Giants fans shattered BART and Caltrain ridership records on Wednesday when they poured into San Francisco from all directions for the team’s World Series victory celebration.
BART carried 522,200 riders–more than during the 2009 emergency Bay Bridge closures or the 2008 Olympic Torch run, agency officials said.
The previous record was set on Oct. 29, 2009, when 442,1000 people rode BART during one of the unplanned bridge closures.
Caltrain also had its biggest rider turnout in agency history with 30,000 more passengers than usual taking the trains on Wednesday, Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said. About 40,000 riders take Caltrain on a typical weekday, she said.
The agency ran nine extra northbound trains and six extra southbound trains, she said. It suspended its regular schedule and stopped express train service, and instead the agency just had trains leave the stations as they filled up.
“It worked really well,” she said of the adjustments.
Dunn said three times more revenue was generated Wednesday than usual.
On Wednesday morning, Belmont resident Bob Warfield had planned to take public transit to San Francisco for the celebration with his family.
However, the family ended up driving after they got stuck in traffic heading to the Millbrae BART station and saw people who had unsuccessfully tried to get on trains walking back to their car, Warfield said.
Dunn said the Millbrae station was particularly busy because it offers BART, bus and Caltrain service.
Customers began arriving earlier than officials anticipated, Dunn said, so adjustments had to be made.
“We planned additional service for 9 a.m., but people were lined up at the ticket machines in San Jose at 7 a.m.,” Dunn said. “It was the highest ridership in Caltrain history. Given all that we think we did pretty well.”
BART spokesman Linton Johnson said he wasn’t aware of any riders being turned away. He said “metering” was carried out at some stations, meaning a limited number of riders were allowed in at any given time.
“If we have any big event that happens, we’re always trying to meter people to keep them off the yellow tiles” on the platform near the trains, Johnson said.
