Bay Area transit officials, including BART and Muni bosses, will host a Bring-Your-Own-Booze happy hour aboard a Caltrain on Friday evening to celebrate Transit Month 2023.
“All Aboard with Transit CEOs” is a ride-along and social event giving the public a chance to ride with and meet regional transit leaders aboard the 5:19 p.m. Caltrain #709 service.
The event will let transit leaders call for ongoing financial support for transit operations and showcase interagency coordination to improve Bay Area rider experiences.
The public is invited to meet the following transit leaders from 5 p.m. at the Palo Alto Caltrain Station/Transit Center:
- SamTrans (April Chan),
- Caltrain (Michelle Bouchard),
- Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (Carolyn Gonot),
- San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Jeff Tumlin),
- BART (Bob Powers),
- Water Emergency Transportation Authority/SF Bay Ferry (Seamus Murphy),
- County Connection (Bill Churchill),
- Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority/Wheels (Christy Wegener).
This event is a great opportunity for the public to chat with CEOs about transit service and transit career opportunities, a press release states.
BART General Manager Bob Powers and County Connection General Manager Bill Churchill will ride together from 19th Street Station on BART’s Red Line to Millbrae at 2:57 p.m. and transfer to Caltrain at 4:02 p.m.
SamTrans CEO April Chan will ride the El Camino Real (ECR) bus leaving San Carlos Avenue and El Camino Street at 4 p.m.
Caltrain Executive Director Michelle Bouchard will ride Caltrain #410 leaving San Carlos Station at 4:48 p.m.
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority CEO Carolyn Gonot will ride the VTA Blue Line from River Oaks Station leaving at 3:45 p.m., changing trains at the Baypointe Station to the 4 p.m. Orange Line to Mountain View before boarding Caltrain #309 departing Mountain View at 4:40 p.m.
BART Ridership Climbing?
BART announced its highest ridership totals since the pandemic on Wednesday.
San Francisco’s Dreamforce 2023 at the Moscone Center on Sept. 12 and 13 was the best days for ridership since the pandemic, posting 192,081 and 192,961 riders, for an estimated total of 45% of pre-pandemic ridership.
August’s BART ridership was 42% of pre-Covid numbers, with a total monthly ridership of 4.5 million.
Yesterday's ridership was 191,442. Third highest weekday since the beginning of the pandemic.
— BART (@SFBART) September 27, 2023
The number 1 & 2 spots are from earlier this month during Dreamforce.
Our new schedule improves service with shorter wait times for evening events like last night’s @SFGiants game.
BART recently shifted to running shorter trains to boost network safety, but riders have not been shy about voicing their feelings about their experiences in recent weeks.
Additional changes lie ahead for the system, with preparations for new fare gates to debut in the summer of 2025, with initial installation at the West Oakland station by December, as well as credit-card payment systems next year.