BART just opened its first new station in a half decade last week, the Warm Springs/South Fremont Station that extends the system five miles further south toward San Jose on the Fremont line. But commuters who live or work near the station and are commuting to or from anyplace that is not on the Daly City line have been disappointed to discover that service won't actually be direct, or necessarily faster than their previous commutes. As the Mercury News puts it, "It's all so BART."

An anonymous commuter named James explained his predicament to the paper, as he lives near the station and was looking forward to shaving some minutes off his commute every day to his job, which is along the Richmond line. But BART isn't actually running trains from Richmond to Warm Springs, the way they might be expected to, during normal commuting hours, the way they always have from Richmond to Fremont. Those trains stop in Fremont, and James, therefore, has to get on at Warm Springs, take the train one stop, transfer to a Richmond-bound train, and typically wait nine minutes for the Richmond train to leave. "Once I realized there was a nine-minute layover transfer to get to my stop, I actually did not save any time at all," he tells the Merc.

The only trains that travel in and out of Warm Springs/South Fremont until 6 p.m. on weekdays are Daly City-bound trains, which makes it more convenient for commuters into San Francisco, but not for anyone trying to get anywhere to the north, and not for anyone commuting to South Fremont from, say, Berkeley or Contra Costa County.

On weekends and after 6 p.m. on weekdays, the schedule changes, and the Richmond-to-Warm Springs line opens up for direct service. After 7 p.m., commuters from San Francisco have to transfer at Bay Fair Station for a Warm Springs / South Fremont train.

BART spokesperson Jim Allison sells the Mercury-News that full service at the station will hopefully begin next year. "It was not a last-minute decision. There simply are not enough train cars to run two-line service. The plan is, when we get the new Fleet of the Future cars, we will have full service there."

The bigger issue is that BART did zero messaging around this limited service issue when they opened the station, expecting commuters to do their own homework using the Quick Planner on their apps, or just experience the disappointment first-hand, and have yet another reason to hate their commute.

State Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) says it's just another example of "why public confidence in BART is declining."

Previously: BART's Warm Springs/South Fremont Station Finally Opens Saturday

This post has been corrected to show that BART has opened another station in the last decade, the West Dublin / Pleasanton station, in 2011. Prior to that, the last new stations opened were San Francisco International Airport and Millbrae Stations in June, 2003.