BART’s governing board unanimously approved its budget for the coming fiscal year on Thursday as well as a preliminary budget for the following 2023-2024 fiscal year.
The balanced budget includes the use of $313.6 million in federal COVID-19 emergency funding in the 2022-2023 fiscal year as the transit agency continues to recover from its ridership plummeting due to the pandemic.
BART officials elected to switch to a rolling two-year budget approval process this year in an effort to improve the agency’s long-term financial planning.
As part of the budget, BART will increase fares by 3.4 percent systemwide, an increase that was initially planned to go into effect Jan. 1, 2022, in an effort to keep up with inflation. BART officials noted that the 3.4 percent increase remains below current inflation levels.
According to BART officials, the average fare cost will increase 15 cents to $3.78. BART riders pay an average of 28 cents per mile traveled throughout the transit system, according to BART Assistant General Manager for Performance and Budget Pamela Herhold.
The increase is expected to generate roughly $15 million over the coming two fiscal years.
The FY 2023 budget also includes plans to change BART’s Saturday service schedule by running service on all five lines until the system’s closure at midnight.
Currently, BART operates all five of its lines daily until 9 p.m. and then limits service to lines between Millbrae and Antioch, Daly City and Dublin/Pleasanton and Richmond and North San Jose.
Members of BART’s Board of Directors have pushed for more frequent weekend service in the budget approved Thursday as ridership has recovered faster on weekends than it has during the standard work week.
“Using transit should be easy,” BART Board President Rebecca Saltzman said in a statement. “The service plan enabled by this budget makes taking BART more convenient and less complicated.”
The FY 2023 budget will take effect July 1, 2022.
And what do they plan to do after the $313 million federal windfall is gone? That is a pretty big structural deficit to plug and it won’t happen from the fare box
BART will plead with Property Owners for a millage increasing, thinking Renters out Vote Owners, and w/ Rent Control nothing to loose
Deficit? Oh that’s easy, use progressive logic: Make it up in volume.
If BART were completely free I still would not participate. It’s all about the environment for me.
If BART is planning to keep up with inflation, even the fare evaders are going to start complaining about the prices.
How many more billions in hand out’s does Bart need?
Tough. If they stopped the fare cheaters and stopped giving themselves raises plus kept crime and degenerates off of BART maybe people would use it more.
Poor management as is anything now days in our government. IMHO
They still have their plans for a socialist nirvana with high density housing and another tunnel under the bay. They should start work on the tunnel ASAP so that just like the bullet train to nowhere, they can claim they need to finish what was already started. If you start building it, the money will come kind of like a Keven Costner movie but without the wheat fields.
Could you do anything else to discourage people from coming back?
If BARTwas really serious about balancing its books, they would immediately start with the gate jumpers. But why should they? If the government doesn’t bail them out, just increase the fares or seek another ” temporary” bond ie PERMANENT!
The Bart think tank are running out of options. Before, they received the federal funds, the local taxpayers funds, their newly created parking lot funds, and of course the always increasing fair funds. Now they are crying that we want our free money. Well Boo Hoo! How about you get your act together and make taking Bart again a better experience. Good Luck or Good riddance
Rode it for too many years and saw service, safety and cleanliness degrade consistently year after year. Will never ride it again.
Compared to other similar transit systems, it’s just an expensive septic tank that can’t be pumped out. Unsafe and filthy, and they want to spend money on art. Ought to see about deleting that portion from property taxes.
No thanks!
why is it that whenever Bart gets more money the fares go up and the service plummets? I If I were on the board or whom ever allocates and disperses the funds I would at least make small up grades to the station; maybe have some charging outlets at bus stops or outside of the platform, and definitely in the Bart cars, I mean Greyhound has electrical outlets, and that’s just a bus, Bart needs a little upgrade to keep customers happy, if your phone dies and there is not any pamphlets at the bus terminals which there aren’t, because its all digital now. Not everyone can download an app. anyways just thought I would get my 2000 cents in, lol 2 cents w/ inflation. get r dun,