BART Strike Enters Its Fourth Day

BART management and union leaders started talking again about 11 a.m. Thursday in an attempt to end the four-day-old BART transit strike.

Union negotiators and BART management met from 6 p.m. Tuesday to 3 a.m. Wednesday. They started talks again at 1 p.m. on Wednesday and met until late Wednesday evening.

BART officials said that once a settlement is reached, it will take 18 hours to get their trains running again.

Today, BART is operating limited charter bus service to San Francisco from five East Bay stations on the July 4th holiday.

The shuttles began at 6 a.m. at the Walnut Creek, East Dublin/Pleasanton, El Cerrito del Norte, Fremont and West Oakland stations. Buses will depart from San Francisco from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The strike will certainly make travel difficult to San Francisco’s annual 4th of July fireworks show.

On Wednesday, ferries continued to be a popular alternative mode of transportation. Long lines formed at the Alameda and Oakland departure points in the morning. In the afternoon, the lines re-emerged in San Francisco for the ride home.

San Francisco Bay Ferry reported there were 18,000 ferry riders on Monday and 19,600 ferry riders on Tuesday. On a normal day, the ferries carry 6,000 passengers.

The ferry service operated 11 ferries instead of the usual six boats.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission reported that almost 133,000 cars passed through the Bay Bridge toll plaza on Tuesday. That was slightly more than the 128,000 cars that went through on Monday. On a normal day, about 125,000 cars go through the plaza.

The MTC reported 55,000 cars crossed the San Mateo Bridge on Tuesday, up from the usual 47,000 vehicles at this time of year.

Slightly fewer vehicles than usual traveled across the Golden Gate Bridge and slightly more than normal used the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.