MacArthur station opened on September 11, 1972, as the northern terminus of the inaugural BART line, which ran to Fremont. Upon the opening of the Transbay Tube in 1974, the station began to serve Transbay trains to San Francisco. The station included several pieces of public art: an abstract mural by Mark Adams over a staircase, and tile mosaics by Adams and Alfonso Pardiñas in the fare lobby. Nia Wilson was killed at the station on July 22, 2018. Sunday-only service to the station on the Dublin/Pleasanton line was operated from February 11, 2019 to February 10, 2020.
MacArthur Transit Village
Because of MacArthur's importance as an interchange and its location in the center of the East Bay, BART has conducted a number of feasibility studies about the prospects of creating transit-oriented development around the station. These studies have resulted in a plan for the "MacArthur Transit Village," a mixed-use development on the eastern side of Route 24 bounded by 40th Street, Telegraph Avenue, and West MacArthur Boulevard. The current plan calls for 624 residential units as well as of retail space. MacArthur Commons occupies Parcel A and Parcel C of the Village, providing 385 apartment units. The groundbreaking for the project was held in May 2011 with the start of construction for a new 450-space parking garage for BART. BART opened a parking garage as part of the project in September 2014. As of 2018, the village is under construction and will include around 850 units and a tower tall.
Station layout
MacArthur station was built with cross-platform interchanges in mind. There are two island platforms and four tracks. Platforms 1 and 2 serve the Richmond-Fremont line and the Richmond-Daly City/Millbrae line; Platform 1 goes Northbound towards Richmond, and Platform 2 goes Southbound towards Berryessa/North San José and Daly City/Millbrae. Platforms 3 and 4 serve the Antioch–SFO/Millbrae line; Platform 3 goes Northbound toward Pittsburg/Bay Point, and Platform 4 goes Southbound toward SFO/Millbrae. Connections between the lines are timed for Southbound passengers between Platforms 2 and 4. This is not the case for Northbound passengers, as a timed transfer point already exists further south at 19th Street Station. MacArthur tends to be crowded in the morning due to high transfer volume between two lines where only a few people get off while many are trying to board. Southbound trains converge to single track towards downtown Oakland, and San Francisco bound trains are given priority when departing in that direction.
