BART is opening up more than 200 temporary parking spots at two locations in the East Bay and running longer trains to accommodate commuters affected by the ongoing closure of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, a BART spokesman said.
The longer trains will run during the peak commute hours Monday morning, according to BART spokesman Linton Johnson.
Along with its regular 46,000 parking spots, the agency is opening 50 temporary spots near the Castro Valley station and 180 near the West Oakland station. Shuttles will take customers to the BART stations, Johnson said.
The Castro Valley temporary parking lot is located at 20630 John Drive, while the West Oakland lot is located at the corner of Linden and Seventh streets.
If the bridge remains closed after Monday’s morning commute, BART will run extra trains beyond the normal afternoon schedule and run longer trains in the evening to provide additional transbay service for people going between San Francisco and the East Bay.
Although BART ran overnight trains on Friday and Saturday nights, the agency is not running overnight service tonight into Monday morning because it has to perform numerous state-mandated safety inspections and do maintenance work on the trains so they are ready for the morning commute.
The agency has set record ridership numbers since the Bay Bridge was closed Tuesday evening for emergency repairs after two rods and a crossbar fell onto the upper deck of the eastern span of the bridge.
On Wednesday, BART broke a year-old record when its trains carried 437,200 riders. A new record was set the next day, Thursday, when 442,000 people rode the trains.
On Friday, BART had 437,700 riders, the new second-highest total in the agency’s 37-year history. BART had its fifth-busiest Saturday ever when it carried 227,100 riders.
