Super Bowl hoopla dramatically pumps up BART weekday ridership

Thanks to the Super Bowl and all its pregame festivities, BART’s weekday ridership reached its sixth highest level in the transit system’s history on Wednesday. Thanks to the Super Bowl and all its pregame festivities, BART’s weekday ridership reached its sixth highest level in the transit system’s history on Wednesday. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Super Bowl hoopla dramatically pumps up BART weekday ridership 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

As crowds descend upon the Bay Area for Super Bowl 50, the impact has already been felt on mass transportation with BART reporting its sixth busiest day ever on Wednesday.

More than 471,000 people rode BART on Wednesday, up 40,000 from the regular number of riders on most days, according to a BART tally.

BART officials knew Wednesday would be busy as many tourists were flying in for the Super Bowl its days of pregame festivities, but whether the numbers continue to tick up is difficult to predict.

“With the weather looking good, there’s a strong possibility we will see more people,” said Jim Allison, a spokesman for the agency.

The top BART ridership day came when 568,061 people rode the rails mostly to attend the San Francisco Giants second World Series Victory Parade on Oct. 31, 2012, which was also Halloween. The second highest ridership day came on June 19, 2015, when the Warriors had their championship victory parade in Oakland.

Here are the top 10 BART weekday ridership days of all time:

•Oct. 31, 2012 — 568,061 riders on the day of the Giants World Series victory parade and Halloween.

•June 19, 2015 — 548,076 riders on the day of the Warriors Championship Parade

•Nov. 13, 2010 — 522,198 riders on the day of the Giants World Series Victory Parade

•Oct. 31, 2014 — 511,640 riders on the day of the yet another Giants World Series Victory Parade

•Aug. 29, 2013 — 475,015 riders on the day the Bay Bridge was closed to take the original east span out of service and open the new east span to traffic.

•Feb. 3, 2016 — 471,663 riders for Super Bowl 50 festivities in San Francisco.

•Sept. 25, 2015 — 463,487 riders on the day the of the Bay Bridge Series between the A’s and Giants in Oakland and the AC/DC concert at AT&T Park.

•Oct. 16, 2014 — 462,242 riders on day of Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, and Giants vs. Cardinals playoff game at AT&T Park.

•Dec. 16, 2015 — 461,116 riders on day of Warriors vs. Phoenix Suns game at Oracle Arena.

•Sept. 17, 2015 — 460,965 riders on day of Dreamforce conference and Ricky Martin concert at Oracle.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz