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BART to increase frequencies Monday-Saturday starting 6/7/21

On July 1, 2021 we announced will return to near-pre pandemic service on August 2 instead of August 30 as originally planned. 

On June 7th BART will double the number of 15-minute frequencies on weekdays and offer more trips on Saturdays. The BART Trip Planner has been updated and new PDF timetables have been posted in our schedule section.

While trips have been added to increase service, BART hours remain 5am-9pm on weekdays and 8am-9pm on weekends. Midnight service Monday-Saturday will return on August 2, 2021.

Weekday Improvements

BART will add 26 additional trips to the Monday-Friday schedule. The additional trips will serve our busiest lines: Yellow (Antioch-SFO), Green (Berryessa-Daly City), and Red (Richmond-Millbrae + SFO). Most of the added trips will be during the shoulders of the morning and evening commute periods where car occupancy data has demonstrated a need to increase service to help avoid crowding.

  • With these added trips, trains will run within Oakland and San Francisco 4-15 minutes apart during peak hours.
  • Some reverse commute, non-peak trips will be added to better serve all types of riders.
  • Seven new trips from SFO will be added on weekdays to support summer travel.

30-minute frequencies will remain on the Blue line (Dublin/Pleasanton-Daly City) until the August 30, 2021 schedule change.

Saturday Service Increase

Saturdays will get more frequent service with the addition of 16 trips added throughout the day.

  • Most added trips on the Yellow line will serve Pleasant Hill to Daly City only.
  • One additional trip has been added from SFO in the morning, and one has been added headed to SFO in the afternoon.

Saturday ridership has recovered at a faster rate than weekday ridership with Saturday, May 29, 2021, posting the highest Saturday ridership since the pandemic at 41,247, representing 29% of pre-pandemic Saturday ridership. Weekday ridership has now reached at 70,000, which is 17% of pre-pandemic weekday ridership.

BART will continue to run all long trains during all hours. BART will also reopen all entrances/exits that were closed at larger stations during the height of the pandemic by June 15th.

The current March 2021 service plan was developed and staffed during the winter virus surge when the vaccine roll-out was still unclear and BART was facing a fiscal emergency. At the time, staff built in the flexibility to add more trains into service during the summer months if ridership began to recover and before the fall schedule change. BART can't return to midnight service before August 30th because to extend hours, BART must hire additional train operators and station agents which requires several months of mandatory training.

BART will return to near pre-pandemic service starting August 2, 2021

Starting August 2, 2021, BART will expand service hours and significantly increase service:

  • Weekday service will be 5am-12am (currently 5am-9pm) with 15-min frequencies on all lines from 5am-8pm and 30-minute frequencies from 8pm-midnight.
  • Saturday service will be 6am-12am (currently 8am-9pm) with 5-line service offering more options for Saturday riders, and for the first time, offering four trains per hour on most lines.
  • Sunday service will remain 8am-9pm with 3-line service and 30-minute frequencies to accommodate BART’s critical cable replacement project and other infrastructure rebuilding work.

50% off in September

BART will offer a special promotion of 50% off all fares on Clipper for the entire month of September. The discount will apply to all fares on Clipper, including already discounted Clipper cards such as Youth, Senior, RTC, Clipper Start, and the Gator Pass.

*This article was originally published on May 27, 2021.