Lynn Friedman via Flickr

If you choose to get hammered on New Year’s Eve, rest assured you can get home safely for free via bus, train or light rail if you live anywhere other than the North Bay. Within San Francisco, get free rides on Muni all night starting at 8 pm on December 31, 2018.

Other Free Rides Home

• AAA Safe Ride Home – Not yet updated for 12/31/18 – Northern California AAA offers free rides home for drivers from 6pm on New Year’s Eve to 6am on New Year’s Day
• Free Uber / Cab / Lyft Home – GJEL Accident Attorneys will pay for a safe ride home up to $25. Full Details.

We’ve denoted below if we have information verified for 12/31/18.

SF Muni – Confirmed for 12/31/18
Free rides on all Muni lines and routes from 8 pm on New Year’s Eve until 5 am on New Year’s Day.

>>IMPORTANT: Please do not tag your Clipper card during the complimentary service.

• Extra Owl service from 1am to 5am on 5 Fulton, 14 Mission, 22 Fillmore, 24 Divisadero, 25 Treasure Island, 38 Geary, 44 O’Shaughnessy, 48 Quintara/24th , 90 Owl, 91 Owl, L Owl, N Owl
• Extra Muni Metro service all night – Between West Portal and Embarcadero stations until 5 a.m. Between West Portal Station and 4th & King until 2:15 a.m.
• Service on the F Market & Wharves historic streetcar line is provided by buses all day
• Service on the Cable Cars is provided by buses after approximately 6 p.m.

SamTrans  – Confirmed for 12/31/18
Starting at 8 pm and lasting until 5 am, SamTrans will allow passengers to board free of charge on all bus lines, as a way to encourage party goers to leave their cars at home. Confirmed for 12/31/18 via sfmta.com

CalTrain  – Confirmed for 12/31/18
Free rides starting at 8 pm with extra late night trains. Typically there are four post-fireworks trains that take off as soon as they are full. – Don’t tag your clipper card.

Caltrain runs two extra trains headed to San Francisco during the early evening and will operate additional southbound trains after the end of the San Francisco fireworks show. Post-firework trains will make all local weekend stops from San Francisco to San Jose. Departure times will vary depending on crowd size and will depart when full, with the final train departing San Francisco at 2 a.m.

VTA – Confirmed for 12/31/18
Between 8 pm on New Year’s Eve and 5 am on New Year’s Day, all VTA service will be free.

Light Rail

• Last trip leaving Santa Teresa at 1:52 a.m.
• Last trip leaving Alum Rock at 1:43 a.m.
• Last trip leaving Winchester at 1:51 a.m.
• Last trip leaving Mountain View at 10:47 p.m.
• Last trip leaving Old Ironsides (southbound only) at 12:50 a.m.

Express Line 181 (to the Warm Springs BART Station)

• Last northbound bus leaving Diridon Station at 2:09 a.m. arriving at Warm Springs BART at 2:45 a.m.
• Last southbound bus leaving Warm Springs BART at 3:08 a.m. arriving at 2nd & Santa Clara at 3:37 a.m. (Does not go to the Diridon Station)

BART – Confirmed for 12/31/18 
No special fares for New Year’s Eve, but there will be extended service until 3 am. Trains will run every 20 minutes after midnight with extra trains standing by in downtown San Francisco after the fireworks show. View BART NYE Schedule. The best tip we can give is to buy your round trip ticket in advance to avoid a line on the way home.

>> “Skip Stop” Schedule at Embarcadero, Montgomery and West Oakland
Beginning at 8 pm, BART will utilize a “skip-stop” train pattern into and out of San Francisco:

Going into San Francisco – After 8 pm:

• Antioch and Richmond line trains heading into San Francisco will not stop at Embarcadero Station. Exit at Montgomery Street Station for the fireworks show.
• Dublin/Pleasanton and So. Fremont/Warm Springs line trains will not stop at Montgomery Street Station. Exit at Embarcadero Station for the fireworks show.
• Trains from Millbrae, Daly City, and SFO will stop at all stations in San Francisco.

After the fireworks end:

• Antioch and Richmond line trains will not stop at Embarcadero Station. Use Montgomery Street Station to catch these trains.
• Dublin/ Pleasanton and So. Fremont/Warm Springs line trains will not stop at Montgomery Street Station. Use Embarcadero Station to catch these trains.
• Dublin/Pleasanton and So. Fremont/Warm Springs line trains will not stop at West Oakland. The first East Bay stop will be Lake Merritt Station. You will need to change to a SF-bound train at Lake Merritt if you need to return to West Oakland.
• Millbrae, Daly City, and SFO passengers should use Montgomery Street Station.

Golden Gate Transit Bus – Confirmed for 12/31/18  – offers no special fares for New Year’s Eve and will run a normal Sunday schedule.

Golden Gate Ferry – Confirmed for 12/31/18  – will operate on a normal Sunday schedule on New Year’s Eve and will be closed on New Year’s Day.

Not Yet Confirmed for 12/31/18

AC Transit – Unconfirmed for 2018
AC Transit has confirmed for us that they will again be offering free rides on all lines on 12/31/17 beginning New Year’s Eve from 8 pm until 5 am on New Year’s Day. AC Transit’s All Nighter bus lines, like the 800, 801, 802, 805, 840, and 851 run every night with destinations from San Francisco to Richmond and Fremont, or downtown Berkeley on Sunday.

A complete list of stops served on All Nighter lines is available on the District’s website, along with maps and schedules for all lines.

Free Downtown Oakland Broadway Shuttle
Unconfirmed for 2017: In some previous years, the Downtown Oakland’s Free B Shuttle has run on New Year’s Eve every 10-15 minutes from 7 pm to 1 am; hop on and hop off at any stop between Embarcadero West (Jack London Square) and 27th Street. However, it did not run on New Year’s Eve 2016.

All details have been confirmed with the transit agencies for December 31, 2018.

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