Ridership on BART surged sharply over the weekend as a closure of a key stretch of eastbound Interstate 80 in San Francisco and sunny weather prompted thousands of people to turn to trains as an alternative to driving, according to the transit agency.
In a statement Monday, BART officials said the agency recorded 182,570 trips on Friday, a 16% increase from the previous Friday and nearly 25,000 additional riders. Ridership rose further over the weekend, reaching 139,700 trips Saturday and 98,850 trips Sunday — both up 46% from the prior weekend’s totals.
Transit officials said the gains reflected both strong weather conditions and the closure of eastbound I-80 between 17th and Fourth streets, where crews carried out major repair work on nearly 2 miles of freeway.
The highway segment reopened late Sunday night, about seven hours earlier than scheduled after crews completed the work ahead of plan, according to Caltrans. Crews also repaired the Fourth Street off-ramp during the same closure, avoiding the need for a separate future shutdown.
BART officials said the weekend surge showed the rail system’s role as a key transportation backup when major roadways are unavailable, and said the system handled the increased demand while operating its standard five-line weekend service.
Ridership across the network is also trending upward overall, according to BART. Trips so far in April are running about 10% higher than a year ago. In March, the transit system recorded its highest monthly ridership since 2019 and average weekday ridership topped 200,000 for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, though still well below the roughly 410,000 weekday trips seen before 2020.