BART considering expanding services for new line, late night trains by 2030

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A new vision for BART could soon be on the way by 2030 and the changes would include adding a new line and more late night trains.

BART says whether those changes happen will depend largely on the public's interest.

"I ride BART every day," said Jesse Lugo from San Leandro.

Lugo's commute starts at the Bay Fair BART station in San Leandro and ends in San Francisco where he catches a bus downtown to get to his shipyard job.

"I work every shift," Lugo said, "Days, graveyard, swing."

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He said the same goes for his coworkers.

For the next couple of weeks, BART is looking to hear from people like Lugo.

They just released a survey called "BART Metro: 2030 and Beyond".

It asks people if they would take BART more if they added a sixth line and if they added trains after 9 p.m.

The two options would expand East Bay service during daylight and early evening hours and expand evening service in the core of its system.

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"What happens during all seven days now, is we go from a five-line service during the day (then) the early evening at 9 p.m., it goes to three lines service," said BART Spokesperson Chris Filippi, "So one of the interesting possibilities here is a chance to expand that evening service and to have more Transbay trips."

Filippi says in order to do that, they would look at adding a portion of the red line from Richmond to Daly City that would continue past 9 p.m. and also a portion of the green line from Bay Fair to Daly City.

"That would be a big thing for folks that work swing shift," Filippi said, "That's something that we've seen during the pandemic, especially for folks going to downtown San Francisco and downtown Oakland, working at bars and restaurants."

BART is still working to recover ridership following the pandemic. October of 2022's ridership was at 40% of pre-COVID expectations.

With that in mind, ABC7 asked where the funding for any potential service expansions would come from.

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BART says they're looking at different options but that nothing has been finalized yet.

"A key part of getting that funding is having a clear roadmap and knowing what our riders want us to do," Filippi said, "So this (survey) is an important step in that process. When we talk to lawmakers, this is something that they want to hear, they want to know that our riders are on board with this."

The public has until Nov. 23 to take the survey.

For more information and to take the survey, click here.

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