100 million passengers and counting in fiscal year 2007
BART carried its 100 millionth passenger of Fiscal Year 2007 on Monday, June 25, 2007, establishing yet another benchmark in a banner year of ridership. One of BART's 342,300 riders Monday pushed the transit agency into nine digit territory (BART number crunchers put the tally from July 1, 2006 to June 25, 2007 at 100,128,800). It's the first time BART has carried 100 million passengers in a fiscal year. The previous record of about 97 million was in FY 2001.
The milestone came just one day after BART set yet another record: the highest passenger total for a Sunday (see table). Earlier in June, BART set a record for weekday ridership, breaking a record set just six weeks before.
"100 million ? it's a number that just rolls off the tongue," said BART Board President Lynette Sweet. "But the true meaning of 100 million is that it shows just how significant BART is to the region's transportation system. BART keeps the Bay Area moving, and that's important to the economy and the environment."
BART Directors voted last week to pour the money from the faregates back into the system: they approved a $627.4 million budget that calls for cleaner trains, doubling the number of trains on the SFO/Millbrae extension, and if state legislators come through with funding, improved Monday through Saturday night and Sunday service.
BART currently carries nearly 350,000 riders each weekday.
On June 4, BART celebrated its 50th anniversary of the day the State Legislature and the Governor created the BART District. On September 11, BART will celebrate its 35th year of train service.
BART'S BANNER YEAR
- June 26: surpasses 100M passengers for FY ?07
- June 25: sets Sunday record: 195,700 riders
- June 13: sets weekday record: 381,200 riders
- April 30 to May 6: sets weekly record: 2,133,000 riders
100 million people means:
- 2,300 AT&T Parks filled to capacity
- 250 times the population of Oakland
- Nearly double the number of people who used all three Bay Area airports combined in FY 2005