46 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

Here is the BART Coronavirus web page.  They have an interesting chart detailing the lower ridership by day.

[CNJRoss]

I like the proposed 'individual personal strap' demonstrated by BART GM Bob Howard.

 

Video

 

-Ross

[CNJRoss]

Updated at 2:20pm March 16, 2020

BART continues regular service during shelter in place

 

 

Today’s shelter in place emergency order from local counties considers BART as an essential business.

 

BART will continue to provide regular service for riders performing essential activities and for riders travelling to and from “essential business” work, with long enough trains to allow for social distancing. Based on ridership levels last week and over the weekend, social distancing is happening on BART.  Last week BART served 24%-61% fewer riders depending on the day of the week. There is enough space for riders to remain 6 feet from each other.  Increased cleaning and disinfecting are continuing in stations and trains.

The order provides the following guidelines specific to transit:

• BART, along with other essential businesses, is “strongly encouraged to remain open.”
• To the greatest extent feasible, BART should allow for Social Distancing of at least six feet from any other person including, but not limited to, when any customers are standing in line.
• People must use public transit only for purposes of performing Essential Activities or to travel to and from work to operate Essential Businesses or maintain Essential Governmental Functions and Essential Infrastructure operations and maintenance. People riding on public transit must comply with Social Distancing Requirements, to the greatest extent feasible. The shelter in place order defines each of those categories.

 

Essential travel also includes travel:

• to obtain necessary services or supplies for themselves and their family or household members.
• to engage in activities or perform tasks essential to their health and safety, or to the health and safety of their family or household members.
• to care for elderly, minors, dependents, persons with disabilities, or other vulnerable persons.
• to or from educational institutions for purposes of receiving materials for distance learning, for receiving meals, and any other related services.
• to return to a place of residence from outside the jurisdiction.
• required by law enforcement or court order.
• required for non-residents to return to their place of residence outside the County.

 

BART staff and frontline workers continue to deliver safe BART service.  BART staff is being provided the tools they need to perform their job safely including hand sanitizer, germicidal wipes, face masks for positions that require them, and other personal protective equipment.  We offer an Employee Assistance Program with resources that can assist with child/elder care referrals, financial consultation and counseling with a licensed mental health clinician.

 

[CNJRoss]

KNTV San Jose, CA 3/16/20
 

BART Service to Continue During Shelter-in-Place Order

 

Riders will have room to follow social distancing guidelines.

 

 

BART will continue regular service during a shelter-in-place order across the Bay Area to mitigate the spread of novel coronavirus, the transit agency announced Monday.

 

BART is considered an "essential" service to transport workers to and from essential jobs, like hospitals and pharmacies. Trains will be continuously cleaned and disinfected, and riders will have room to follow social distancing guidelines.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

BART news release

 

03.17.20

  BART sustains service but future financial stability requires emergency funds

 

 

BART is experiencing significant declines in ridership with immediate loss of fare and parking revenues as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and current Shelter in Place Orders throughout the BART service area.   

 

BART’s Board President Lateefah Simon and General Manager Bob Powers sent letters last week to local, state and federal officials and have been making calls this week asking for emergency stimulus funding. Ridership data shows BART lost 70% of its riders on Monday and initial data for Tuesday’s commute shows an 85% decline.

 

That level of decline will cost BART a loss of approximately $37M per month in fare and parking revenue.  A sustained ridership loss of 85% and a 50% reduction of economic activity impacting other revenue sources could reduce BART's monthly revenues by $55M.

BART staff has provided a Fact Sheet outlining the COVID-19 impacts.

 

“This is a financial crisis for BART,” said Board President Lateefah Simon.  “This level of catastrophic revenue loss is not sustainable and threatens future service.  We need reassurance from all levels of government that transit will not be left out.”

 

Federal funds

At the federal level, BART is requesting that transit be specifically included in future stimulus bills.

Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act provides a total of $8.3 billion to support response efforts to the virus with $950 million set aside for state and local efforts; including infection control at the local level to prevent additional cases. Approximately $37M will be sent to California. To date, neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the State of California has issued guidance on whether a local special district, such as BART, could directly apply for funding.

