When the COVID-19 pandemic hit five years ago, the state forced countless businesses to shut down and told millions of California workers to stay home.
The abrupt interference with normalcy had many financial, social and political impacts. One was to slash ridership and fare revenues of public transit systems, particularly in the transit-dependent San Francisco Bay Area.
The 27 Bay Area transit systems received $4.5 billion in federal funds, $5.1 billion in a one-time state appropriation and some ongoing state aid to cope with pandemic impacts. However, they say they are still hurting, with accumulated operating losses of several hundred million dollars since 2020, and they will face what they call a “fiscal cliff” in 2026 that would spark service reductions…