The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) will return to near-regular service levels beginning Aug. 2, 2021.
The schedule change includes increased frequencies and extends closing times to midnight Mondays through Saturdays, along with a dramatic increase in direct trips to SFO on weekdays.
The new schedule is very similar to the one before the pandemic, but with some targeted service expansions. Some areas will not return to pre-pandemic levels, such as the extra commuter trains on the Antioch-SFO (Yellow) line during peak hours. Sunday service will continue to run at 30-minute frequencies and a 9:00 p.m. closure to accommodate BART’s critical cable replacement project and other infrastructure rebuilding work.
Schedule change details
Weekday service will be 5:00 a.m. to midnight, (previously ending at 9:00 p.m.) with five-line service and 15-min frequencies on all lines from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and three-line service with 30-minute frequencies from 8:00 p.m. to midnight.
Saturday service will be 6:00 a.m. to midnight (previously 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.) with five-line service from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and then three-line service from 8:00 p.m. to midnight. Saturday service has been designed to better meet the needs of the majority of riders.
BART is starting five-line service right when it opens, giving morning riders more options. Trains will be more evenly distributed to cut down on wait times and improve transfers. While a few sections such as Castro Valley to Dublin/Pleasanton and Pittsburg Center to Antioch are still at 30-minute frequencies, the rest of the system will have four or more trains per hour. For the first time ever, BART doubled the service on the Yellow line, providing 15-minute frequencies as far as Pittsburg-Bay Point until about 8:00 p.m.
Sunday service will remain 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with three-line service and 30-minute frequencies. However, the first trains of the morning begin earlier than before, offering trips beginning around 7:00 a.m.
The Yellow and Blue line trains will continue to run close together, instead of spaced apart, throughout San Francisco on Sundays to accommodate single tracking that will take place on select Sundays. During single tracking, the end of the Dublin-Daly City (Blue) line will now be 24th Street Mission. This is an improvement for downtown San Francisco riders during single tracking because the forced transfer is moving from Montgomery to 24th Street Mission. BART will improve Sunday service in February 2022.
BART is also rolling out an increase in direct service to SFO going from four trips per hour during peak hours to eight trips per hour, all serving downtown San Francisco and Oakland. BART’s system map has also been updated to eliminate the purple line shuttle between SFO and Millbrae. In March 2021, BART improved service to SFO and Millbrae by eliminating the need to transfer to the shuttle train. The Richmond-Millbrae + SFO (Red) line offers direct service to SFO via Millbrae during five-line service, and the Yellow line offers direct service to Millbrae via SFO during three-line service.
Long trains will continue to run during all hours for the time being, but at some yet-to-be determined point, BART will begin to make trains shorter during hours of lower ridership to right size the maintenance requirements driven by car operating hours.
The schedule change will result in BART trains being in service a combined 875 hours each weekday compared with only 498 in-service hours in mid-July. That’s an increase of 76 percent. On Saturdays, the change results in 514 combined in-service train hours compared with only 258 the previous month, a 99 percent increase.
The BART Trip Planner has been updated with the new schedule and riders can start planning their trips starting Aug. 2, and beyond. PDF timetables specific to each line have also been posted online.
BART was able to advance the major schedule change four weeks early by working collaboratively with labor partners to accelerate the hiring, training and shift sign-up process.
The service increase is part of BART’s Welcome Back Plan outlining its efforts to better serve the Bay Area and help people get to work, school, appointments and fun destinations across the region.