BART will be applying for a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under their program to support operational expenses in response to COVID-19.

 

State funds

The Governor signed emergency legislation today with $500M for COVID-19 response funding.   As a special district, BART should be directly eligible for this emergency funding under the authority of the California Disaster Assistance Act and plans to pursue funds through the Office of the Governor, California Office of Emergency Services, and the California State Transportation Agency.  BART is asking how the $500M appropriation will be allocated and is requesting a direct allocation of $55M to offset our loss in revenue due.

 

Local Funds:

BART is requesting an immediate operating subsidy from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).

 

“BART is currently providing lifeline train service to workers who are keeping the region functioning during this pandemic,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “As the backbone of transportation in the Bay Area, we will also play an essential role during the economic recovery process.  Access to emergency funding is needed to keep the Bay Area moving once the region begins to recover.”

 

BART COVID-19 Fact Sheet; Impacts and Funding Opportunities

[CNJRoss]

 

 

Date: March 18, 2020

 

 

Yellow line extra commute trains cancelled during low ridership

 

 

BART ridership on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, the first day of the Shelter in Place orders, was 54,031. That represents an 87% drop in ridership compared to an average Tuesday in February. BART is running regular service, with trains long enough for social distancing, to provide transportation for essential workers such as health care providers, first responders and grocery store clerks. 

Starting Thursday, March 19, BART will temporarily eliminate the extra commute trains that run during the AM and PM commute on the Yellow (Antioch-SFO) line until further notice. The regular base schedule of 15-minute headways during commute hours will remain systemwide. The trains being cancelled are the extra trains that provide more frequent service during our busiest hours on our busiest line.  These trains are traditionally cancelled during periods of low ridership, such as the December holiday season.  

Social distancing will remain possible on the yellow line all day.  BART staff pulled data from Wednesday morning showing cars that make up the extra commute trains carried an average of 7 riders per car.  Moving these riders to the base trains that run every 15 minutes will not cause crowding and riders will be able to maintain social distancing.

The Trip Planner and platform digital monitors will show the eliminated trains as “cancelled.”

Temporarily eliminating these extra trains during low ridership will reduce maintenance needs, allow for additional cleaning of the cars, and provide train operators to backfill vacancies. 

 

[CNJRoss]

Progressive Railroading 3/31/20

 

BART amps up station, rail improvements during reduced service

 

BART has moved 200 maintenance and engineering employees from operating projects to rebuilding capital projects. Photo – BART

 

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) crews are taking advantage of a 90 percent drop in ridership and early station closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic to work on capital improvement projects.

 

At 19th Street Station in Oakland, California, BART crews last week demolished a long-closed restroom to rebuild and reopen it to the public as part of a larger station modernization program, BART officials said in a press release.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

BART press release

 

03.30.20

 

  BART uses Coronavirus downtime to continue improving its system

 

 

Many things in the Bay Area have slowed to a grind during the current Coronavirus crisis. But BART is continuing work to improve our system and rebuild aging infrastructure. 

 

BART crews have been coming to work to continue their capital projects. With extremely low ridership and new 9pm service closure, capital workers are taking full advantage to make progress.

 

Capital projects are not paid for by operating funds, meaning our 90% ridership dip (visit here to see a detailed chart of BART's ridership decline the past four weeks) and related huge revenue loss have not impacted infrastructure work. Many capital projects currently at work are paid for by Measure RR, a voter-approved bond measure passed in 2016 in the three BART District counties. 

 

Several major capital projects are benefiting from the 9pm service closure, such as: 19th Street Station Modernization Project; El Cerrito Del Norte Station Modernization Project; Rail Grinding; Rail Replacement; and Transbay Tube Cathodic Protection, among others. 

 

At 19th Street Station, crews were demolishing the long-closed restroom in the station last week to remodel the restroom and re-open it. The modernization project includes re-opening renovated underground station restrooms, upgrading station lights, reconfiguring the concourse, installing a platform elevator, repairing flooring and wall tiles, among many other changes.

