Some Bay Area commuters will soon board a newly formed bus network called the Early Bird Express.
That’s because, starting on Feb. 11, BART is set to shift the start of train service from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. in order to perform a massive seismic retrofit project in the Transbay Tube. The schedule shift, set to last up to 3.5 years, will impact about 2,900 riders who enter the system in its first hour of service.
To make up for the lack of train service, BART developed an alternative bus service plan with help from public outreach. It’s called the Early Bird Express. Details of the plan, such as station-specific guides, can be found by clicking here.
Here’s some information we found interesting: Early Bird Express involves 14 new bus lines by 8 regional bus agencies running between 3:50 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. in both directions between stops. It includes 7 transbay routes, 5 East Bay routes and 2 San Francisco/Peninsula routes. The buses will stop at the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco and also 12 BART stations, with the lone West County stations begin El Cerrito Del Norte.
Bus trips leaving from East Bay BART stations will arrive at the Salesforce Transit Center at 4:40 a.m., 5 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. Currently, the first BART trains from the East Bay to San Francisco arrive between 4:48 a.m. and 5 a.m.
Cash or Clipper cards can be used to pay for the Early Bird Express.
Here’s the EARLY BIRD EXPRESS SCHEDULE.
