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Lessons of 2010 help BART plan extra service for 2012 Giants parade

BART’s highest-ridership day ever was the 2010 Giant’s World Series victory parade with 522,198 riders. Now it’s 2012 and the Giants are World Series champions again. This time the parade comes on a day that would typically have high ridership already – Oct. 31, Halloween, when many people take BART for parties and other celebrations. And ridership in general is way higher than two years ago.

BART is fine-tuning its operations with lessons learned from 2010, and is urging customers to do the same, so the day goes as smoothly as possible. BART will be running rush hour service all day utilizing every available train. Trains to and from the city will be at maximum length and frequency. Watch a video about BART's game plan from General Manager Grace Crunican.

In 2010 BART called in extra administrative workers on parade day to help out with managing crowds, which will be repeated this year. Another issue in 2010 was parking filling up very early.  BART is urging people to get to stations without needing to park if possible, such as by taking connecting transit,walking or getting dropped off. Parking rules will be enforced, and BART Police are adjusting the deployment of parking enforcement officers to address locations where there were problems last time around.

Ticket vending machines are served and ready to go.  In addition, we analyzed data and determined the need for ticket sale tables at Dublin/Pleasanton, Fremont, and Millbrae stations.  These tables will supplement our ticket vending machines and are cash only.  These supplemental ticket sales tables will begin operations at 7:00 am and end at 11:00 am at the three stations.

BART is taking every opportunity to hammer home some key points to riders:

  •   Buy roundtrip tickets in advance or use a Clipper card to avoid lines;
  •  Get there early; allow LOTS of extra time in case of slowdowns from crowding;
  •  Get there even EARLIER if you need to park; lots will fill up very early and parking rules will be enforced. Better yet, get dropped off, walk, bike or take connecting transit;
  • Only buy tickets from authorized sources. Don't get scammed into buying an empty ticket;
  •  Be patient and courteous with your fellow riders and everyone will have a better experience;
  •  Remember that BART will put safety first no matter what – even if it creates an inconvenience such as metering entrances and exits to stations if necessary for safe conditions;
  •  If you stay in the city to celebrate the Giants and/or Halloween, remember, BART closes at the regular time; know your last train.

We want our passengers to know that all hands will be on deck and every available train will be deployed. 

BART congratulates the Giants and urges everyone to celebrate safely. To keep up with the latest news about BART service, sign up to receive service advisories at www.bart.gov/alerts.