We started the morning by sleeping in late which was a mistake for what we wanted to do. On a time schedule, we would have to decide what we wanted to do today. So after morning preparations, a breakfast eating it in the car at McDonald's, we headed to the BART station in Antioch to start our riding. Since it was a Saturday, there was no charge for parking which was very nice of BART. We put more money on our Clipper cards, not knowing what we would be doing and went down to the track where the train was waiting.
This train would take Elizabeth and I 9.2 miles to Pittsburg Transfer, a station only used to connect with BART by passengers from this train.
The map showing where BART goes in the Bay area. We transferred to BART and found social distancing was easy with only us in the car. At Concord, a gentleman boarded not wearing a mask and he apologized for breaking the social conditions of the trip which we both thought was very nice of him. We took this train all the way down to Oakland MacArthur station where we transferred to a train going to Berryessa. For Elizabeth, this whole trip was new mileage except from the Oakland Coliseum stop to where the line out to Livermore took off. For me, my new mileage would start at Fremont all the way to Berryessa.
Our train at MacArthur station in Oakland.
As you can tell, there was no need to worry about social distancing on this trip. One thing we noticed was this car had filth around the window areas and at one point, made me sneeze several times. Someone at BART was not doing their job of cleaning these cars properly.
I was surprised when seeing the Oakland Coliseum that it still had the Raiders logo on it even though they are now the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Air BART transfer facilities at the Oakland Coliseum stop, a piece of rail I need to ride someday. We reached Fremont and I had a certain satisfaction that my new mileage was starting and enjoyed that feeling all the way to Berryessa.
We passed a Union Pacific freight on the tracks I had ridden Union Pacific 3985 into Milpitas in 1992 and then downtown Oakland on the NRHS Circle The Bay trip at that convention in San Jose. The train ran onto Milpitas, the connection with VTA, which we would not ride today, before arriving at Berryessa, where we had to go downstairs, tap our Clipper cards and go out of the gate, then turn right around and tap them again so we could return to Antioch.
A surprise at Berryessa was some of BART's brand new equipment on the train to Daly City was seen.
Our train heading to Richmond at Berryessa.
The control stand inside the BART cars even though they are automated.
Proof that we were in Berryessa before we left. We headed back north and I saw where the line from Livermore came into this main line. At Oakland 16th Street, they announced that anyone transferring to Antioch should detrain but we did not, thinking we could do it at MacArthur as we did on the way down. It was hair-raising few minutes as the trains jockeyed for position as we barely beat the train into MacArthur and ran across the platform to our other train.
The train we ran to at MacArthur. We took this train back to Pittsburg Transfer where we stopped for some pictures before we boarded.
Our train for Antioch.
Elizabeth and our train for Antioch. I had to use the bathroom and thankfully found one at the Antioch station to the left of the stairs when you come down. With this trip taking longer than expected, we looked at Elizabeth's smartphone and found we had a 42 minute drive to Niles Canyon Railway in Sunol. We made it with plenty of time and that is the next story you will be reading.
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