BART closures November 14-15: SFO and OAK airport routes
BART will run no trains between 24th St Mission and Daly City on Saturday November 14 and Sunday November 15, 2026. Free buses bridge that gap. Between downtown San Francisco and SFO, plan a train-bus-train journey rather than a direct airport train. OAK has a separate airport-connector maintenance notice that weekend.
This is a partial rail closure, not a shutdown of BART or either airport. Check your journey for the correct date and work backward from your airline's arrival deadline. All times below are local Bay Area time, PST.
Which part of your trip changes?
| Your journey | What to plan for November 14-15 |
|---|---|
| Downtown San Francisco to SFO | Train to 24th St Mission, replacement bus to Daly City, then the southern Yellow Line service toward SFO |
| SFO to downtown San Francisco | Yellow Line service to Daly City, replacement bus to 24th St Mission, then a northbound train |
| Glen Park or Balboa Park | Muni's stopping replacement bus; no BART trains at either station |
| Berryessa or South Bay to San Francisco | Orange and Blue Line connection at Bay Fair instead of a through Green Line train |
| Downtown San Francisco to OAK | Blue Line to Coliseum, then the airport connector; check the separate overnight maintenance window |
The November 3 timetable notice cancels the entire Green Line. Red Line trains run Richmond-24th St Mission and Blue Line trains run Dublin/Pleasanton-24th St Mission. The southern Yellow Line service runs Daly City-Millbrae, including SFO, throughout the day.
For South Bay journeys toward San Francisco, change from Orange to Blue at Bay Fair. In the other direction, change from Blue to Orange there. Use these dated arrangements instead of a normal-weekend system map.
Express or stopping bus: choose before leaving the platform
The closure notice describes two free replacements between 24th St Mission and Daly City:
- SamTrans express: connects the two endpoints without the intermediate station stops.
- Muni hopper: also serves Glen Park and Balboa Park.
Choose the express to cross the whole gap, or the hopper for either intermediate station. BART expects delays of up to 30 minutes south of 24th St Mission. This is an estimate, not a guarantee for an airport connection. Queues, luggage handling and a missed onward train can consume more of your margin.
Staff, interpreters and temporary signs are planned at affected stations. The notice does not give a precise boarding curb or bus departure interval. Ask staff before joining a queue rather than choosing an ordinary stop because its operator's name matches.
The notice also lists temporary parking restrictions at Daly City's St Charles Avenue and John Daly Boulevard/De Long surface lots, with different windows. Check the named lot before driving to your usual parking place.
SFO: separate the rail transfer from the terminal transfer
After the city-to-airport bus bridge, check the Daly City train display for the southern service that includes SFO. Millbrae and SFO are different stops; do not treat the name Millbrae as an instruction to leave the train for the airport.
In reverse, reach Daly City from SFO, take the bus to 24th St Mission and continue north. The closure notice gives southern trains every 15 minutes and other lines every 20 minutes. The timetable update warns that departures can move up to three minutes earlier or later. Arrive for the revised departure, not your usual one.
The SFO airport guide places BART in the International Terminal. Its ordinary direct Red and Yellow Line instructions do not override the weekend's split service. It also warns that BART may not suit an early Sunday flight. Check the first useful arrival in the special timetable rather than assuming an early train exists from your station.
At SFO, allow time for the terminal transfer too. The airport's current AirTrain guidance identifies the Garage G AirTrain/BART connection. It says the former Terminal 3 AirTrain station is closed until the new facility opens in 2027; United passengers using AirTrain should use the combined Terminals 2 & 3 station.
AirTrain is the airport's system, separate from BART. SFO warns that routine AirTrain maintenance between 23:00 and 05:00 can extend journeys. A late arrival needs a terminal plan as well as a rail plan.
OAK: a different change, not the SFO bus bridge
Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport, OAK, is not San Francisco International Airport, SFO. Check the code on your flight booking before following an airport route.
