BART completes construction on agency’s first new power substation

    June 18, 2025
    The new traction power substation at Civic Center Station increases the energy available to power BART trains in San Francisco by nearly 18 percent.
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    BART's new traction power substation from multiple angles
    BART's new traction power substation was installed downtown at the Civic Center Station.

    Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) completed construction on its first new substation facility since the system was built in the 1960s. Energized in late April, the state-of-the-art traction power substation at Civic Center Station increases the energy available to power BART trains in San Francisco by nearly 18 percent.  

    “We haven’t done anything like this in the 50-plus years since BART was constructed,” said BART Chief Infrastructure Delivery Officer Myat San, who has been involved in the project from start to finish. “We’ve replaced substations but never built a facility at an already-constructed station. This is a great feat.”  

    The agency says the energization of the substation provides immediate, tangible benefits to BART riders in the substation’s operating area of downtown San Francisco, the busiest section of the BART system.  

    “The substation increases reliability, redundancy and operational flexibility, which are important for a system as large and complex as BART,” said BART Capital Projects Group Manager Javed Khan. “It also has modern features, including advanced monitoring and diagnostic capabilities.”  

    According to the agency, the new substation facility will allow BART and the operations control center to quickly identify and pinpoint problems and dispatch technicians to repair and restore the substation. BART says it can also source power from the new substation to keep trains running and mitigate system impacts, such as service delays.  

    “BART’s improvements to station lighting and fare gates are very visible, but with substations, you don’t see the benefits with your own eyes,” San said. “Even if you don’t see these substations, you experience them. They are the unspoken heroes of the system."  

    The increase in available power from the new substation will also give BART the future capability to run additional trains through the Transbay Tube as part of BART’s Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program.