BART will begin offering service on all five of the system’s lines Sunday for the first time in the transit agency’s history.
Previously, BART offered Sunday service on just three lines between Millbrae and Antioch, Daly City and Dublin/Pleasanton and Richmond and North San Jose.
The three-line schedule led to more transfers as riders in Richmond, Berkeley and the South Bay did not have a direct connection to San Francisco as they do when BART trains run on all five lines.
According to BART’s ridership data, 82 percent of Sunday riders complete their trip without needing to transfer on the three-line schedule. With the five-line schedule, that will increase to 97 percent, according to the transit agency.
BART will also resume operating through midnight on Sundays for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Since March 2020, the transit agency’s system closed at 9 p.m. to facilitate work on track infrastructure projects.
With the scheduling change, BART will now run through midnight seven days a week and from 8 a.m. to midnight on Sundays. On each day, BART will operate three-line service from 9 p.m. to midnight.
The schedule changes reflect BART’s effort to attract riders back to the system by returning service to its pre-pandemic schedule. To date, ridership has not rebounded as the agency has hoped, with weekday ridership hovering between 25 and 30 percent of pre-pandemic expectations.
BART plans to run three-line service on a dozen Sundays throughout the year as the transit agency replaces power cables in San Francisco between the 24th Street Mission and Daly City stations.
20 comments
Must have money to burn.
A Bart article earlier announced an insurmountable budget deficit looking in the near future.
This sounds like a plan to increase ridership to lessen the impact of the deficit.
What happens if people still are not attracted to Bart and the deficit increases?
Bart can’t get a tax increase approved by local counties. No one votes for it.
Bart can either pay for the voter fraud to win a tax increase or bribe Sacramento to legislate a tax increase.
Either way, the taxpayers pay for Bart’s unforgivably poor management.
Bart needs to be taken private with no taxpayer support.
That won’t happen. This is a socialistic state and taxpayers will find Bart long after the rails have rotted and the train cars are sold for scrap.
The easy solution to increase ridership is to keep the cars clean, have more police, and keep the druggies off the trains. But they won’t do the obvious.
Bart is like the high speed train being built in California.It only works for certain people.And the high speed train is going from one crap hole to another.
And,
Sacramento has already spent OVER One Hundred BILLION Dollars of our hard earned taxes to this Hi-Speed Rail.
They might have a train ready to roll in maybe 5 years from Bakersfield to Merced, but haven’t laid one mile of track!
Meanwhile, Amtrak runs 5 trains daily between Bakersfield and Emeryville and most trains are only at 50% capacity.
Can you say that?
One hundred billion dollars?
$100,000,000.00
Wasted tax dollars for Californians.
Thanks Gov Brown.
Wait what?
The inmates are running the asylum. Later hours means more salaries paid. Are they really that dense? They claim they have a deficit, yet they want to spend more $.
Lol….how does California stand for such nonsense?
Bart has become a homeless encampment on wheels.
Bart is already a dumpster fire, but now they are just flaunting their stupidity.
Horrendous!
Maybe they should get convertible cars. Make it like a Bay Area Rollercoaster. I’d ride Bart then.
Bill,
Great idea. As I read your post another thought popped into my mind.
Bart Sleeper Cars. Get on board in North Concord in the evening and wake up at SFO for that 6 AM flight. The Cars can park on a siding until it’s time to get going again.
Not much hope for the future. I’d love to get back to House of Prime Rib with the family. I know, there are other great places, but this holds some memories. Problem is they don’t open till 5 PM. Can’t ride Bart now because of filth and safety. Can’t park in the city on Van Ness due to car break-ins and possible car jackings of older people. Uber or Lyft would cost a fortune. If I hired Limo service that would be too costly. Maybe get a rental car for a day and buy all the high-cost insurance and extra no-fault insurance so I can return it in trashed condition if need be. So sad.
You folks are pretty smart. Any ideas?
My youngin’s are sold on the Uber for rides…. Dunno the cost though…
Amen!
It’s a shame we taxpayers cannot use BART, especially considering we finance it.
Similar opinion on BART and driving in to SF. We always use the Ferry from Vallejo. Nice ride and no homeless or druggies on board.
We just don’t really go much anymore . Such a shame. BART is too dangerous and parking there is too dangerous. We do have family there and have to go over for a dinner, so we will take an Uber, and eat the cost. It’s been a few years, so sad we can’t go all the time like the good ol’ day’s.
People have stopped taking BART because it isn’t safe, period. Opening up later, having more routes, nothing will help except having A LOT OF police presence (where are the BART police anyway, I only see them driving BART police cars on local streets, never saw them on a train.) Get the trash people off the trains; no more urinating, drug abusing, and worst of all, aggressive panhandling. The last time I took BART was at noon on New Years Day a few years ago when a very aggressive creep was trying to force me to give him money. I never went back on BART.
Good points all…
Here’s the headline on the Green Sheet this morning:
“Empty trains, deserted stations cost taxpayers billions. Will BART, VTA and Caltrain riders ever return?
Two years into the pandemic, once-bustling transit stations that catered to tech commuters now resemble hushed mausoleums, as Bay Area ridership is still down by over 85% in some areas.”
Yeah, will riders ever return? To what?
Many people would rather just not go to SF on BART if they have to stop in Oakland. It’s that bad. Why would someone voluntarily subject themselves to the very real possibility of being robbed or harassed? The management is delusional if they think increasing hours of operation is going to increase ridership. Obama and his ilk have created a permanent division between white and black. The BART system as it has been known is never going to recover.
If you don’t feel safe riding BART during commute hours, why would you feel safe riding it close to midnight?
Because you like the idea of living in a dystopian SiFi movie like Escape from New York.
I guess I’m just preaching to the chior, since other people have already voiced my thoughts, but here they are anyway;
If BART couldn’t sustain itself with the crazy high rates that they charge to ride before Covid, then I’m sure that they’ll have their hand out trying to get more money.
Hey BART, how about not paying janitors six figures?
Why are BART cops driving around in cars? Shouldn’t they be at the stations and on the trains?
Are people still jumping the gates instead of paying? I’d be willing to guess that the majotity of problem passengers didn’t pay.
The last time I rode BART, the car was filthy. Who knows what caused those stains on the seats?
North Concord to Oakland Airport is $11.45, so round trip of $22.90. Are you kidding me?
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