Final A’s Coliseum game brings BART record ridership day

OAKLAND, Calif. (BCN) — BART reported having its highest daily ridership total since before the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, the day of the last Oakland A’s baseball game ever held at the Coliseum.

There were 224,721 exits reported from BART stations Thursday, the third straight day that ridership on the train system topped 200,000 exits. The A’s last three games at the Coliseum were Tuesday through Thursday and drew huge crowds making their last trip to see baseball at the ballpark before the A’s move to West Sacramento next year.

BART said ridership has been robust this month, with other events like the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, community events and other concerts and games drawing people to its trains.

The numbers are still well below the amount of BART riders that were using the system before COVID-19 brought on work-from-home policies and other changes to people’s commute and travel habits. The agency said the average pre-pandemic ridership on a September weekday was about 426,300, roughly double the daily totals this week.

BART touted its efforts to make public safety staff more visible on trains as a reason ridership has gone up, saying overall crime on trains and at stations has gone down recently despite the uptick in riders.

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