BART will begin offering service on all five of the system's lines Sunday for the first time in the transit agency's history.
Previously, BART offered Sunday service on just three lines between Millbrae and Antioch, Daly City and Dublin/Pleasanton and Richmond and North San Jose.
The three-line schedule led to more transfers as riders in Richmond, Berkeley and the South Bay did not have a direct connection to San Francisco as they do when BART trains run on all five lines.
According to BART's ridership data, 82 percent of Sunday riders complete their trip without needing to transfer on the three-line schedule. With the five-line schedule, that will increase to 97 percent, according to the transit agency.
BART will also resume operating through midnight on Sundays for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Since March 2020, the transit agency's system closed at 9 p.m. to facilitate work on track infrastructure projects.
With the scheduling change, BART will now run through midnight seven days a week and from 8 a.m. to midnight on Sundays. On each day, BART will operate three-line service from 9 p.m. to midnight.
The schedule changes reflect BART's effort to attract riders back to the system by returning service to its pre-pandemic schedule. To date, ridership has not rebounded as the agency has hoped, with weekday ridership hovering between 25 and 30 percent of pre-pandemic expectations.
Local
BART plans to run three-line service on a dozen Sundays throughout the year as the transit agency replaces power cables in San Francisco between the 24th Street Mission and Daly City stations.
The list of Sundays with three-line schedules as well as single-tracking between the two stations can be found at bart.gov.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
