BART and AC Transit’s New Schedules and Changes Start This Week. Check If Your Route’s Affected

Bay Area commuters: big changes are coming your way.

On Aug. 10, AC Transit will begin the so-called “realign” you might have seen signs on buses about: adding 14 new bus lines and updating dozens of existing routes.

The very next day, BART will also be making its own — if smaller — changes, with all five train lines getting slight updates to their timetables.

Both transit agencies say they’re making the changes to better serve riders and adapt to a post-pandemic reality. While AC Transit ridership is now back at 85% of what it was before the pandemic, the agency still faces a $41.5 million budget shortfall. While BART is also facing its own financial challenges, the network’s scheduling changes are apparently intended to help improve the transfer process for commuters who hop between multiple transit agencies to make their journeys.

“With fewer people riding the bus, you’ve got fewer people paying at the fare box,” AC Transit spokesperson Robert Lyles told KQED. “As a result, we need to go back and look at how we can make the system better respond to where people are riding— and how they are riding.”

Keep reading for what to know about these upcoming changes in the Bay Area’s biggest public transit systems.

BART: The new schedule changes

The headline: All five BART lines will see changes to both their weekday and weekend schedules. For example, if you are used to taking the orange line at Berryessa Station on weekdays at 7:16 a.m., that train will now be leaving at 8:21 a.m.

BART is still updating its Trip Planner tool to include these changes, so remember: if you visit that website before Aug. 11, you’ll get travel information that will soon be outdated. But another option is to review the upcoming “Aug. 11 and beyond” timetable for the routes you usually take:

Yellow Line: Antioch to SFO

• Weekday schedule
• Weekend schedule

Green Line: Berryessa/North San José to Daly City

• Weekday schedule
• Weekend schedule
  

Orange Line: Berryessa/North San José to Richmond

• Weekday schedule
• Weekend schedule
  

Blue Line: Dublin/Pleasanton to Daly City

• Weekday schedule
• Weekend schedule
  

Red Line: Richmond to Millbrae

• Weekday schedule
• Weekend schedule

AC Transit: The bus lines being added, rerouted and cut

More than 100 existing AC Transit bus lines all over the East Bay will see changes to their schedules and routes starting Aug. 10.

There are some lines, however, that are not seeing any changes at all, including the 1T.

Check if your line will be affected on AC Transit’s dashboard.

While some of these planned changes impact scheduling (the All Nighter 801 line, for example, will now run every 60 minutes), other lines are seeing their routes redrawn to reach more locations. There will also be 14 new lines, some of which are variations of formerly existing routes: 9, 22, 27, 30, 31, 72L, 211, 231, 281, 627, 633, 639, 678 and 689.

AC Transit has also decided to eliminate dozens of routes, pointing to low ridership and shifting ridership needs after the pandemic. These lines are: 10, 20, 21, 29, 33, 39, 46, 47, 72R, 79, 80, 83, 94, 99, 212, 215, 217, 232, 314, 339, 356, 376, 626, 628, 671, 672, 676, as well as lines B, BF3, C, CB, H, LA, M, NX1, NX2, NX4, NXC, OX, S, SB and Z.

This story includes reporting from KQED’s Nibras Suliman.