BART on Tuesday posted the highest ridership numbers since the pandemic began as passengers continue to return amid the ease of pandemic restrictions.
The transit agency has announced a new plan to lure even more riders back: cut fares in half.
For the month of September only, BART riders will get half their fare reduced when they swipe their Clipper cards, as part of a one-time promotion aimed at bringing back passengers.
On April 7, the agency reported that more than 65,000 people took BART, the highest daily ridership number since March 2020. But that compares to the over 400,000 riders pre-pandemic.
BART Spokesperson Alicia Trost told KCBS Radio that officials are slowly ramping up service to meet demand.
"We see that traffic is starting to back up, so this is a real critical time," Trost said. "We need to start adding trains into service as people trickle back so that we can show the region that we’re ready."
BART will be adding more trains during the first two weeks of June, with 26 new weekday trips and 15 new trips on Saturdays. BART's current budget projects that ridership will remain about half of pre-pandemic levels in 2022.
Related
