San Bruno station is a
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 adjacent to the
Tanforan shopping center in
San Bruno, California
San Bruno () is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, incorporated in 1914. The population was 43,908 at the 2020 United States census. The city is between South San Francisco, California, South San Francisco and Millbrae, Cali ...
. It consists of two main tracks and a shared underground
island platform
An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...
. Service at the station began on June 22, 2003 as part of the
BART San Mateo County Extension project that extended BART service southward from
Colma to
Millbrae
Millbrae is a city located in northern San Mateo County, California, United States. To the northeast is San Francisco International Airport; San Bruno is to the northwest, and Burlingame is to the southeast. It is bordered by San Andreas Lak ...
and
San Francisco International Airport
San Francisco International Airport is the primary international airport for the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport has a San Francisco mailing ...
.
The station is served by the
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 ...
and
Yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...
lines.
History
The land for the station was acquired from the neighboring shopping center through eminent domain proceedings that started in 1999; after the two-year lawsuit, BART paid $34 million as a settlement in 2001 to the four corporations who jointly owned the mall property.
The City of San Bruno requested the new station be named Tanforan Park after the
racetrack
A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also us ...
and later mall that occupied the site, but BART officials, sensitive to the past history of Tanforan as an Assembly Center for Japanese-American citizens during World War II and the recent lawsuit, declined the request in 2002.
During daytime hours on weekdays starting in 2008 the station served as a
cross-platform
Within computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several Computing platform, computing platforms. Some ...
transfer station for passengers traveling between
Millbrae station
Millbrae station is an intermodal transit station serving Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Caltrain, located in Millbrae, California. The station is the terminal station for BART on the San Francisco Peninsula, served by two lines: The before ...
to the south and
San Francisco International Airport station to the east. A direct service was partially restored the following year, with the transfer rendered unnecessary at all times effective February 11, 2019, though it appeared as a transfer station on BART maps until 2021.

The Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial Committee (TACMC) has raised funds and begun construction of the Tanforan Memorial at the San Bruno BART station. TACMC was formed in March 2012 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the
Tanforan Assembly Center by staging an exhibition of photographs by
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange' ...
and
Paul Kitagaki Jr. covering the
Internment of Japanese Americans
United States home front during World War II, During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and Internment, incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese Americans, Japanese descent in ten #Terminology debate, concentration camps opera ...
following the issuance of
Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066 was a President of the United States, United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the fo ...
. The Tanforan Assembly Center was named after the racetrack where more than 8,000 Japanese-Americans, primarily from the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
, were temporarily detained before being sent to more permanent War Relocation Centers; the station now stands where the racetrack was. When complete, the new memorial will include a bronze statue depicting Hiroko and Miyuki Mochida of Hayward, inspired by one of Lange's photographs from 1942. A groundbreaking ceremony for the new memorial was held on February 11, 2022. Within the station, photographs from Lange and Kitagaki will remain on permanent display.
Bus connections
SamTrans
SamTrans (stylized as samTrans; officially the San Mateo County Transit District) is a public transport agency in and around San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It provides bus service throughout San Mateo County and into porti ...
bus routes 140, 141, 398, and ECR stop at bus bays on the ground level of the parking garage north of the station.
References
External links
BART – San Bruno
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Bruno (Bart Station)
Stations on the Yellow Line (BART)
Stations on the Red Line (BART)
Bay Area Rapid Transit stations in San Mateo County, California
San Bruno, California
Railway stations in the United States opened in 2003
2003 establishments in California
Bus stations in San Mateo County, California
Railway stations located underground in California