Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) recently brought into action its “reimagined” service plan.
From September 11, the agency has promised its riders that they no longer need to wait more than 20 minutes for a scheduled train. This shift in schedule comes to attract riders who have stayed away from the system because of the 30-minute wait times.
The agency has also increased its evening services by 50%, which now run seven days a week, meaning riders have more options when traveling with BART after peak hours and at the weekend.
The reimagined service plan has reduced headways — the time between trains — for scheduled transfers and improved the reliability of trains running to and from the Bay Area’s two main airports. In addition, BART’s busiest weekday line, the Yellow Line, now sees trains arriving every 10 minutes, rather than 15 minutes, from Pittsburg/Bay Point.
In one of BARTs latest podcasts about the changes, John FitzGibbon, Manager of Scheduling and Planning at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), also known as the scheduling wizard, summarized the changes by stating
“BART now has a simpler schedule that’s the same seven days a week. No matter what day of the week it is, or the time of day, riders are going to be able to get their train. That in and of itself I think is going to simplify a lot of people’s lives”.
In this article, Sengerio explores this new reimagined schedule to understand how BART is adapting its strategy to increase its ridership and support the people of the Bay Area. In addition, Sengerio caught up with David Sorrell, Principal Mobility Planner/ TDM Administrator of the University of California, Berkeley to ask how BARTs reimagined service plan has affected mobility for those who study and work at the university.
The new service plan came in response to post-pandemic commute patterns where the agency wasn’t seeing the typical rush-hour peak of commuters heading to the workplace.
The agency reduced some of these services to distribute the resources elsewhere, namely to increase evening and weekend services on almost every line that is neutral in cost and to seek new ridership growth opportunities.
As a result, the new schedule is the same every day of the week, rather than having a separate schedule for the weekend. This offers a huge advantage to BART’s riders, as John FitzGibbon explained during the podcast, who now only have one, simplified schedule to refer to when planning their journey.
“The post-pandemic ridership reality is that there just isn't the level of peak that there has been over the course of most of BART's life. So, the schedule is much flatter and less reliant because of all the things that are happening socially. Building a schedule that is looking at the places where there's room for growth in the evenings and on the weekends was a way forward.
Having weekend service be as important as weekday service is a real kind of new way that BART is changing our service in the wake of the pandemic and with commute service perhaps not being quite as high priority at the expense of other things”.
In addition to increased evening and weekend services, BART has sharpened the synchronization of its lines that have shared trains to improve transfers.
For example, riders anywhere between Bay Fair and Berryessa can get a Green line, or alternatively, an Orange line and then transfer to the Blue line, to get to the City. Either way, the entire length of the network has a 10-minute schedule to the City.
Improved line synchronization will also help reduce crowding on board the agency’s trains. The Red Line that runs from Richmond to MacArthur was previously much more crowded than the parallel Orange Line that runs through the same stops. Having better synchronization allows the ridership across these lines to spread more evenly, ultimately reducing crowding.
While the agency has unlocked the new 10-minute headways, other lines have been set at 20 minutes. Naturally, the multiplication factor of 10 and 20-minute (rather than the previous 15 and 30) headways allows the lines to work in synchrony. However, there are other benefits in having a 20-minute headway.
The 20-minute headways are set for the individual lines; the Orange, Green, and Blue Lines. The 5-minute extension to the headways means that operators have a better opportunity to take a break, which was difficult during the previous 15-minute turnaround.
So when a train arrives at its terminal, the operator is able to get a well-deserved break after being on the train for an extended period of time, before departing for their next trip.
“This will vastly improve our breaks for our employees, and it was designed to be, or one of the outcomes of the project was to make the quality-of-life improvements around that area.”
The 20-minute headway also provides more of a cushion for trains arriving a couple of minutes late, allowing them to leave on-time while also allowing the operator to have a short break.
This also benefits the control room that is working hard to ensure the trains are punctual. Thanks to the shift in resources in the new service plan, the control room is now managing 55 trains rather than the previous 59 which, together with the adjusted headways, has simplified their responsibilities.
Sengerio caught up with David Sorrell, Principal Mobility Planner/ TDM Administrator of the University of California, Berkeley, who is leading the university’s way to render on-campus mobility more equitable, accessible, and sustainable, to ask how BARTs reimagined service plan has affected mobility for those who study and work at the university and, of course, how the changes have affected him as a user of BART.
David expressed that BART’s new service plan is a handy new addition to the university’s TDM toolbox, especially given the dynamic nature of university schedules that doesn’t typically see one sharp peak during the day but rather a consistent ‘coming-and-going’ flux of people.
