BART Trains Roll Again: The Moment The Gate Lifted

With a pleasant whirring sound, the gates at the Pleasant Hill BART station rose at 2:45 p.m. Friday.

It was a welcome sight for the dozen or so BART patrons who waited patiently between the ticket machines and the toll booths.

The lifting of the gates officially signaled that BART trains were back in service after a four-day-old transit strike.

BART managers and union negotiators agreed late Thursday night to extend for 30 days the union contracts that had expired at midnight Sunday.

BART will continue negotiations with the Service Employees International Union and the Amalgamated Transit Union in hopes of agreeing on a new contract by the next deadline of Aug. 5. Talks were expected to begin again on Monday, although there was no official word on when the talks will resume.

"I think both sides are happy train service has been restored and we can get back to the bargaining table without this hanging over us," said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost.

BART officials said there were 35 trains in service Friday afternoon. Transit patrons at the Pleasant Hill BART station seemed happy to see them.

Elizabeth McMath of Walnut Creek was waiting at the gates with her two nephews, Matheson McCune, 10, and his brother, Patrick, 7.

They had tickets to Friday evening's San Francisco Giants game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

McMath commutes to San Francisco but took vacation days this week so she wouldn't have to deal with the traffic jams.

She and her two nephews, who are visiting from New Jersey, were ecstatic when they heard about the agreement to restore BART service.

"I was stressing about it. I didn't want to get stuck in traffic," said McMath.

Jill Benes had not heard about the agreement between the unions and BART. She lives across the street from the station and wanted to visit friends in El Cerrito to play some music together.

She just wandered over to the station to see if perhaps the strike had ended. She was delighted when she heard about the 30-day arrangement.

"I had no idea," she said gleefully. "I never get lucky like this."

BART chartered seven buses to shuttle passengers from five East Bay BART stations to San Francisco on Friday morning.

Even though the trains were rolling again, the buses would be available Friday afternoon in San Francisco for patrons with round-trip tickets who wanted to ride them.