BART invites the public to “ride through history” at a legacy car retirement ceremony and final ride on 4/20/24

BART invites the public to join us to mark and celebrate the end of an era: the last run of BART's legacy trains composed of rail cars that have been serving the Bay Area for more than half a century. We're calling the event "Riding into History: Final Run of the First Fleet."

The retirement ceremony and final dispatch of legacy trains will begin at 1pm on Saturday, April 20, 2024 at Oakland's MacArthur Station. Following the ceremony, the public will board a legacy train and ride from MacArthur to Fremont Station, mirroring the initial service BART provided when it opened September 11, 1972. It's a 45-minute trip that travels along approximately 24 miles of the original section of tracks. Every rider will need to pay for the ride with their Clipper card.

"These train cars are part of the history of the Bay Area," said Bob Powers, BART General Manager. "While we are excited to modernize the system, we recognize the profound cultural importance of these cars, and we want to celebrate their rich history and give them a proper send off."

BART is able to completely retire the legacy fleet thanks to the success of the Fleet of the Future project. 696 new Fleet of the Future train cars are now certified for service - that's 30 more cars than the legacy fleet inventory. A total of 701 new cars are on BART property as of March 1, 2024, and twenty cars a month are now being delivered to BART - twice as many as when the new cars first began to be delivered to the Hayward test track in 2016.

While the April 20 trip will be the final time the public will be able to ride the legacy fleet cars, it won't be the last opportunity to spend time with the historic vehicles.

Three legacy cars will be headed to the Western Railway Museum in Suisun City for preservation and to provide a space for transit enthusiasts, researchers, and museum guests to enjoy and study for years to come. The three cars, including an iconic sloped-front A car, will be the only cars from the legacy fleet to be displayed at a museum.

A handful of other legacy cars will be transferred to those who successfully submitted proposals to repurpose the cars for short-term rentals, entertainment venues, and training facilities.

Most of the legacy cars, however, have been recycled, so April 20 is the last chance to ride these historic cars.