For several years, the Bay Area’s major transit systems have financially struggled. The pandemic massively cut into ridership, and as the number of fare-paying passengers declined, agencies from BART to AC Transit have relied on state and federal funding to bridge the gap.
Slowly, over the past year or two, ridership has been recovering. For example, BART, the region’s biggest train system, recently experienced double-digit percentage growth in ridership, according to the most recent data.
But the Bay’s transit systems are still not out of the financial woods — ridership still lags behind pre-pandemic levels, and big budget deficits are looming. BART; San Francisco’s MUNI bus service; AC Transit, whose buses connect Oakland, Richmond, Fremont, and everything in between; and Caltrain, which serves San Francisco and the peninsula, are projected to have a combined $800 million in operating deficits starting next year…