VIDEO: Ride along on empty BART train as it heads to San Francisco amid coronavirus pandemic
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- With all of California in a shelter-in-place order, public transit ridership has been way down.
In fact, there has actually been BART trains and Muni buses seen with only a driver on board.
We went to see what exactly does the silence look and sound like.
RELATED: DRONEVIEW7: Video of empty San Francisco streets after coronavirus shelter-in-place order
ABC7 News South Bay Community Journalist Dustin Dorsey boarded BART at the Millbrae Station and took about an hour round-trip into the city and back.
This is what he saw:
From the very first stop, I knew that I wasn't going to see a lot of people.
In Millbrae, the southern-most stop on the west side of the Bay, there was not a single other passenger boarding with me just before noon.
I boarded the empty train and took it to San Bruno.
From there I got off to see the station once again without anyone else around.
It wasn't until I got back on the next train when I saw my first fellow passenger in the car next to mine.
The car I was on was still empty.
This trend continued throughout my ride.
In total, I may have seen 15 total passengers as I hopped in and out of trains.
Most of these people were going to the San Francisco International Airport and many had masks.
This was not a commute time nor some of the busier stations, but you still expect to see someone around.
It was eerie.
It's also the new reality.
As journalists, we use words to tell our stories.
But right now, the images are the strongest form of story-telling.
We may never see these images of emptiness again and for the sake of health and safety, we hope we never will.
Go here for the latest news, information and videos about the novel coronavirus.
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