Federal Opportunities and Risks for Transit Reform: What the T&I Committee’s Surface Transportation Markup Means for Service, Costs, and the Bay Area
The House released a bipartisan markup of a Surface Transportation Re-Authorization called Build 250. This legislation would govern transit, rail and other modes for the next 5 years. Overall, the proposal has significantly lower investment in transit and rail relative to roads and bridges, as well as greater uncertainty for rail and transit year to year. There are some other beneficial policy provisions with opportunities to enable wiser and more cost-effective investments in planning and strengthening the ability to invest in the core capacity of existing rail and transit systems.
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Vote by California regulators puts at risk billions in public transit and affordable housing funding.
Changes to the Cap-and-Invest program puts at risk billions per year in funding for critical transit, affordable housing, and climate investments. The decision by the California Air Resource Board gives away free allowances to companies to pollute and poses a major setback to our state's ability to fight climate change and make the state a more affordable place to live.
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Campaign to save Bay Area public transit smashes signature gathering goal fueled by grassroots, transit rider organizing
The success of this effort was built on one of the largest grassroots transit organizing efforts the region has ever seen. Seamless Bay Area and Transbay Coalition co-led this effort which mobilized more than 1,000 volunteers across 600 events in a four month period.
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Regional Rail at Risk: Amidst Crisis, LOSSAN Working Group Asleep at the Wheel
The imminent fiscal crisis provides urgency for reform. Metrolink is a regional system that will someday be part of the backbone of the state high-speed rail network. Its capital projects are primarily funded by the state. Fixing Metrolink’s dysfunction is in the state’s interest - and the state has intervened in local transit budget crises before, with the state’s 2025 loan to Bay Area transit agencies in crisis. But the state agency most poised to intervene seems instead poised to let us down.
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Regional Rail at Risk: How Metrolink governance holds back capital modernization
In previous posts in this series, we discussed Metrolink’s imminent budget crisis and its struggles to maintain and expand service and ridership. These are exacerbated by its inability to deliver capital improvements, from basic maintenance to ambitious modernization programs like electrification.
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Regional Rail in Crisis: How Metrolink's governance holds back service, ridership, and growth
Southern California's regional rail system, Metrolink, faces $30M shortfalls that threatens service cuts driven by political choices from specific counties. These cuts are part of broader flaws in Metrolink governance that have stymied a more ambitious vision since its founding, and threaten to curtail Metrolink’s most ambitious plans. But the current crisis offers an opportunity for change.
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Metrolink is facing service cuts – Take Action Now!
Metrolink is in a dire situation in 2026. Dozens of trains across the system have been permanently cut due to equipment issues stemming from deferred maintenance - and more cuts could be coming in October thanks to a $30M operating budget deficit. While Metrolink had ambitious plans for service improvements, now riders could see mid-day, evening, and weekend trains eliminated instead.
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Vote yes on Measure B to sustain and expand North Bay train service
Nearly a decade ago, Marin and Sonoma re-started passenger rail service with the launch of SMART. The train has been a massive success with millions of trips served. And now voters have the opportunity to continue funding SMART service and paving the way for future expansions to the north and east. Seamless Bay Area and Transbay Coalition urges a yes vote on Measure B.
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Community advocates gather more than 58,000 signatures for Connect Bay Area ballot initiative, 6,000 for Stronger Muni for All
This massive effort may be the the largest mobilization of Bay Area transit riders in recent history and is being co-led by Seamless Bay Area and Transbay Coalition. Over 900 volunteers have been trained at more than 500 events in the last three months.
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Bay Area Transportation Candidate Questionnaire, 2026 June Primary
Elected officials at every level of government in the Bay Area can play a vital role in making it easier, safer, and greener for more people to get in and around our communities. Over 80 candidates responded to this questionnaire about transit, traffic violence, and bike/pedestrian infrastructure. This includes candidates for the US House of Representatives, State Assembly, State Senate, County Supervisor, and City Council, Mayor positions in all 9-Bay Area Counties. See what the candidates vying for YOUR vote have to say about transportation issues.
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AC Transit service to be cut by 31% of pre-2019 levels unless we pass the Connect Bay Area ballot initiative
Without new funding, AC Transit will have to cut service leading to a 31% reduction compared to 2019 levels. The approved plan calls for minimizing complete elimination of entire lines and focusing cuts on span of service and frequency reductions. Help prevent cuts to AC Transit and transit across the Bay Area by gathering signatures to get the Connect Bay Area regional transit ballot initiative on the November ballot.
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Notes from Sweden: Centralized Capacity, Multi-Year Funding Frameworks, and Project Sponsorship Enable Transformative Capital Projects
Sweden has low transit capital costs among wealthy countries and a record of success in building excellent services that have led to high ridership. At the core of Sweden’s cost-effective project delivery are three key factors - centralized state capacity, multi-year funding framework, and business cases and ‘project sponsorship’. California should look to Sweden’s example as it considers strategies to reform project delivery.
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SamTrans and VTA seek input on county funding for regional transit ballot measure
San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties will get new funding to improve local transit – over and above the funding needed to prevent severe cuts to Caltrain and BART – if the Connect Bay Area regional transit ballot measure passes at the November election. SamTrans and VTA are starting to discuss goals for the funding. The money can only go to support public transportation, but it can be used to repave roads that are used by buses.
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Rider-friendly service on the Dumbarton Corridor
SamTrans is again considering a project to improve travel on the Dumbarton Corridor using the current rail right of way. The current project is considering paving over the train tracks to create a busway. However, their proposal does not yet consider the full opportunities to improve rider experience using the corridor, including the connection across the Bay to Union City BART, and the potential to run service after the early evening and over the weekend when there is no service.
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Learning from the Clipper 2 Launch Problems
More than two months after the initial launch date in December, customer upgrades remained on hold due to ongoing issues. These delays are undermining the rollout of one of the region’s signature achievements to make Bay Area transit more rider-friendly, with the introduction of free and reduced priced transfers, which have the potential to increase transit ridership and save riders thousands of dollars per year. Once Cubic cleans up the rollout problems, we strongly encourage an after-action review of the design, testing and launch process in order to identify what led to the problematic launch of Clipper 2.0.
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Bay Area adopts first-step Transit Priority Policy
The Bay Area’s regional transportation body adopted its first Transit Priority Policy for Roadways. The policy sets new requirements for cities and counties to coordinate with transit agencies when they plan MTC-funded changes to streets and roads. MTC will now create a Transit Priority Network for the region, seek to provide financial incentives for these projects, and encourage more cities to adopt transit priority policies. The adopted Transit Priority Policy represents a first step, and there are many further steps available to enhance its effectiveness.
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VICTORY! Parks accessible by transit will be on the Regional Transit Connections map
New regional mapping and wayfinding updates demonstrate the ability for seamless transit to inspire and help riders understand what’s possible. Here’s how we got it on the map.
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BART outlines severe service cuts if Connect Bay Area transit ballot measure fails
If the regional transit funding measure does not pass, BART is looking at severe cuts beginning in 2027, including reducing service by more than 60%, closing 10+ stations, ending service at 9pm, and eliminating entire lines. Help pass the Connect Bay Area transit initiative to prevent cuts.
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