dhuey

Last time I took BART to SFO, I was a bit confused. I boarded a train at North Berkeley Station for "San Francisco International Airport / Milbrae". After the San Bruno Station, I saw SFO to my left, and then a bit behind me to my left. It then dawned on me that we weren't going to SFO -- at least not directly. The train went to Milbrae, stopped for a couple of minutes, and turned around. Next stop was SFO. It added about 10 minutes to the journey -- no biggie for me, as I had sufficient time to catch my flight. I was a little concerned that we might bypass SFO again, and then I'd need to backtrack from San Bruno. Thankfully, that's not how it works. If you see "San Francisco International Airport" on the signs, the train will go to SFO -- only question is whether it will first go to Milbrae.

As I read the maps and schedules, it looks like the Richmond Line (red on the maps) has the Milbrae-SFO trains; the Antioch Line (yellow) has the trains going directly to SFO after San Bruno. The trip planner at bart.gov is very helpful. I plug in my desired arrival time at SFO and work backwards from there. It can actually be faster to take a slightly later train at your station if that later train goes directly to SFO (extra time waiting for that later train can be less than the extra time going to Milbrae).

Traffic in the SF Bay Area is very unpredictable, and crashes/stalls on the Bay Bridge can ruin your air travel day. BART is a much more reliable way to arrive at SFO on time, and with minimal stress. Safe travels, my friends.

Eastbay1K

I did notice the map change on a recent BART ride. Depending on luggage, seating, etc. (i.e., if I had a large suitcase and rollerbag carry on) and boarded at North Berkeley, and had a seat, I'd probably stay on the train to Millbrae and backtrack. If I were anywhere between MacArthur and any of the SF stations, I might wait for the other train

As for the traffic, yup, although I find that coming home from SFO late afternoon / evening is a lot worse than the morning commute traffic to SFO.

dhuey

Drive was 1hr45min. yesterday for my wife and me. We left SFO around 6 pm and arrived home at 7:45. Some kind of crash or stall on the Bay Bridge made for a very slow crawl for miles on the approach to the bridge.

dhuey

Looks like I wasn’t the only one confused. Trains stopping at Milbrae prior to SFO are now marked “SF/Millbrae/SFO Airport”.

Just now:

Kacee

I got tricked by this yesterday departing SFO for Oakland. Boarded a "Richmond" train at SFO. After the doors closed, the operator announced we were going to Millbrae, and Richmond bound passengers would have to exit and wait for another train

MDtR-Chicago

This seems to change every few months. Sometimes the train will backtrack, Sometimes there is a change of trains at Millbrae. Sometimes the trains are clearly marked as Millbrae only and don't stop at the airport at all.

Right now there is a mix, including trains that are airport-direct and don't stop at Millbrae at all. And, of course, weekends can be different.

What I noticed most recently was the spacing of the trains kind of made it irrelevant which you took. The direct to airport train was 15 min behind the Millbrae/SFO train. So no real difference if you waited for the direct train vs. just backtracking on the Millbrae/SFO train.

I guess the lesson is to use the trip planner to see if there is a direct train running, else plan for the longer journey.

ryw

Thanks for the updates, I’ve been using OAK recently, but will be using SFO again soon so this is useful.

Can’t help but think this could’ve been avoided if years ago people didn’t get hung up on “BART direct to SFO” and instead they built an air train out to the main BART line. Oh well.

They do seem to change the Milbrae/SFO pattern every couple years, but it seems like there’s no real great answers. It’s hard because trains have to reverse out of SFO (thus there’s a long waiting period as the operator walks from one end of the train to the other), so it makes sense for it to be an endpoint. But then Milbrae has the same issue so… 🤷

Eastbay1K

We'll just agree to disagree on this one. From what station should the airtrain have connected? Millbrae? South SF? Much easier to be able to walk if desired to any point in the airport from the BART station with no connection.

You may recall, once up on a time, there was an SFO <-> Millbrae line. It just went back and forth. However, whatever set of rocket scientists decided that was a good idea failed to take the BART train operators' contract (that was in effect at that time) into account because (as I recall) there were mandatory rest periods and/or other relevant work rules which applied at the end of a line.

ryw

That's fair - I do like the walkability of SFO from BART in the current setup, so that's a plus, and does simplify things without having to wait for the AirTrain. (I suspect people's opinions on the matter may also depend on whether one uses BART to get to Milbrae or SFO more often - depending on the route pattern one of those destinations always seems harder to get to than the other!).

There's an interesting report from SJSU that looks at some of the history and alternative plans at the time - https://transweb.sjsu.edu/sites/defa...-Extension.pdf. One of which was an airport intermodal transit center just west of 101 where the airport AirTrain, BART, and CalTrain would all interconnect at one point (presumably without building the Milbrae transfer station). Another option was to have a "through" BART station near the long term parking lot that was connected by AirTrain, and then BART would continue south to Milbrae for the CalTrain transfer point. And it looks like there was discussion to have an AirTrain route extend to either the Milbrae or San Bruno locations.

At the very least, these plans make for some fun "what ifs" on a weekend afternoon

Kacee

That has not been my experience at all. In my example noted above, there was an Antioch train departing SFO 3 minutes after the fake "Richmond" train. By taking the earlier train and routing through Millbrae, I lost nearly half an hour.

Also, once you know what's going on, it is pretty easy to tell which trains are not direct. The Richmond line is currently running through Millbrae, while the Antioch line is running directly to/from SFO.

gaobest

would oak be better for you?
maybe even smf?

travelinmanS

I've never had a problem getting to SFO on time from the Oakland Hills provided I take the San Mateo Bridge. The only times I've had close calls was when I thought I'd like to see the city skyline one last time before leaving and chose to take the Bay Bridge. Even if there is an accident on 880, 92 or 101 I know enough of the backroads to get around it, getting stuck at the Bay Bridge toll plaza is a real bummer when you're running late for a flight. That said, I've never missed a flight, just a few close calls. I've never really considered taking BART but probably not a bad idea.

Kacee

The toll plaza is typically only a problem westbound from 5:30 am to around 9:30 am. The real problem is the backup through the city in either direction, which tends to be very bad these days from 2 pm to around 8 pm.

I moved to downtown Oakland recently in part so I could walk to Bart, as I'm flying in/out of SFO more or less weekly. Ridesharing service is considerably more expensive if they're forced to take the San Mateo (with the other issue being that their apps often don't identify back-ups through the city in time).

dhuey

SMF is too far, but yes, OAK is more convenient from Berkeley. OAK has pretty good nonstop service to western cities and Hawaii, but gets thin for other places.

Kacee

Mostly only if you're willing to fly WN.