Something strange is happening on weekday evenings at the Powell Street BART Station.
Around 5 p.m., people pour onto the platform. There are office workers clutching backpacks and shoppers lugging bags of groceries. There are brusque exchanges on escalators and the occasional sharp elbow. There’s a line for the restroom and an attendant in an orange shirt, asking everyone to wait their turn.
It’s a scene that recalls pre-pandemic days, before the Bay Area settled in to work from home and largely abandoned public transit. Now the rush hour crowds are back, boosting BART to record ridership in the first third of this year. Although the rail agency still only carries half as many riders as it did in 2019, the period from January through April marked its most successful four-month chunk since COVID shutdowns…