All Nighter (bus service)
The All Nighter is the Bay Area’s late-night bus network. It runs in San Francisco, the East Bay, the Peninsula, and San Jose, and it helps cover the times when BART and Caltrain aren’t running overnight due to track work and other limits.
The service shadows major rail lines, offering a coordinated alternative to the uncoordinated late-night buses that used to appear after midnight. Its slogan is, “Now transit stays up as late as you do!” It began as a pilot in December 2005 and fully launched on March 19, 2006. Because BART often shuts down third-rail power for maintenance, there are no overnight BART trains, so All Nighter provides a reliable night option.
The All Nighter is run by AC Transit, Muni, and SamTrans, with a network of timed transfers to help riders switch between agencies. On weekends, some routes run every 30 minutes between downtown San Francisco and several BART stations along the Richmond and Fremont lines. The program has grown and changed over time, including a Late Night Bus Pilot Program funded by BART to keep service later without hurting workers who rely on it.
One notable route is AC Transit Route 800, which travels along Market Street in San Francisco. This route marked the first All Nighter service to operate anywhere in San Francisco beyond the Transbay Terminal. Funding comes in part from regional transportation measures approved by voters.
Over the years, overnight service existed beyond the All Nighter network but varied in reliability outside San Francisco. The All Nighter concept has shaped how the region thinks about late-night transit, prompting studies and initiatives to improve service, such as increasing headways on certain routes and adding new ones like AC Transit Route 822 to connect more areas.
AC Transit covers much of Contra Costa and Alameda counties, SamTrans covers the Peninsula, Muni serves San Francisco, and the VTA runs some South Bay connections. All Nighter typically runs from midnight to about 5 a.m., with Transbay service extending to 6 a.m. on Saturdays and 8 a.m. on Sundays and holidays to align with BART closures.
There are two main transfer hubs where many routes coordinate to allow direct interagency transfers, plus seven secondary transfer points in San Francisco. The network focuses on dense corridors around Oakland and San Francisco, and it does not provide overnight service to every Bay Area area. The Bay Bridge is the primary cross-Bay connection for All Nighter service.
The All Nighter network officially includes 20+ routes. BART shadow service is provided by AC Transit routes 800 and 801 in the East Bay, Muni route 14 in San Francisco, and SamTrans route ECR OWL on the Peninsula. Caltrain shadow service is provided by SamTrans route 397, with VTA route 22 having previously served that role. All Nighter service to San Francisco International Airport uses SamTrans routes 397 and ECR OWL, while Oakland International Airport is served by AC Transit Route 805.
When the program started in 2006, the service included routes from AC Transit, Muni, SamTrans, County Connection, and Wheels, with most headways at 60 minutes. Muni routes ran about every 30 minutes (and 45 minutes on some lines), and AC Transit had 30-minute headways on weekend routes 800 and 801.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 02:59 (CET).