When the San Francisco Giant's won the World Series, fans took to the streets in uproarious celebration, though some got carried away in a boozy frenzy that led to burning mattresses, commandeering SFFD fire trucks and an ugly brawl at 22nd and Mission. Fortunately, when the city held the official parade and celebration on Wednesday, fans did something far more civil: they took public transportation to the Civic Center, in dramatic numbers.
BART announced that ridership was 522,200, obliterating the previous ridership record of 442,100 during the emergency closure of the Bay Bridge when an eyebar snapped unexpectedly last year.
"We are truly thankful for all the Bay Area residents who chose to ride BART to this historic event," BART Board President James Fang said in a statement. “I’m delighted that despite the huge crowds in the morning, we continued to shine in the area BART is best known for – and that’s being on-time."
Despite the crush of riders in the morning before the parade, which required police to temporarily close stations near Civic Center to allow crowds to exit, on-time performance exceeded 90 percent.
"[Wednesday] was not only a testament to the hard work of our employees, it also highlights the importance of the investment taxpayers made in this system decades ago and the faith our riders have in us today and hopefully for years to come," said Fang.
According to BART, the highest daily ridership on a sustained basis, without special circumstances or events, occurred in September 2008 when BART averaged about 380,000 customers per day. Since that time, ridership has dropped, which the agency attributed to the economic slump and the high unemployment that followed. In recent months, ridership numbers have rebounded and are now approaching 350,000 riders per average weekday. Despite the economic slump, BART says riders have set nearly all of the agency’s top ten ridership days in just the past two years.
Previous Ridership Records
- 442,100 - Oct. 29, 2009 - Emergency Bay Bridge closure
- 437,700 - Oct. 30, 2009 - Emergency Bay Bridge closure
- 437,200 - Oct. 28, 2009 - Emergency Bay Bridge closure
- 405,400 - Sept. 8, 2008 - Oakland Raiders, San Francisco Giants game
- 395,300 - Sept. 4, 2009 - Scheduled Bay Bridge closure; A's game
- 394,400 - June 19, 2008 - Spare The Air Day
- 393,200 - Nov. 2, 2009 - Bay Bridge reopened at 9 a.m. after closure
- 391,900 - April 9, 2008 - San Francisco Giants game; Olympic Torch run
- 390,600 - Sept. 25, 2008 - Oracle Open World; San Francisco Giants game
- 389,400 - Aug. 31, 2007 - Oakland A's; Beyonce concert; Bay Bridge closure
