BART Ridership Continues Precipitous Fall Due To Coronavirus
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- BART ridership continued to fall Monday as the Bay Area braced for a shelter-in-place order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The agency tallied 118,572 riders Monday, a 70 percent drop from ridership on an average Monday in February, which was 399,397. BART ridership was also down 61 percent on Saturday and Sunday compared to an average weekend day from the previous month.
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The agency will continue running its regular schedule to ensure essential workers can still commute to their jobs during the three-week shelter-in-place order that went into effect Tuesday.
BART assured potential riders that both its stations and trains are not crowded to allow riders to practice social distancing to avoid spreading the virus.
BART Board Director Rebecca Saltzman said the agency lost $5 million due to falling ridership last week and is expected to lose even more in the coming weeks as fewer people commute to work.
"Every transit agency is hurting and will get worse since transit also depends on sales tax revenue," she said in a Twitter post. "We need state and federal support for essential transit service."
No coronavirus cases have been confirmed on BART, to date.