| El Cerrito Plaza | |
| Style: | BART |
| Address: | 6699 Fairmount Avenue |
| Borough: | El Cerrito, California |
| Coordinates: | 37.9027°N -122.299°W |
| Owned: | Bay Area Rapid Transit |
| Line: | BART R-Line |
| Structure: | Elevated |
| Platform: | 2 side platforms |
| Tracks: | 2 |
| Connections: | AC Transit: 71, 72, 72M, 79, 80, 667, 668, 675, 684, G Bear Transit: RFS |
| Parking: | 761 spaces |
| Bicycle: | 30 lockers |
| Accessible: | Yes |
| Architect: | DeMars & Wells[1] |
| Opened: | January 29, 1973 |
| Mapframe: | yes |
| Mapframe-Zoom: | 14 |
El Cerrito Plaza station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in El Cerrito, California, located adjacent to the El Cerrito Plaza shopping center. It primarily serves southern El Cerrito, northern Albany, and Kensington, along with nearby portions of Berkeley and Richmond. Nearly identical in form to El Cerrito del Norte station, El Cerrito Plaza station has two side platforms serving the line's two elevated tracks, with a fare lobby underneath. The Ohlone Greenway runs through the station area. The station is served by the Orange and Red lines.
The BART Board approved the name "El Cerrito Plaza" in December 1965.[2] The station opened on January 29, 1973. As with El Cerrito del Norte station, the escalator walls feature tile mosaics by Alfonso Pardiñas.[3] UC Berkeley music professor Jorge Liderman committed suicide at the station on February 3, 2008.[4] Conceptual plans for modernization of the two El Cerrito stations were released in December 2013.[5] Thirteen BART stations, including El Cerrito Plaza, did not originally have faregates for passengers using the elevator. In 2020, BART started a project to add faregates to elevators at these stations. Two new faregates at El Cerrito Plaza installed in May 2022.[6]
In 2018, BART and the city of El Cerrito signed a memorandum of understanding to begin planning for transit-oriented development to replace surface parking lots at the station.[7] A developer was chosen in November 2020. A total of six buildings with about 750 residential units are planned.[8] Per BART policy to limit parking replacement at urban stations, BART parking will be reduced from 761 spaces to 145 spaces.[9] [10] The first building was approved by the city in 2023., construction of the buildings is expected to begin in mid-2024, with all completed by mid-2028.
Busways on both sides of the station serve a number of AC Transit bus routes:[11]
The busways are also used by the Bear Transit RFS route. Several other AC Transit routes — including rapid route 72R, Transbay routes L and LC, and All Nighter route 800 — run on San Pablo Avenue to the west.