The November 4 connector notice covers maintenance from 20:00 Saturday November 14 to 08:00 Sunday November 15. BART describes approximately nine minutes on average between airport-connector trains during the work. This is a service interval, not nine minutes added to every journey and not a maximum wait.
The OAK connection guide places the connector at Coliseum Platform 3. Use Blue Line service between downtown San Francisco and Coliseum during the Green Line cancellation. Downtown Oakland connections use the Orange Line.
An overnight maintenance window does not promise all-night BART. The normal OAK guide lists Sunday mainline service starting at 08:00. For an early Sunday flight, check a date-specific journey and arrange another transfer if necessary. The guide also says there is no real-time tracking feed for the airport connector. A blank live display is not, by itself, proof that it has stopped.
Fares, luggage and step-free transfers
The replacement buses are free; the rest of your BART journey is not automatically free. BART's fare guidance accepts Clipper or contactless Tap and Ride. Use the same card or device for rail entry and exit. A physical bank card and its phone-wallet version are different payment tokens.
The closure notice does not specify the temporary tap procedure at the bus-transfer stations. Ask the station agent how to pass through before tapping out or back in. Do not reuse a fare-gate instruction from an older bus bridge. Eligibility-based discounts still require the appropriate Clipper card rather than a full-fare bank-card payment.
With large bags, a stroller or a mobility aid, allow time to change vehicles and keep transfer essentials together. BART's accessibility guide describes station elevators, wider gates, level train boarding and help points. That does not establish that every elevator will work on your travel day or confirm this bus bridge's precise accessible boarding arrangement.
Check elevator status and ask about the replacement-bus transfer before committing to a flight connection. Keep wheelchair spaces and doorways clear. Resolve the whole step-free route, including the pavement between the station and bus, rather than checking only the train.
Check now, then again before departure
Use the official BART app and service advisories for the dated timetable, cancellations and elevator information. Third-party maps can help, but BART says it cannot control when another provider picks up its updates.
Before leaving your accommodation:
- Confirm SFO or OAK, your terminal and the flight date.
- Save the stations, bus endpoints and terminal route offline.
- Check the first and last useful connections, including the bus transfer.
- Compare arrival with your airline's check-in and bag-drop deadlines. Add contingency rather than treating the delay estimate as a flight guarantee.
- Keep a backup transport option and its booking details accessible if the margin is too small.
Mobile data for changing routes away from Wi-Fi
Download the route and accommodation address before leaving Wi-Fi. Offline maps help locate a station, but cannot receive live cancellations or a changed meeting point while the phone is offline.
For visitors needing a small allowance for those checks, OpenSim United States plans include 1 GB for seven days at USD1.66 and 3 GB for 15 days at USD4.40, listed on November 8. Both fixed-data options are eligible for top-up. The smaller plan can suit a short visit with downloads and video kept on Wi-Fi; the longer allowance is an option for a wider trip.
This gives you a way to budget for mobile access away from a hotspot, not a claim that OpenSim is cheapest for everyone. Keep an existing US plan if it already supplies suitable data. An eSIM cannot shorten a bus queue or make an inaccessible transfer usable.
Use the travel data calculator, check phone compatibility and read when to install an eSIM before travel. For a longer family holiday, the United States with kids guide helps separate regional trips rather than packing too many destinations into one visit.
Sources and updates
BART's closure notice supports the bus choices and delay estimate; its November 3 timetable update supports the line changes. The OAK notice supports the separate connector window. BART's airport, fare and accessibility guides and SFO's AirTrain page cover onward transfers.
This guide will be updated if BART changes the work dates, replacement stops, service pattern or accessible transfer arrangements, and when the operator confirms normal service has resumed. Use current advisories rather than treating the planned end of the weekend as confirmation of reopening.
Photo: Pi.1415926535 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped; the adapted image remains under that license. It shows Daly City station in July 2023, not the November 2026 works.
