The Warriors have taken care of business by bringing home another NBA championship and now it’s BART’s turn. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is gearing up for an epic day Thursday when Oakland hosts a victory celebration starting at 10 a.m. BART has put together some tips to help make your championship parade day safe and enjoyable.
Ten tips for riding BART to the victory celebration in Oakland
- Be patient, it’s going to get crowded; our busiest hours in 2015 were 8am-10am
- Use 19th Street Station, avoid the much smaller Lake Merritt Station
- Buy a Clipper card (clippercard.com) in advance to avoid extremely long lines at ticket machines
- Look for tables with cash only $15 Clipper card sales at 10 of our busiest stations
- Parking will be packed; think about taking the bus or walking to BART or getting dropped off
- “Permit” spaces in parking lots are for permit holders only, a citation will ruin the fun day
- When boarding trains, move to the center of the car so more can fit, remove backpacks
- Don’t jam a train door- it will take the whole train out of service and everyone will boo you
- Some trains may not stop at Lake Merritt if the Rally Zone has reached capacity or crowding
- Our service will not match the published schedule so listen and pay attention
The Details
First, know that BART is going to be crowded like you’ve never seen it before. On the day of the 2015 Warriors parade, BART carried 548,076 people – second only to the 586,061 people who rode BART when the Giants held a victory parade on Halloween 2012. If you’re not going to the celebration and will be taking BART to work or elsewhere, we suggest leaving home early – maybe even before 7 a.m.
Getting to the Station
If you must drive and park at a BART station, consider getting there very early. Parking will be packed so instead, if you can, we suggest taking the bus or walking to BART or getting someone to drop you off at your station.
If you do drive and park, remember that “Permit” spaces are for passengers who have paid for monthly and single day permits in advance. Those without a Permit may only park in the “Fee” areas, which are First-Come/First-Serve. If you park in the “Permit” area without a permit, you are subject to citation.
The Lake Merritt Station permit parking lot (located near Laney College) will be CLOSED all day.
Purchasing Fares
Don’t be the person stuck in a line for the ticket vending machine while Steph and KD are waving to the crowd. We suggest you buy a Clipper card or ticket at least a day or two in advance.
Go to www.clippercard.com and find a retail location closest to you.
If for some reason you don’t, BART will be selling $15 Clipper cards at special cash-only ticket tables at the stations listed below. We picked these stations because they had long lines in 2015. Be sure to keep these Clipper cards and register them. They work on other Bay Area transit.
Stations with $15 cash only Clipper card table sales
4am-10am
- Fremont
- Warm Springs
- Dublin/Pleasanton
- El Cerrito del Norte
- Coliseum
- Bay Fair
- Millbrae
10:30am-2:30pm
- 12th Street
- 19th street
- Lake Merritt
Heading to Downtown Oakland
We are doing extra maintenance now so we can put every available train out to carry passengers, but you’ll be joining a half million or more fellow riders.
The Lake Merritt BART Station will be in the epicenter of the celebration so it’s best to avoid it. We strongly suggest taking BART to either 12th Street or 19th Street stations in Oakland. They are bigger and they’re right along the parade route so you’ll have more elbow room. They will also be your best options for starting your trip home.
Trains coming from Dublin/Pleasanton and Fremont Warm Springs towards Oakland may skip Lake Merritt after 8:30am if the rally zone has reached capacity and has closed or if the station becomes too crowded. Listen to announcements and use 12th or 19th street instead.
Service changes to be aware of
The Pittsburg/Bay Point morning service WILL NOT match the regular published schedule. Some trains will be rerouted to other crowded areas in the system.
After 8 am every other train from the Warm Springs to Daly City line will not go to San Francisco and instead go to Downtown Oakland to serve the parade route. These trains will terminate at MacArthur Station.
At any time, we may need to skip a station due to crowding, or hold riders outside the fare gates and wait until the platform clears to allow riders to enter the paid area. Listen to instructions from BART workers- we’re here to help.
What we’re doing to prepare
Besides getting all the train cars ready, we are staffing up to make sure we can quickly respond to any issues that pop up. We will have extra paramedics on standby and extra police officers on patrol including the Transportation Security Administration’s Vipr team.
We’ll have extra escalator and elevator technicians in our stations, and train technicians ready to respond to an equipment problem on a train.
Code of Conduct
Finally, it probably goes without saying but we’ll say it anyway: smile and have fun. We at BART enjoy serving you on what should be a joyous and memorable day. We only ask that you show common courtesy to your fellow riders, follow our simple rules and -if you start to get a little impatient- think about the folks in Cleveland who wish they had a parade.
Source:
https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2017/news20170609
