This is your quick guide for all the fun taking place across the Bay Area including 80+ excited and interactive events, the Ride Contest, nominating your Transit Heroes of 2026, and more!
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This year, the Bay Area’s transit system is taking stock of progress toward a more well-coordinated, rider-friendly system among its 27 agencies, and setting a course toward the next steps of improvement. In five years since the approval of a Transit Transformation Action Plan in 2021, the Bay Area has made significant strides toward a more well-coordinated, rider-friendly system.
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Leaders of the Bay Area’s major transit agencies were strongly in favor of moving forward with next steps toward more integrated and affordable fares, at the most recent meeting of the region’s primary transit coordination forum, the Regional Network Management Council.
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On August 10th, Transbay Coalition and Seamless Bay Area, along with over 30 co-sponsors and 200 attendees from across the state, rallied and lobbied for transit, affordable housing, clean air, and clean water. This is a historic achievement; to our knowledge, this is the largest Transit lobby day ever organized in Sacramento.
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Prop 43, a ballot measure that will be on voters' ballots in November will make it harder to fund transit and other public services in the future, but will not directly impact the 2026 Bay Area transit measures that together are essential to prevent cuts and fund rider improvements.
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In June, Monterey Salinas Transit purchased a system for reloadable open payment cards that can be used by low-income riders who are unbanked or underbanked. Of interest in the Bay Area, SFMTA participated in the RFP for the reloadable open payment cards. SFMTA’s initial focus is to use the cards specifically for parking, to provide payment options for individuals who are unbanked at parking meters and garages.
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The Newsom Administration executive order on transit and rail would be a good start toward accelerating and coordinating improvements to rail and transit in the state – if the Newsom Administration wasn’t at the same time proposing to slash critical state fund programs for rail, transit, and affordable housing near transit.
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Starting on August 15, all 35,000 SJSU students will receive BayPass, the all-agency transit pass. And this May, employees at Caltrain, SamTrans, and SMCTA have been offered BayPass after moving to the agencies’ new headquarters at the Millbrae transit center.
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On June 23, the California Senate Transportation Committee is expected to hear and vote on a good bill to standardize bus stop data, making transit more convenient for riders and enabling smarter planning. AB1599 (Ahrens), sponsored by Seamless Bay Area allies Move LA, AARP, and StreetsforAll, would implement one of the recommendations of the State Transit Transformation Task Force to make transit more seamless across the state.
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Last week, the SamTrans and VTA decided on their priorities for locally controlled funding from the regional transit ballot measure, with high priorities on maintaining and improving local transit service for riders. And next week, the Alameda County Transportation Commission will be making their decision about priorities for locally controlled funding. Read this blog to learn more and take action.
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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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