BART Launches a New Schedule Monday. Here’s What’s Different and Why
If you know your BART train’s arrival time down to the minute, check it again. On Monday, almost all of them are moving.
BART rolls out a new systemwide schedule Aug. 10, shifting most departures by a few minutes — and, the agency said, cutting wait times and easing crowding across the network. Alicia Trost, BART’s chief communications officer, said riders should look up their trip in advance.
“Make sure you know if your train has been moved by a minute or two, because you’re going to be frustrated,” Trost said.
The agency said nearly all of the timetable changes trace back to Daly City Station. It sits next to a BART yard, and trains heading out of service have to cross a tangle of track switches to reach it, holding up trains still carrying riders. Trost said BART made changes so that no longer happens.
Starting Monday, Daly City becomes a center platform station like Embarcadero or Montgomery. All San Francisco-bound trains leave from one platform. Platform 3 becomes exit-only, where Blue and Green Line trains unload before heading to the yard.
Center platforms are the easiest to use, Trost said, because riders don’t have to figure out whether they’re on the right side.
If you’re on a Blue or Green line train headed to San Francisco International Airport, BART advises switching to a Red or Yellow line train at Balboa Park, where the transfer happens on the same platform. Transferring at Daly City now means changing platforms.
Here’s what changes Monday:
- Richmond-bound from San Francisco: Yellow and Red line trains spaced an even 10 minutes apart, instead of 5 and 15 minutes
- Dublin- and Berryessa-bound: Gaps for the Green and Blue lines narrow from three and 17 minutes to eight and 12 minutes
- Bay Fair: Dublin riders headed to San José transfer across the platform to a waiting train, down from a 19-minute wait
- MacArthur: Antioch riders headed toward Berkeley, El Cerrito or Richmond get a 4-minute connection, saving 17 minutes
- Pittsburg: Better-timed connections to and from the BART-to-Antioch shuttle
- SFO: Red and Yellow line trains no longer sit at the platform together, easing confusion over which leaves first
- Millbrae: Some Caltrain connections shift, and BART has posted a new transfer timetable
For Richmond-bound riders, the 10-minute spacing means taking the direct Red line or catching a Yellow line train and transferring at 19th Street. Trost said the MacArthur transfer is built with enough room to walk down the stairs and back up without running, and tied the new Bay Fair connection to growing demand from the Tri-Valley.
BART is framing all of this as improvement without new spending. The agency is heading toward a fiscal cliff, as emergency funding that carried it through the pandemic runs out this fiscal year.
Fares that once covered roughly 70% of BART’s operating budget now cover a fraction of that, though BART has seen some recent ridership recovery.
A regional sales tax measure to fund BART, Muni, Caltrain and AC Transit qualified for the November ballot in May.
“That is why, in order to do better, we have to find a way to save money somewhere else or to just do things more efficiently with what we have,” Trost said.
The schedule absorbs the 10-car trains BART added July 20 during peak hours, with shorter, six- and eight-car trains off-peak to keep costs flat. It also accommodates late-night construction between Daly City and Millbrae, where crews are replacing the train-control system. Expect delays through that stretch after 9 p.m., Sunday through Thursday.
KQED’s Katherine Monahan contributed to this report.