U.S. NEWS

As mass transit attempts to bounce back, San Francisco's BART lags other systems

Among major U.S. systems, New Jersey Transit has recovered the best from the pandemic, while Bay Area Rapid Transit riders have been the slowest to return.

June 23, 2023, 7:45 AM EDT
By David K. Li

Three years after Covid brought U.S. mass transit to a near halt, commuters in the country's urban hubs are slowly coming back — with one notable exception. ... At least seven of the nine largest mass transit systems in the country have bounced back to more than 50% of their pre-pandemic ridership, but Northern California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, lags the others. ...Last month’s BART traffic, at 3.9 million rides, was around 40% of the level from May 2019.

That's a slight improvement from the beginning of the year: BART in January serviced almost 36% of its January 2020 total, and February saw around 39% of its ridership from the same month in 2020, when just under 9 million customers used the system.

Compare that to New Jersey Transit, which appears to have recovered the best. The agency, which runs commuter trains and buses into New York City and light rail within New Jersey, carried 18.4 million passengers in May, representing 80% of the corresponding month in 2019, according to its data. ... In January and February, NJ Transit's ridership hovered between 71% and 73% of the same months in 2020.

BART's slow revival relative to other transit systems may be due, in part, to Bay Area tech employees continuing to work from home. Some former BART riders also cite concerns about crime and cleanliness, according to a poll from the Bay Area Council. ... "I think the main reason is that the Bay Area, and San Francisco in particular, continue to have some of the highest rates of remote and hybrid work among major urban areas in the U.S.," said Sebastian Petty, transportation policy manager for the nonprofit San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association. "Secondarily, there have been issues with public perception of cleanliness and safety."

{snip}