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BART ridership continues to grow, with notable gains on weekends as Saturday ridership this September was nearly 20% higher compared to the previous year. More than 5 million trips were taken on BART in September, exceeding expected trips by 5%. Overall, ridership saw a nearly 10% increase over the same month last year.

The increase in ridership on the weekends, especially Saturdays, demonstrates that people are taking BART for purposes beyond getting to the office. For example, the Japan v. Mexico soccer match on Saturday, September 6, drew 23,000 trips to Coliseum Station, the third-highest ridership day for the station since the pandemic. In fact, ridership for the match was nearly a third higher than the average Saturday ridership for A’s games in 2019.

Ridership growth is only part of the solution to BART’s significant financial crisis. To close BART’s $375 million deficit with only fare revenue, current ridership levels would need to more than double; BART’s latest budget forecast estimates a 4% ridership increase in 2026.

BART’s slow and steady ridership recovery correlates with work from home rates in the region. While individual riders are returning to BART, they’re taking fewer trips, likely due to remote and hybrid work schedules.

September ridership highlights at a glance:

• September ridership was 10% higher compared to previous year (5,047,000 total trips).
• Saturdays in September of this year grew 20% over a year ago.
• Highest ridership day: Wednesday, September 10 (220,073).
• BayPass, the region’s all-in-one transit pass, ridership more than doubled over last September, driven primarily by UC Berkeley students voting to expand the program to the entire study body of ~45,000. The BayPass referendum was approved with 90% “yes” votes. Ridership growth at Downtown Berkeley Station has outpaced systemwide growth since the start of the Fall 2025 semester.
• Tap and Ride usage accounted for approx. 8% of total trips on weekdays and 12% on weekends. SFO Station accounts for nearly 30% of all Tap and Ride trips. Tap and Ride gives riders the ability to pay adult fares at BART fare gates using physical contactless credit or debit cards or mobile payment methods, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Usage of Clipper START, the region’s low-income discount fare program, is at an all-time high and accounted for 3.4% of total trips in September. BART has more Clipper START rides than any other agency.

Additional ridership information is publicly available and posted monthly at bart.gov/about/reports/ridership.

The latest BART Sustainability Report, presented to the BART Board of Directors in June, outlines our agency’s ongoing implementation of sustainability initiatives that improve the rider experience while reinforcing our commitment to environmental stewardship, community investment, and regional resiliency. Find the full report here.

“Taking BART even once a month is a small gift you can give to the environment and your community,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “Despite the financial challenges that lie ahead, BART is approaching the coming decades with optimism and excitement. We can’t afford to lose transit—it is essential for a sustainable, connected Bay Area.”

The report finds that 86% of BART’s contracted electricity in 2024 came from greenhouse gas–free sources, sourced primarily from renewable energy. On average, taking BART instead of driving saves 25.1 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

Highlights from the report include:

• Green Energy & Infrastructure: BART installed more LED lighting at stations and parking lots and continued escalator modernization projects that use sustainable materials and energy-efficient designs.
• Seismic Safety: BART completed its multi-year Earthquake Safety Program, retrofitting core infrastructure like the Transbay Tube to ensure the system can withstand and recover quickly from major quakes.
• EV Expansion: BART secured more than $24 million in grants to expand electric vehicle charging across its stations, making EV access easier for riders and nearby residents.
• Transit-Oriented Development: Casa Sueños, a new Transit-Oriented Development at Fruitvale Station, added 179 units and 6,000 square feet of retail space, reinforcing BART’s mission to connect residents to jobs, schools, and services while reducing car dependency.
• Community Engagement: Employees launched the BART Green Team, which organizes tree plantings and shoreline cleanups, and hosted a fashion show featuring creations by local students using retired BART paper tickets.

The full 2024 Sustainability Report, including performance metrics and case studies, is available at bart.gov/sustainability.

BART has completed the installation work on a milestone project that is already making the system safer. Next Generation Fare Gates are now in place at all 50 BART stations. BART promised to complete installation by the end of 2025 but beat that deadline by four months with the final gates being installed in August.

“This is the latest in a string of victories for riders that are transforming the daily BART experience,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “Since last year we have boosted our visible safety presence in the system, increased cleaning, gone to running only Fleet of the Future trains, became the first transit agency in the Bay Area to offer riders Tap and Ride, and now we have installed state-of-the-art fare gates that are already deterring unwanted behavior. Our riders say they want a system that is safe, clean, and user friendly, and we are responding with decisive actions.”

The number of riders who say they’ve witnessed someone fare evade on their trip has dropped by more than 50% in just the last year. In the latest Quarterly Performance Report, only 10% of riders said they saw someone fare evade. That’s down from 22% in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2025. Reports of fare evasion have been dwindling as Next Generation Fare Gates have been installed at more stations.

“The completion of the Next Generation Fare Gates project marks a major step forward in modernizing our system and enhancing the rider experience,” said BART Board Vice President Melissa Hernandez. “These new gates improve accessibility, safety, and efficiency, and reflect BART’s commitment to investing in the future of public transit across the Bay Area.”

The gates feature a unique door locking mechanism that makes their swing barriers very hard to push through, jump over, or maneuver under. The overall fare gate array height (gate, console, integrated barrier) forms a barrier of 72 inches minimum to deter fare evasion.

“The gates deployed by BART are the only ones of their kind in the world,” said Sylvia Lamb, BART Assistant General Manager for Infrastructure Delivery and head of the fare gates project “Our team did incredible work to beat the installation deadline by several months. Now we will benefit from lesson learned over the last year through the experiences of hundreds of thousands of riders to focus on making these gates even more resilient.”

Upcoming work will focus on the full utilization of advanced sensors to make it harder for those who want to “piggyback” into the system by closely following behind paying riders.

BART replaced 715 fare gates across a system that spans five counties.