Late-Night Buses From the Mission to the East Bay?

BART is considering adding at least one Mission stop to its late-night weekend bus shuttle pilot program that would transport passengers from San Francisco to the East Bay, BART officials told the Mission Merchants Association last week.

Under the program, buses would mimic BART lines, starting at South Van Ness and Market streets and heading to Pittsburg Bay Point and Fremont until 2 a.m. Currently, the last BART train to the East Bay on the weekend leaves at midnight.

BART can’t run all-night service because it uses downtime for maintenance, and with only one track in each direction, late-night BART service would require new infrastructure, said Robert Mitroff, manager of fleet and capacity planning.

Alameda and Contra Costa counties would cover the bulk ($500,000) of the bus project’s cost, which is $800,000. The rest would come out of BART’s operating budget and fare revenues.