 

 

 

 

At El Cerrito del Norte Station, crew were doing electrical work at El Cerrito del Norte late Friday night, taking full advantage of the 9pm closure. The station's modernization project includes new LED lighting throughout, installation of two new elevators, a new restroom and public art. The work is projected to be completed by the end of 2020.

 

 

 

At the yet-unopened Milpitas Station, BART elevator and escalator foreworkers were working this weekend on preparing the station's new elevator and escalators for service.

 

 

At Civic Center station, crews installed a new step chain in an often-used escalator at Market and 8th St.

 

 

 

BART has also added additional weekend track work to help take advantage of an extremely low ridership. Typically, BART does one track work per weekend as to limit delays. Last Sunday's ridership was 9,453 riders, representing a 90% drop compared to an average Sunday in February 2020. BART held track working taking place in two different locations on Sunday: a cable trough installation between Orinda and Lafayette, and a track replacement between South Hayward and Union City. 

 

Feedback on social media to BART crews working on capital projects has been very positive.

 

"This is a damn smart use of available time with what resources you have," said one tweet. "After shelter-in-place, at least one piece of our critical infrastructure will be in better shape than we left it."

 

"The 1989 earthquake, the Great Recession, now this pandemic, BART has always been there to keep the Bay Area afloat," said another tweet. "Thanks BART and BART workers for everything. It’s not an exaggeration to say we would be nothing without all your work."

 

With a continuing shelter in place order in BART's service counties, BART has been preparing for operating revenue impacts. Estimated revenue impact projections for the full month of March is a loss of $24,660,000 with a loss of 5.88 million trips, according to a presentation to the BART Board in a special meeting last Thursday. 

 

BART budget staff is waiting to find out how much money BART will receive from the federal stimulus package -- of which $25 billion was allocated for transit systems across the United States -- to help support our operating budget and running service. Approximately $1.3 billion provided to the MTC will be divided up among Bay Area transit operators, including BART.

 

As part of reducing operating costs, BART have moved 200 Maintenance and Engineering (M&E) employees from operating project to rebuilding capital projects.

 

For all updates on BART's efforts related to Coronavirus, please visit https://www.bart.gov...20/news20200225.

 

 

[CNJRoss]

RT&S 3/31/20
 

Special Report—On the Front Line: While COVID-19 kills ridership, BART finds construction work therapeutic

 

 

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) was almost at the top of the mountain. COVID-19 then jumped on it like a mountain lion. The fall over the last month has been great, but BART is making the best out of an historic low.

 

As February came to a close, BART, which uses 60 percent of fares on its operating budget, was $12 million away from filling a hole that was as deep as $30 million not that long ago. It was supposed to be a crowning moment. Then March hit, as did COVID-19. The drop was fast. At the beginning of March BART saw just a 10 percent dip in ridership. Then when companies began telling their workers to work from home the commute decline went to 60 percent. During the third week of March, when California was put under shelter-in-place orders, the negative number went to over 80 percent. On March 23 it reached 92 percent.

 

“Imagine losing 92 percent of your riders in a three-week period?” Alicia Trost, chief communications officer for BART, asked RT&S. “It is devastating for BART’s budget and for staff. Even trying to land our current budget hole was going to be difficult, and now we are facing a much more dire situation.”

 

However, BART is not going to just lie down and let COVID-19 walk all over it. Construction projects are still buzzing along, and BART has moved employees involved in operating work over to the jobsite. The transplanted workers are helping to build rail and replace cables that power the trains. They are even shoring up tunnels in downtown San Francisco.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

 

 

Date: April 6, 2020

 

 

BART to run every 30 minutes Monday-Friday

 

 

 

 

As the Bay Area counties have now extended mandatory shelter in place orders, BART service needs to be reduced to match demand, increase essential rebuilding projects, save costs, and maintain reliable service based on staffing levels. Starting Wednesday, April 8, Monday-Friday service will run every 30 minutes until further notice.  Ridership data shows social distancing remains possible on all trains with this change.  Effectively, every other train is being cancelled Monday-Friday.

Reducing service also allows greater flexibility to maintain stable service should BART employees need to take time off due to illness or to care for children and family members.    

