Bay Area Rapid Transit celebrated Pride last weekend with record ridership since the pandemic. Sunday, more than 130,000 passengers rode the trains– 14,000 more than projected.
While this is great news for BART in 2022, it is still around 100,000 less riders than the previous Pride Parade in June 2019.
BART has been struggling to return to pre-pandemic numbers. According to Jim Allison, BART’s media relations manager, weekday ridership is at 30-35 percent of pre-pandemic levels, while weekend ridership is at 50-60 percent.
Last weekend, riders enjoyed special event trains to and from the parade. To avoid long waits at the turnstiles, Clipper waived the three-dollar new-card fee for riders who added a time-saving mobile option.
Since before the pandemic, the record for BART ridership still belongs to last Monday's Warriors Championship Parade, when almost 200,000 people rode trains to the celebration in downtown San Francisco.