COVID: BART Officials Announce Plans For Schedule Changes
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Transit officials with BART on Tuesday announced some minor schedule changes going into effect next week that will allow for increased ridership as COVID restrictions are reduced in the Bay Area.
Officials noted that while the changes would not be major, they would allow for future service increases. The new schedule that goes into effect on Monday, March 22, will leave service hours unchanged as BART staff monitors ridership and demand with more relaxed COVID-19 restrictions.
The new schedule is already available to view on the agency's online Trip Planner and both versions of the BART App. PDFs of the current and new schedule timetables are also available.
"Weekday riders will have the same frequency they experience now, but the new schedule allows us to add 26 additional trips to enhance 15-minute commute periods when and where ridership data reflects more riders are returning," read the transit agency statement on the schedule changes.
BART officials say they plan to add additional trips when train car loading data shows there are consistently more than 30 people per car on a train. Officials said current figures indicate ridership has yet to surpass a post COVID high of 55,000 weekday riders.
Starting Saturday, March 27, BART will be running identical schedules on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday service will run as three-line service (Yellow, Orange, and Blue), which means some riders may have to transfer to finish their trip as they do on Sundays.
On Sundays when service is impacted by single tracking for maintenance, the Dublin/Pleasanton (Blue) line will terminate at Montgomery. Riders will need to transfer to a Yellow line train to finish their trip. Previously, the Blue line extended to 24th Street/Mission on single tracking days. On Sundays when there is no single tracking to upgrade the electrical power system in Downtown San Francisco, the Blue line will terminate at Daly City.
Additional details on updates to the BART service schedule are available on the BART website.
