El Cerrito Plaza station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in El Cerrito, California, located adjacent to the El Cerrito Plaza shopping center. It primarily serves southern El Cerrito, northern Albany, and Kensington, along with nearby portions of Berkeley and Richmond. Nearly identical in form to El Cerrito del Norte station, El Cerrito Plaza station has two side platforms serving the line's two elevated tracks, with a fare lobby underneath. The Ohlone Greenway runs through the station area. The station is served by the Orange and Red lines.
El Cerrito Plaza | |||||||||||||||
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 Platforms at El Cerrito Plaza station in 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| General information | |||||||||||||||
| Location | 6699 Fairmount Avenue El Cerrito, California | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 37°54′10″N 122°17′56″W / 37.902694°N 122.298968°W | ||||||||||||||
| Owned by | Bay Area Rapid Transit | ||||||||||||||
| Line(s) | BART R-Line | ||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 2 side platforms | ||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Connections |  AC Transit: 71, 72, 72M, 79, 80, 667, 668, 675, 684, G Bear Transit: RFS | ||||||||||||||
| Construction | |||||||||||||||
| Structure type | Elevated | ||||||||||||||
| Parking | 761 spaces | ||||||||||||||
| Bicycle facilities | 30 lockers | ||||||||||||||
| Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||||||
| Architect | DeMars & Wells[1] | ||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||
| Opened | January 29, 1973[2] | ||||||||||||||
| Passengers | |||||||||||||||
| 2024 | 2,044 (weekday average)[3] | ||||||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||||||
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History edit
The BART Board approved the name "El Cerrito Plaza" in December 1965.[4] The station opened on January 29, 1973.[2] As with El Cerrito del Norte station, the escalator walls feature tile mosaics by Alfonso Pardiñas.[5] UC Berkeley music professor Jorge Liderman committed suicide at the station on February 3, 2008.[6] Thirteen BART stations, including El Cerrito Plaza, did not originally have faregates for passengers using the elevator. In 2020, BART started a project to add faregates to elevators at these stations. Two new faregates at El Cerrito Plaza installed in May 2022.[7]
In 2018, BART and the city of El Cerrito signed a memorandum of understanding to begin planning for transit-oriented development to replace surface parking lots at the station.[8] A developer was chosen in November 2020. A total of six buildings with about 750 residential units are planned.[9] Per BART policy to limit parking replacement at urban stations, BART parking will be reduced from 761 spaces to 145 spaces.[10][9][11] The first building was approved by the city in 2023. As of April 2024[update], construction of the buildings is expected to begin in mid-2024, with all completed by mid-2028.[9]
Bus connections edit
Busways on both sides of the station serve a number of AC Transit bus routes:[12]
The busways are also used by the Bear Transit RFS route.[12] Several other AC Transit routes — including rapid route 72R, Transbay routes L and LC, and All Nighter route 800 — run on San Pablo Avenue 0.25 miles (0.40 km) to the west.
References edit
- ^ Cerny, Susan Dinkelspiel (2007). An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area (1st ed.). Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith. pp. 501–502. ISBN 978-1-58685-432-4. OCLC 85623396.
- ^ a b "BART Chronology January 1947 – March 2009" (PDF). San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. March 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 13, 2013.
- ^ "Monthly Ridership Reports". San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. February 2024.
- ^ "Names Approved for 38 Rapid Transit Stations Around Bay". Oakland Tribune. December 10, 1965. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Weinstein, Dave. "How BART got ART". CA-Modern. Eichler Network. p. 6.
- ^ Kosman, Joshua (February 4, 2008). "Composer Liderman dies in apparent suicide". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ "New Fare Gates & Station Hardening". San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. July 2023. Archived from the original on September 4, 2023.
- ^ "Memorandum of Understanding" (PDF). San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. February 28, 2018.
- ^ a b c "El Cerrito Plaza TOD". San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. April 2024. Archived from the original on May 13, 2024.
- ^ "El Cerrito Plaza Transit-Oriented Development" (PDF). San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. August 14, 2019.
- ^ BART Transit-Oriented Development Program Work Plan: 2024 Update (PDF). San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. March 2024. p. 7.
- ^ a b "Transit Stops: El Cerrito Plaza Station" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Commission. March 29, 2017.
External links edit
Media related to El Cerrito Plaza station at Wikimedia Commons
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