Timeline of Bay Area Rapid Transit

Full timeline

Year	Month and date	Event type	Details
1945		Organization	The San Francisco Bay Region Council is created by California's State Reconstruction and Re-Employment Commission. Although funded by the state in its first year, the council incorporates as a private nonprofit organization, and changes its name to the Bay Area Council. Initial supporters of the now private BAC include Bank of America, American Trust Company, Standard Oil of California, Pacific Gas & Electric, U.S. Steel, and Bechtel Corporation. In subsequent years, BAC would be influential in pushing for transportation changes in the San Francisco Bay Area, including enhancements to the bridges as well as the ceration of BART.
1946		Acquisition	The Key System Transit Company, a private operator of electric trollies in the Bay Area, is acquired by National City Lines, a company representing automobile and bus interests, that wishes to eliminate electric trollies from the streets. The removal of a key alternative provider of mass transit would pave the way for mass transit solutions such as BART.
1947		Report	A joint review board by the United States Army and Navy concludes that an additional link is needed between San Francisco and Oakland to reduce congestion on the Bay Bridge. The proposed link is an underwater tube to carry high-speed electric trains.
1951		Report	The California State Legislature creates a 26-member San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Commission, comprised of representatives from each of the nine counties which touch the Bay. The Commission's charge is to study the Bay Area's long range transportation needs in the context of environmental problems and then recommend the best solution. Both the joint Army/Navy report and the efforts of BAC are credited for the legislature's decision.
1956		Report	Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Hall and Macdonald (PBHM) present a report, Regional Rapid Transit (RRT) to the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Commission. The report had been commissioned in 1953. This report is the first planning document for BART and would be the starting point for further reports.
1957		Highway transportation	A number of citizens' groups protest freeway construction in San Francisco starting around this time, beginning with the Embarcadero Freeway. This leads to increased interest in mass rapid transit as an alternative.
1957		County coordination	Based on the findings of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Commission, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BARTD) is formed by the California state legislature, comprising the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo. Santa Clara county is not included.
1959	May 14	Work contracts	BART retains the services of the joint engineering venture composed of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Hall and Macdonald, Tudor Engineering, and the Bechtel Corporation to develop a regional plan.
1959		Financing plan	A bill is passed in the California state legislature providing for financing of what would later become the Transbay Tube through surplus toll revenues from the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
1961		System plan	A final plan is sent to the boards of supervisors of the five counties. The system would have three endpoints in the East Bay: Concord, Richmond, and Fremont; one in the Northwest at Novato, and one in the South Bay at Palo Alto.
1962	April	County coordination	San Mateo County opts out of BART, citing high costs, existing service provided by Southern Pacific commuter trains, and concerns over shoppers going to San Francisco, hurting local businesses. The withdrawal of San Mateo County leads to Daly City (just at the border between the counties) as the southwest terminus.
1962	May	County coordination	Following the withdrawal of San Mateo County, Marin County also withdraws, citing engineering objections and the potential for not getting enough votes. This leads to cancellation of the plans for a northwest terminus and the Geary Subway section of the system.
1962	May	Report	The Composite Report (CR) is produced by the consortium of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Hall and Macdonald, Tudor Engineering hired by BARTD in 1959.
1962	November	County coordination	The remaining three counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco) agree to the modified BART plan with a $792 million bond measure, with terminuses at Richmond, Concord, Fremont, and Daly City. The measure, known as Proposition A on the three-county ballot, is able to pass due to two changes engineered by Alan K. Browne of the Bank of America: (a) getting the state legislature to reduce the needed BART vote from 66.67% (the default) to 60%, and (b) allowing for the requirement of crossing the vote threshold to be applied to all votes together, rather than county-by-county. Without both these changes, the measure would not have passed. Supporters of the measure organize a campaign committee called Citizens for Rapid Transit, whose top members are San Francisco bankers. In contrast, there is no organized opposition. Opponents include the Civil League of Improvement and Associations that opposes the taxes needed, the Central Council of Civic Clubs and the San Francisco Labor Council that have more specific objections, and some automobile and older railroad companies, though these companies do not spend resources on opposing the bond measure.