This move will potentially save the operating budget $3-7 million per month. The savings is realized by shifting employees to capital improvement projects that are not funded by the operating budget. BART is using this time of historically low ridership to focus on essential infrastructure projects that typically are very disruptive to riders or can only be accomplished during overnight hours. These rebuilding efforts have been designated as essential public works projects per the region’s public health orders issued in response to the coronavirus.

 

3-line service will start earlier in the evening

Starting Wednesday, BART will move up the time the Warm Springs-Daly City (Green) and Richmond-Millbrae (Red) lines that provide direct service to/from San Francisco end and 3-line service begins.  This will allow for a longer work window for power cable replacement in San Francisco.  The last two train dispatches in both directions on these lines will be cancelled and single tracking in San Francisco will begin around 8pm.

• The last Warm Springs-Daly City (Green) line train departs Warm Springs at 5:16pm and arrives at Daly City at 6:26pm.  It then departs Daly City at 6:43pm and arrives at Warm Springs at 7:54pm.
• The last Richmond-Millbrae (Red) line train departs Richmond at 5:41pm and arrives at Millbrae 6:51pm. It then departs at Millbrae at 7:18pm and arrives at Richmond at 8:24pm.

There is only one hole in the new 30-minute schedule.  It is on the Red line departing from Millbrae at 6:18pm. To avoid this gap, customers should board the SFO shuttle from Millbrae at 6pm and connect with the Antioch line train at SFO at 6:26pm and then transfer at MacArthur at 7:10pm to the Richmond train. 

 

Plan your trip to avoid waiting

PDFs of the new schedule will be available on bart.gov tomorrow (Tuesday). Riders can use the PDF schedule to start planning their trips and what time they should arrive at the station to avoid a long wait.  Riders can also check real time departures before heading to the station.   Staff is updating the online Trip Planner to reflect the new service plan and to show every other train as cancelled.

For personalized trip planning assistance, call the Transit Information Center at 510-465-2278 from 8am-6pm, Monday-Friday.

“Ridership is now at 7% of what is usual, and these changes allow us to increase essential rebuilding projects while also ensuring we can provide reliable and predictable service,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “With so many unknowns about the length of the shelter in place orders and the timing of recovery, we must take steps to protect the operating budget while also protecting our ability to run service every 30 minutes.”

A change in the BART schedule can only be implemented by doubling headways (train frequency) because the service plan is tied to operational patterns such as timed transfers and train operator reporting times and locations.  This is the reason why we can’t go to 20 or 24 minute headways Monday-Friday.

 

Weekend service unchanged

Weekend service will remain unchanged.  The decision to not change weekend service at this time is to avoid doubling weekend headways. Reducing service on the weekend would mean Saturday service would need to go to 40-minute headways and Sunday service would go to 48-minute headways. At this time, that level of service reduction is not something BART is ready to implement but may need to do so in the future if circumstances change. 

 

Shifting workers to rebuilding projects

Running fewer trains means crews can be redeployed to other projects.  Maintenance and Engineering staff can now increase the hours of cable replacement in San Francisco and begin work on cable replacement in the East Bay and crews can perform relighting work in the Caldecott BART Tunnel. Train car mechanics can now be put into Fleet of the Future training.

This plan calls for up to 400 employees to be shifted to capital projects. However, this number can change if employees are pulled off a project to prioritize passenger service if staffing levels reduce.  

Early FY21 budget estimates show a bleak scenario of possible budget shortfalls of $258 million to $452 million.  The federal stimulus funds will help bridge some of the gap, but it is not expected to fill all of it moving forward.  

 

Summary of temporary service cuts to date

• Extra commute trains on the Antioch-SFO (yellow) line were eliminated on Thursday March 19.
• Monday-Friday service is 5am-9pm (previously 5am-Midnight) began on Monday, March 23.
• Saturday-Sunday service is 8am-9pm (previously Saturday service started at 6am) began on Saturday, March 28.
• Starting Wednesday, April 8, Monday-Friday service will run every 30 minutes systemwide all day, with 3-line service beginning earlier in the evening and single tracking in San Francisco starting at around 8pm.