Coronavirus Update: BART Announces Station Entrances Closures, Weekend Rail Work
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- BART officials announced Friday that the transit agency will close a number of station entrances in San Francisco and Oakland in addition to scheduling some weekend track work due to reduced ridership during the coronavirus pandemic.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Starting next Monday, April 13, BART plans to temporarily close several entrances at the four stations in downtown San Francisco and Oakland. According to a press release, he closures will help the agency focus cleaning efforts and improve safety for employees and riders during times of record low ridership and the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the downtown San Francisco station, all entrances on the north side of Market Street will remain open, while all entrances on the south side of Market will be closed. The north side of Market is where the elevators are located.
For the downtown Oakland stations, the 12th Street Station will be accessible from the Williams Plaza and De Lauer's News Stand in the middle of the station, and the south end of the station at 11th and Broadway near the Marriott. The 19th Street Station will be accessible from 17th and 20th Streets on the south side of Broadway.
All stations impacted by the entrance closures will remain ADA accessible, agency officials said. Signs in multiple languages will be posted at the closed entrances noting others remain open to avoid confusion. BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez has assigned police officers to a "fixed post" during specific hours of the day to each of the open entrances.
The planned weekend track work will focus on track replacement project near the Orinda station. The work will require five weekend track shutdowns between the Lafayette and Rockridge stations, an official release on the closure said. The track replacement is being down to improve safety for BART passengers and employees.
The weekends the track shutdowns will affect riders include May 9-10, May 23-25 (Memorial Day weekend), June 6-7, June 20-21, and July 4-5. A free bus bridge will replace trains on those weekends. Riders should expect delays of 20-25 minutes.
BART has already made service cuts due to reduced ridership. On Wednesday, the transit service began running trains every 30 minutes during weekdays due to the ongoing coronavirus shelter-in-place order reducing the number of riders in the Bay Area.