By Thomas Hall, Director of Operations & Customer Experience
The Friday morning commute on SF Bay Ferry is typically pretty quiet, and has been since 2020. Friday morning commute ridership is typically about half the level that it is on other weekdays. But May 9 — with BART having a systemwide disruption in the morning hours — was very different.
SF Bay Ferry staff immediately sprang into action, swapping larger vessels into service where possible in anticipation of bigger crowds and preparing additional vessels to enter service quickly if needed. Bigger crowds came as news spread regarding BART’s issues: Morning ridership systemwide increased 60% with the Oakland route seeing the biggest increase. In fact, the Oakland ferry route appears to have had its best single day since 2020 in terms of commute ridership with 806 morning riders. Local news crews went to ferry terminals to document the surge.
On Friday, the agency also began preparations to activate its Emergency Operations Center in the event the BART shutdown continued into the weekend. While SF Bay Ferry is primarily known for running public ferry service, it was created as the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) to provide emergency water transit in the event a natural disaster or other incident disables the regional transportation network. That mission remains central to the agency’s day-to-day and long-term work.
Thankfully, BART resumed service at 9 AM on Friday. The ferry surge showed the importance of a resilient, multifaceted transit network with trains, buses and ferries all working together to keep the Bay Area moving.