BART Board workshop focuses on funding, ridership regrowth
In late February, the BART board held its annual board workshop. Major themes this year were financial stability and improving customer experience.
The need for a sustainable funding strategy including new funding was front and center given the change in work patterns affecting BART revenue. BART’s ridership historically has closely tracked downtown San Francisco office occupancy, which has been trailing the nation, and BART’s revenue has historically depended heavily on fares.
The board discussed the current campaign to seek funding in the state budget cycle to bridge the gap for a few years while working on a regional transportation funding measure.
Currently, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is planning for a bond measure to support affordable housing in 2024 and for a regional transportation ballot measure in 2026, while seeking funding from the state to bridge the gap in the near term. MTC is currently polling, and results are expected to be public in April or May.
The BART board has consistently supported a multi-agency funding measure, since the alternative of single-agency measures would likely result in a BART measure on the ballot at the same time as measures for SFMTA, AC Transit, and/or Caltrain, making passage of any of the measures more risky.
BART board members were supportive of this timeline but concerned about the risks of waiting until 2026, since the agency anticipates deficits hitting in 2025. Board members mentioned that Senator Wiener has expressed willingness to introduce authorizing legislation for a Bay Area transportation measure in 2023 for 2024. The board expressed support for keeping the option for a 2024 measure on the table considering the outcome of current state budget advocacy and the polling results.
The short and long-term funding options for BART all have governance implications:
For state funding to address the fiscal gap, legislators want to see steps to address the long-term financial stability of transit, solutions to support transit ridership regrowth, and accountability to the state’s goals
For a multi-agency measure, voters will want to see integrated fares and service as an outcome, assuming new polling remains in line with previous polls. To deliver this it will be important to have stronger decision-making for service integration - today, any agency can walk away and break a coordinated system.
In summary, seamless transit is important for the funding options to achieve short and long-term financial stability for transit, and strengthening governance will be important for these goals. Stay tuned for opportunities to support the interrelated goals of transit funding, seamlessness and stronger governance.