“We need people to get home as quickly and efficiently as possible. With transit use being lower than it was before the pandemic, the previous model of using a 30-minute headway was putting a lot of people off using the service, people simply don’t want to wait 30 minutes; if you missed the train, you’re most likely going to drive! So the switch to 20-minute headways is a good decision in terms of decision-making”.
The additional services, moreover, are going to be especially helpful for the students on campus who want to make it to sports events, concerts, and other events in the evening or at the weekend.
David also mentioned that while BART’s reimagined schedule does provide numerous benefits to the agency and its riders, it does somewhat limit what Caltrain, the commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley, can do in terms of network connections.
BART’s new schedule results in an 8 or 20 minute wait between transfers with Caltrain. But there is the possibility that Caltrain could modify its schedule to align with BART’s new service plan once its huge electrification program has been completed, which is expected to be done by fall 2024.
Missed transfers are a big problem for agencies and passengers across the Bay Area and the 20-minute headway might be somewhat of a challenge for some of the bus services of the surrounding agencies. However, David pointed out that agencies could use this as an opportunity to better their own services in line with BART’s new schedule.
“Transit services are only as good as their first and last mile connections. So a lot of the local bus services that connect with BART should look at their schedules to identify any blind spots and make adjustments so that the users’ waiting time is minimized”.
In general, however, the advantages of the reimagined service plan allow BART and its riders to look ahead with optimism, as David highlighted
“I’m looking forward to seeing whether the new reimagined schedule supports commuters coming to and from the university but, at the same time, whether it can also support the late afternoon, evening, and weekend trips to help boost ridership”.
While Caltrain’s electrification project is underway, BART is also undergoing its own Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) revamp that is part of a broader Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program.
CBTC is a proven railway signaling system that makes use of the telecommunications between the train and trackside equipment for the traffic management and infrastructure control.
Due to the nature of such an investment, however, BART’s schedule sometimes coincides with the CBTC project. As John FitzGibbon points out
“In some cases we actually have to build a schedule around the capital project itself.
There's a chance that we're going to have to do some major schedule rebuilding on the Blue Line between Bay Fair and Dublin in one direction because that section of track at BART is the longest, straightest section that we have that we can use as an alternate test track for doing a lot of the tests that need to happen”.
While the ongoing CBTC project could pose some future challenges for BART, once completed, the new signaling system will drastically improve and simplify the agency’s system — contrary to the many constraints of the current system, the revamped CBTC signaling will allow more freedom for the agency to put its trains closer together, even at higher speeds.
“Once all these capital projects are finished, the BART schedule will become very static, which is a good thing for our customers”.
The work of John FitzGibbon and the team at BART reflect the powerful nature scheduling has when it comes to influencing ridership and accessibility to transit.
Indeed, BART seemingly has “cracked the code” in finding a combination of resources and services to bring several advantages — not only for the riders — but also to alleviate some of the pressure from the operational side.
From more regular services during evenings and weekends to longer headways, this article has observed some ways in which BART has seeked new opportunities to improve its services. Putting the advantages to one side, there are also challenges in the near future that BART will have to navigate.
Firstly, it will be interesting to see whether the new schedule is able to support both commuters and evening/weekend services. Despite teleworking being a useful TDM commodity during the pandemic, work patterns may still be unpredictable. Consequently, it could be difficult to rule out an eventual spike in commuters needing a ride to the office. On the other hand, time will tell how effective the additional services are during the evenings and at the weekends, which the agency is hoping to elevate its ridership.
On top of that, riders might be curious to see how well the new schedule holds up, or how well the agency reacts, in light of the ongoing CBTC project and how much disruption this project may cause.
Finally, how might surrounding transit agencies such as Caltrain and AC Transit react to the new schedule? This article mentioned that some transfers between BART and Caltrain have seen a shift in waiting times because of the schedule changes. Perhaps Caltrain could see these changes as an opportunity to rework its own schedule to increase ridership.
Sengerio would like to wish BART all the success for their projects in the near future and thank David Sorrell for his thoughts and opinions about everything there is in the world of transport and mobility.
ABOUT SCOTT FRANKLAND
Scott Frankland is Head of Content at Sengerio. His spirit of inquiry leads him to the world of transportation and mobility to connect with the industry’s leading experts and shine a light on the hot topics.
ABOUT EDOARDO ZACCARIA
Edoardo is the Sengerio Customer Success Manager and a passionate climber. His interpersonal skills and ability to build strong relationships have been invaluable in helping customers successfully get the most out of the Sengerio platform.