BART trains have felt more congested in recent weeks as the Bay Area transit service changed the number of trains it runs.
Scott Strazzante/The ChronicleYou can see it and feel it while riding Muni’s 49 buses or during weekday morning trips on BART’s Blue Line trains to San Francisco.
Lots of people seem to be taking transit again.
The standing-room only, shoulder-to-shoulder crowds seen riding the region’s two largest transit operators in past months contrast the ghostly sights of near-empty train cars and buses during the height of the pandemic.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Neither Muni nor BART have fully recovered the ridership they lost after stay-at-home orders, almost four years ago, dropped their use to all-time lows. Nor do the agencies expect to reach that milestone anytime soon, given the enduring prevalence of hybrid and tele-work in the Bay Area that have siphoned off office commuters.
Rather, the overcrowding on Muni and BART is more the product of post-pandemic commute patterns that have settled, and, in BART’s case, the strategies transit officials are employing to retain and attract more riders.
Commuters at the Powell Street BART station work to board a train in San Francisco. Trains have felt more congested in recent weeks.
Scott Strazzante/The ChronicleMuni is among the transit systems in the region closest to recovering its ridership from 2019, when its buses and light-rail trains carried roughly 700,000 passengers on weekdays. San Francisco’s flagship transit network had recovered almost 70% of its pre-pandemic ridership as of September — though the recovery has not been even across all Muni lines.
Muni Metro rail lines oriented toward connecting people to Market Street from outer neighborhoods and bus routes that traverse downtown, once overwhelmed with riders, remain some of Muni’s lowest ridership lines. These days, you’re most likely to see crowded buses on crosstown routes like the 24, 22, 49 and 29 buses that either don’t serve downtown or are popular among students.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Perpetually packed lines such as the 22-Fillmore and 49-Van Ness are among 10 routes that have emerged more popular than they were before the pandemic. The two lines are also believed to have “the highest rate of ridership recovery in the country,” according to Jeffrey Tumlin, director of the Municipal Transportation Agency that operates Muni.
The agency stopped restoring pre-pandemic Muni service earlier this year, citing projected massive budget shortfalls later this decade. Transit officials, instead, are reducing frequencies on lower ridership lines to run more buses and address overcrowding on Muni’s best-performing lines.
Commuters wait for a Muni bus on Market Street in San Francisco. Some Muni lines have ridership numbers at or higher than 2019 levels.
Scott Strazzante/The ChronicleIn January, for example, Muni will run more weekday buses on the 24, 29, 38R, 44, 48 and 49 lines that will be taken from less-crowded routes like the 5-Fulton and 9-San Bruno buses. The transportation agency is operating 121% of pre-COVID service on the L-shaped 22-Fillmore route that’s recovered about 110% of its 2019 weekday ridership “just to keep up with demand,” Tumlin said.
“Headway management,” in which bus operators coordinate running their routes in timed intervals, has also helped make Muni transit more reliable than before the pandemic, Tumlin said.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
The strategy saves BART, which has recovered 45% of its 2019 ridership, roughly $12 million annually in power costs. But the change is aimed primarily at making riders feel safer on trains.
The reasoning: People are less likely to commit crimes or antisocial behavior, such as using drugs, if train cars have more bystanders in them.
The agency says the shorter trains, paired with more patrolling police officers, has so far made an impact in reducing crime while improving reliability. The number of trains delayed by BART police responding to incidents dropped by 40% in October compared to May, when the agency operated 10-car trains.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
While BART trains have felt more packed lately, ridership numbers haven’t changed too much.
Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle“We are seeing in the data that the strategy’s working, and that the riders are accepting it and liking it,” said Alicia Trost, BART’s chief communications officer.
BART, in recent weeks, started running lengthier trains on the Blue Line to Dublin/Pleasanton and Red Line to Richmond during morning and afternoon commute hours to address overcrowding during morning commute hours.
The most crowded trains in BART’s Blue Line saw an increase in the number of passengers per car with shorter trains — from 64 people to 120, according to BART’s crowding data. Still, that figure remains far below the passenger loads from 2019, when BART’s busiest trains had 180 people inside each train car.
“Things were so empty for so long at BART. Now that we’re running shorter trains, there’s just more people per car, and some people define that as crowded, when in fact they’re nowhere near crowded and there’s plenty of standing room,” Trost said. “It definitely means that you may not be getting a seat, especially if you ride in the center core of the system, but there’s (still) plenty of space to spread out.”
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Reach Ricardo Cano: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @ByRicardoCano
"crowded" - Google News
November 22, 2023 at 07:01PM
https://ift.tt/uElH69V
BART and Muni are crowded again. Is Bay Area transit ridership back? - San Francisco Chronicle
"crowded" - Google News
https://ift.tt/1ysMXQd
https://ift.tt/tWU7PK2
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "BART and Muni are crowded again. Is Bay Area transit ridership back? - San Francisco Chronicle"
Post a Comment