1962	November 29	Work contracts	BART signs a new contract with the successors to the firms it had contracted with to come up with a design for the system. The new contract is for overall system planning through research and development, design, and management of construction. The contract is with the engineering joint venture firm composed of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade, and Douglas (the successor to Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Hall, and MacDonald), Tudor and Bechtel. In short, the joint venture to which the work is contracted is called PBTB.
1962/1963		Lawsuit	Robert L. Osborne, an Oakland city councilman and East Bay manufacturer, files a lawsuit against BARTD arguing that fixed rail is obsolete, that BART stations would be too far apart to encourage riders, athat better and more efficient transit systems were rejected by BARTD, that the ultimate cost would exceed the $792 million approved, that BARTD's contract with PBTB is open-ended and illegal and based on nepotism, and that an illegal, close working relationship exists between the Citizens for Rapid Transit Committee and BART public officials. Many of these allegations would later prove true.>J. Allen Whitt. "Urban Elites and Mass Transportation: The Dialectics of Power, Page 63". </ref>
1964	June 19	Construction	BART construction is officially inaugurated by President Lyndon Johnson, presiding over the ground-breaking ceremony for a 4.4-mile test track between Concord and Walnut Creek.
1965		Construction	Construction on the Transbay Tube begins.
1967	July	Construction	Construction for BART tracks along the Market Street Subway in San Francisco commences. The construction is carried out using cut-and-cover.
1967		Independent assessment	In response to criticism by the California Society of Professional Engineers (CSPE), the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Board of Ethical Review reviews the case. The Opinions are published as Case No. 66-1 in Vol. 2, 1967. The Opinion concludes that it is not appropriate to issue criticism of the fee arrangements in the manner that CSPE did.
1967		Work contracts	The contract for the operation of BART's Automated Train Control (ATC) system is won by Westinghouse for $26 million.
1969	April 3	Construction	The final section of the Transbay Tube is laid out (it has not yet been fitted for use by trains).
1969	September 1	Controversy	At the Contra Costa County meeting to nominate candidates for the BART Board, Roy Andersen, the candidate of the Diablo Chapter of the CSPE delivers a speech critical of the BART/PBTB relationship.
1969	November 9	Preview	A section of the Transbay Tube is opened for pedestrian traffic, prior to being fitted out for train use.
1972	February and March	Controversy	Three engineers working for BART, Max Blankenzee, Robert Bruder, and Holger Hjortsvang, had identified safety problems with the Automated Train Control (ATC). They contact Daniel Helix, a member of the BART board of directors, who raises the matter with the board, and goes public with the issues on Febrary 7-9. On February 24 or 25, at a public meeting of BART, the issues are raised. The board votes ten to two in support of BART management. On March 3, BART, having determined the identities of the three whistleblowing engineers, gives them the option of resigning or being fired. After they refuse to resign, they are all fired.
1972	September 11	Service start	BART opens service. Initial service is between the stations of MacArthur and Fremont (completely in the East Bay). The stations are: MacArthur, 19th Street, 12th Street, Lake Merritt, Fruitvalue, Coliseum, San Leandro, Bay Fair, Hayward, South Hayward, Union City, and Fremont.
1973	January 29	New stations	BART opens service from MacArthur to Richmond (in the East Bay). The newly opened stations are: Ashby, Berkeley, North Berkeley, El Cerrito Plaza, El Cerrito Del Norte, and Richmond.
1973	May 21	New stations	BART opens service from MacArthur to Concord (in the East Bay) completing the East Bay part of its initial plan. The newly opened stations are: Rockridge, Orinda, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, and Concord.
1973	August 10	Preview	The first test run of a train under automatic control from West Oakland to Montgomery is performed. The train runs at full speed, taking seven minutes and returning in another six minutes.
1973	November 5	New stations	BART opens its service in San Francisco (not yet connected with the East Bay), from Montgomery to Daly City. The stations are: Montgomery, Powell Street Station, Civil Center/UN Plaza, 16th Street/Mission, 24th Street/Mission, Glen Park, Balboa Park, and Daly City.
1974	September 16	New stations	BART opens its station in West Oakland and begins trans-bay service between its East Bay and San Francisco stations.
1976	May 27	New stations	BART opens its Embarcadero station, its first infill station. This would become BART's busiest station.