An interactive map discussing transit ridership and possible service reduction in 2027
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The primary transit system for the San Francisco Bay Area bay area is BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). BART has five major train lines: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue. There is also a connector train to the Oakland International Airport.
In addition to BART, Caltrain services Silicon Valley. Stations include Mountain View, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto. It stretches all the way north to San Francisco and south to Gilroy. It connects with BART Red line at the Millbrae station.
Amtrak's Capitol Corridor services the north of the Bay Area. The 168-mile train route goes from San Jose through Auburn. It connects with BART at the Oakland Coliseum and Richmond stations; it connects with Caltrain at the Santa Clara University and San Jose Diridon stations.
Here is the average ridership for each station on a weekday in 2025. The busiest stations are in downtown San Francisco:
| Rank | Station | Avg. Weekday Passengers |
| 1 | Embarcadero | 19,997 |
| 2 | Montgomery St. | 15,717 |
| 3 | Powell St. | 11,442 |
| 4 | Civic Center / UN Plaza | 9,693 |
| 5 | San Francisco | 9,232 |
BART announced in February 2026 that they are facing a budget deficit between $350-400 million next fiscal year. A major reason behind this deficit is that ridership has declined, resulting in BART collecting less in passenger fare revenue. BART introduced a two-phase plan to reduce service starting in 2027 if the deficit continues.
From 2018 to 2019 BART averaged 400,000 trips each weekday, which then dropped to a low of 25,000 in 2020. Average weekday trips have since steadily increased through early 2026, though they are still less than half of 2019 levels.
BART Average Weekday Trips
Phase 1
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, BART initially considered closing 10 stations in January 2027. The San Francisco Standard reported that BART has since postponed closing stations to July 2027, though BART would limit the Red and Green lines to only peak commuter hours.
Combined, these closing stations have over 11,400 passengers on average each weekday.
Phase 2
In July 2027, BART may close five additional stations, bringing the total to 15. The Blue line would be removed entirely and the Yellow line would now end at Concord. Both the Red and Green lines would also cease having service.
Combined, these stations are used by over 11,000 passengers on average each weekday. BART would no longer connect to Caltrain if the Millbrae station closes.
In the event of BART station closures, the 22,000 affected riders would need to use nearby stations that remain open or stop using the transit system altogether.
Closed stations range from being 1 mile away from the nearest open station to being 16 miles away.
Some stations that remain open could have a large inflow of passengers as a result of nearby closures.
Distances between stations are calculated with a direct line "as the crow flies". West Dublin/Pleasanton and Dublin/Pleasanton are geographically closer to Union City, but Hayward station is effectively closest due to a near-direct road. All of the "Nearest Stations" to the closed ones have parking, making it possible for passengers to drive over to them.
Here is what ridership would look like if all of the displaced riders decided to use the nearest open station to the one they previously used.
Concord gains to an additional 5,414 weekday passengers from several stations on the Yellow line, tripling its current load of 2,774 passengers.
Hayward balloons from 2,214 weekday passengers to 9,810. Its new riders had formerly used stations on the Blue line or South Hayward.
Caltrain is also facing budget concerns. In November 2025, Caltrain announced that if they do not secure additional funding in 2026 they may close more than one-third of stations, run on weekdays only, and cut segments of service.
Caltrain has not specified which stations might close. Out of Caltrain's 30 active stations, the 10 with fewest weekday passengers are Broadway (weekend service only), San Martin, College Park, Capitol, Blossom Hill, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Bayshore, Tamien, and Hayward Park.
Amtrak's Capitol Corridor has not made any statements about reducing service.
This map is interactive - you can pan/zoom, view statistics for individual stations, and highlight train lines.
Geographical data for the map is from Vis.gl deck.gl-data, San Mateo County GIS open data, Wikipedia, and the official websites for BART, Caltrain, and Capitol Corridor, and Simplemaps.
Ridership data is from BART June 2025 Monthly Ridership Snapshot, and Caltrain Ridership FY2025 report, Amtrak In California FY2025
Capitol Corridor ridership was presented in annual usage not daily; weekday ridership was calculated with the assumption that Capitol Corridor has the same fraction of total trips occurring during the weekday that Caltrain does, which is 83.1%.
Caltrain average weekday ridership was adjusted to reflect that Caltrain had 39,902 average weekday riders in June 2025 while the FY2025 overall average weekday riders was 29,710.
This presentation was made by Arthur Zarins in March 2026.