia Street will not be modified. , construction is not expected to begin before mid-2025. The state awarded $25 million in October 2024 for the construction of two plazas plus bike and pedestrian modifications. 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.

References

External links

BART - North BerkeleyBART – North Berkeley TODNorth Berkeley Housing Partners
{{Berkeley, California Bay Area Rapid Transit stations in Alameda County, California Stations on the Orange Line (BART) Stations on the Red Line (BART) Buildings and structures in Berkeley, California Railway stations in the United States opened in 1973 Railway stations located underground in California Transportation in Berkeley, California