By August 1965, the city of Oakland desired to call the planned station Oakland West.[3] BART approved the name that December.[4] The station opened on September 16, 1974 – the last station of the initial BART system to open – with the beginning of service through the Transbay Tube.[5] The name "Oakland West" was contrary to the actual neighborhood name of "West Oakland". The efforts of neighborhood activists led BART to correct the name to West Oakland around 1987.[6][7][8]
In 1990, West Oakland was proposed as a station for the Capitols service to replace the damaged 16th Street station.[9] It was again proposed in 1992 as an intermodal station including Amtrak and buses as part of the replacement of the Cypress Street Viaduct.[10]Seismic retrofitting of the station took place in 2009–2011.[11][12] West Oakland was the first BART station to be retrofitted with new fare gates intended to reduce fare evasion. Installation of the new gates took place from December 11–28, 2023.[13]
In February 2019, the city approved plans for a transit-oriented development (TOD) project to replace parking lots surrounding the station.[14] The BART Board of Directors approved the plans in June 2020.[15] The development is to be mixed-use with 762 housing units, 75,000 square feet (7,000 m2) of retail, and 382,460 square feet (35,532 m2) of office space.[14] The private developer lost the property in foreclosure in October 2023.[16] As of 2024[update], BART indicates "significant market, local support, and/or implementation barriers" that must be overcome to allow TOD on a separate parcel isolated from the main development. That second phase would not begin until at least the mid-2030s.[17]
Bus connections
The station has a busway on its south side, which serves AC Transit bus routes 14, 29, 36, and 62. Bus stops on 7th Street on the north side of the station serve AC Transit routes 29, 62, and 800, as well as Flixbus, Greyhound, and Megabus intercity bus service.[18]
References
^Cerny, Susan Dinkelspiel (2007). An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area (1st ed.). Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith. pp. 501–502. ISBN978-1-58685-432-4. OCLC85623396.
