December 29, 2007
BART Sets New Holiday Record Via Noisy Children
Compared to the same time last year, this week BART saw a 20% jump in riders traveling to SFO during the Christmas week. How was this done? Well, according to reports, the dramatic increase was partly due to a "Kids Ride Free" promotion, which exposed itself to an unsuspecting public on 12/22. (Thankfully, we missed this promotion by one day. Lucky us. But tell us, was there an inordinate amount of little people on the trains last Saturday?)
That said, good for BART. While SFist loves to keep Bay Area Rapid Transit on its toes - because, really, someone needs to do it - we giddily applaud the continued success of BART's seamless SFO extension. And, please, warn us the next time you have another "Kids Ride Free" promotion. Not that we don't love children, but ... shudder.
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Ugh. I was in Jeffrey's Toys on Dec. 22 (last Saturday) and the place was crawling with kids. Who brings children to a toy store so close to Christmas?!
I took BART to and from SFO for Christmas travel. It's easy and pretty fast. At $5, while pricey for a BART trip, it's much cheaper than a cab. Lots of people got off and on at the airport. I noticed that no one got on or off BART on the San Mateo county stops between SFO and Daly City, though.
Unfortunately, I still have to brave the traffic to pick my partner up from the airport on Sunday night.
I use BART to SFO regularly, except when leaving very early or returning late.
One warning: if you have a late afternoon/early evening departure, the trains to SFO are pretty full these days. I often have to stand until Daly City if not beyond.
The San Bruno and South San Francisco stations seem to attract very little off-peak use.
Also, schedules and routes change on Tuesday. There is no longer direct SFO to Millbrae service. Some trains will go to SFO and not to Millbrae and others will go to Millbrae and not to SFO. This means Caltrain riders at Millbrae will have to go to San Bruno and transfer across the platform. Yuck.