BART recorded 254,248 trips on Tuesday, Oct. 6, its highest single-day total since the pandemic.

The record lands less than a month before Walnut Creek voters decide on Measure RTM, the Connect Bay Area Transit Initiative, on the Nov. 3 ballot. The regional sales tax would add a half-cent to the rate in Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties for 14 years. A one-cent increase would apply in San Francisco. Together, the taxes would raise roughly $980 million annually for Bay Area transit, with BART receiving about $310 million per year, according to the Eno Center for Transportation.

Without that revenue, BART faces a structural operating deficit of roughly $375 million starting in fiscal year 2027, when about $2 billion in one-time federal and state emergency funds will run out, the Mercury News reported. The agency has approved a backup plan that would cut train hours by 63% and reduce frequencies to every 30 minutes. Service would end at 9 p.m. nightly. Fares would rise 30%, and up to 15 stations could close by July 2027.

BART has estimated that if Walnut Creek riders shifted to driving under those cuts, commute times to downtown San Francisco could increase by 2.3 hours per day under a worst-case scenario, according to a February 2026 board workshop presentation reported by GrowSF.

The Oct. 6 ridership total topped the previous post-pandemic record of 242,090 trips, set Sept. 15 when the first day of Dreamforce coincided with All Aboard Transit Day. BART said on X it has broken its own single-day record multiple times this year.