BART breaks post-pandemic ridership record

BART set a new post-pandemic ridership record Thursday with 224,721 exits, the highest number since March of 2020.

It was the third day in a row that BART ridership topped 200,000 exits. Ten of the top ten ridership days since the pandemic occurred in September, with weekday ridership remaining robust since Labor Day. 

"While our ridership numbers have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, these high ridership days are proof that our work to improve the rider experience with the Safe & Clean Plan and other efforts are paying off," said BART General Manager Bob Powers. 

This month, ridership was boosted by the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, the final A’s home games, and concerts and community events, including BARTable partner events like Oakland Pride and the Lafayette Art & Wine Festival. 

At the same time, the latest numbers from BART Police show that the number of trains impacted by unwanted behavior has declined since the department boosted the amount of visible safety staff on trains and in stations. Through July of this year, we have seen both violent and property crime down on the system year over year. Overall crime is down 13% even as we’ve experienced this uptick in ridership.