Oakland Ballers Transform Rescued BART Car Into Snack Shack

BART’s old-school train cars may be retired, but not all of them are heading for the scrapyard. One just landed in the most unexpected of places—Raimondi Park, home of the brand-new Oakland Ballers pro baseball team—where it’s about to start a surprising second act… as a snack stand.

On April 17, a flatbed truck hauled the legacy car from BART’s Hayward Yard straight to the Ballers’ turf. This Bay Area icon is getting a second life—this time dishing out peanuts, Cracker Jacks, and maybe even a craft brew or two instead of shuttling bleary-eyed commuters to downtown SF.

Now here’s the plot twist: this exact car was originally promised to the Oakland A’s, who were planning to bring it to their new Vegas stadium. But after ghosting the Bay in 2024 (via email, no less), the A’s backed out. So BART hit up Oakland’s newest hometown heroes—the Ballers—and they said “yes” faster than a seventh-inning stretch.

The Ballers are all about repping the Bay. The BART logo’s already on their jerseys, they threw a full-on “BART Night” last season, and now they’re literally building their stadium out of local history.

The Ballers envision Raimondi Park as a kind of living museum—packed with nods to Bay Area culture past and present. And really, what’s more iconic than a BART car that’s seen it all—Giants games, late-night concerts, protests, and burrito runs?

📍 Where to find it: Just outside Raimondi Park, less than a mile from West Oakland BART. The Ballers even run free game-day shuttles every 20 minutes.

🎟️ Opening Day: May 20. You can catch the car in person then—and if all goes well, be ordering garlic fries from it next season.

🚆 Other Retired BART Car Glow-Ups: A fire training center in Hayward, a tiny rental in the Sierras, a clubhouse for Oakland youth, and a few now chilling at the Western Railway Museum.

So if you’re craving some baseball with a side of Bay Area nostalgia, head to West Oakland. There’s a legacy train car parked just behind home plate—because why not?

Read more at BART.gov