BART sees highest ridership numbers so far this year

BART ridership hits highest number of 2023

BART hit its highest number of passengers of 2023 on Wednesday. James Torrez reports

LAFAYETTE, Calif. - BART's ridership is going up, though it is still short of pre-pandemic levels.

But BART Board Director Rebecca Saltzman reported that Wednesday saw 174,337 passengers – the second highest number since last September.

The number of riders was even higher on Thursday – 1790,000 passengers. Thousands headed to San Francisco for 4/20 events, a Giants game in Oracle Park and the Warriors playoffs game at Chase Center.

That's good news for an agency struggling to maintain revenue. The average daily ridership in March was 126,000.

But even that number, is still only about 42% of pre-pandemic levels.

"We're hoping these past two days are a trend we see through May," BART spokesman Jim Allison said. "But we know in June and July sometimes the ridership dips because of school vacations and people taking time off of work."