Starting Sept. 11, BART will roll out a new train schedule that slightly reduces the frequency of trains during weekdays but increases the frequency of trains on weekends and evenings so that “no BART rider will wait more than 20 minutes for a scheduled train no matter what hour of the day or day of the week,” according to the transit agency.
The new schedule, for example, will reduce the frequency of trains during the daytime on the West Oakland-Daly City line from 16 trains per hour to 15 trains, which will have trains coming every 4 minutes rather than the every 3.5 minutes. On that same route, the new schedule increases the frequency of trains on weekends from 10 trains per hour on Saturdays and eight trains per hour on Sundays to 12 trains per hour on both days, reducing frequency of trains from every 7.5 to 10 minutes to every five minutes.
See the maps below to see how all lines will be impacted in terms of trains per hour and wait times for trains.
BART said it scaled back weekday service to improve service on nights and weekends. The new schedule will end 30-minute frequencies throughout the system on nights and weekends, according to the agency.
The new schedule significantly increases service daily on the Yellow Line from Antioch to San Francisco, which has the highest ridership but is only served by one line, according to BART.
Also, the new schedule will improve service to and from the airports, with nine trains serving SFO per hour instead of eight trains per hour during the day, and trains arriving and departing every 20 minutes on nights and the weekends instead of every 30 minutes.
BART also said the new service plan will improve on-time performance and reliability during peak commute hours, since there will be less train traffic and congestion through the core of its systems.
“Trains won’t stack up as frequently as they will be better spaced apart, allowing us to recover from delays faster,” the agency said.
Changes in Frequencies
The maps below display the changes to the number of trains per hour for each line for weekday daytime 5-line service, weekend 5-line service, and evening 3-line service.