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Home » BART Fares To Increase 5.5%, Low-Income Fare Discount To Increase To 50%

BART Fares To Increase 5.5%, Low-Income Fare Discount To Increase To 50%

by CLAYCORD.com
24 comments

The following information is from BART:

A fare increase and a deeper discount on fares for qualifying lower-income riders will both go into effect on Monday, January 1, 2024.

The Clipper START means-based fare discount for BART will increase from 20% to 50%, meaning low-income riders will pay half the regular fare. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission pilot program offers discounts for Bay Area residents aged 19-64 earning under 200% of the federal poverty level.

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Clipper START is accepted by more than 20 regional transit operators in addition to BART.

Fares will increase by 5.5% beginning January 1, raising the average fare by 23 cents to $4.43. A 12-mile trip from Downtown Berkeley to Embarcadero, for example, will increase by 25 cents to $4.75. For a 45-mile trip from Antioch to Montgomery Street, the fare will increase by 40 cents to $8.60.

The fare increase was approved by BART’s Board of Directors during the June 8, 2023, budget vote. The Board decided to deviate from its policy of approving a fare increase every two years. BART’s Inflation-Based Fare Increase Program, which has been in place since 2003, would have required an 11% fare increase in January 2024. To cushion the economic impact on riders, the Board directed staff to instead raise fares 5.5% in January 2024 and again at the same rate in January 2025.

BART’s Trip Planner and online Fare Calculator have been updated with the new fares. Riders can look up their new fare by selecting a date of January 1, 2024, or beyond. New fare chart decals will be posted at vending machines.

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Fares Fund Operations

The fare increases are expected to bring in an additional $26 million in operating funds through FY25.
Historically, BART relies on rider fares to fund safe, reliable, and clean service – more so than most other transit systems. This requires small but frequent fare increases to keep up with the cost of inflation.

New Fare Gates Being Deployed

Because our riders are directly responsible for funding our operations, BART is rolling out new fare gates in 2024 to protect against fare evasion and self-enforce fare payments.

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Low-Income Riders Will Pay Less in 2024

Even with the fare increase, low-income riders will pay less for BART because the Clipper START discount is being increased to 50%.

BART Discounts

Youth 5-18 years old get 50% off with a Youth Clipper card.
Seniors 65 and over get 62.5% off with a Senior Clipper card.
Low-income riders get 50% off starting Jan. 1, 2024, through the regional Clipper START program, available to adult riders earning 200% or less of the federal poverty level.
The RTC Clipper card is a version of Clipper created for passengers under 65 with qualifying disabilities for 62.5% off fares.
BART offers a “High-Value Discount.” Adult Clipper cards get a 6.25% discount on cash value rides by buying $48 worth of value for $45 or $64 worth of value for $60 when autoload is set up.

24 Comments
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Great! I identify as Low Income.

16
3

Awesome! My fares go up, and I pay for others to get a discount! Hell Yeah!

32
2

When no one is riding BART because it’s too expensive and full of homeless the right thing to do is raise fares. You can’t make this stuff up people!

41
1

Fare evaders still ride for free.

31
1

If they would clamp down on the fare evaders, maybe they wouldn’t have to raise fares on the rest of us!

16
1

Personally, I don’t mind helping our elderly out at all. But the rest of this BS is just the marxist redistribution of wealth. Commiefornia!

28
4

Considering BART’s current financial condition, where the BART Board of Directors is considering filing for bankruptcy, they shouldn’t be expanding discounted fares.
.
What is with the BART Board of Directors low-income obsession, where they seem to believe low-income individuals only want to travel by BART, and having to build affordable housing all around BART because those individuals qualifying for affordable housing only want to live in mid-rise and high-rise apartments next to BART? It seems they only want to tell low-income earners how to live by telling them how to travel and where to live. Yes, I know the State of California incentives the building of affordable housing near BART, so that’s not what I’m asking, because affordable housing doesn’t have to be built next to BART just because the state offers incentives and/or subsidies.
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BART Director Debora Allen, please explain the increase in reduced fares if you’re reading Claycord.

21

Bart Director Debora Allen is the ONLY one who is good! I believe she often has to fight the others who believe that all the poor homeless and inner city should be able to ride for free by jumping the fare gates with no consequence, due to ‘equity reasons.

13

BADGE 1104,
.
I agree with you.

Next they will decrease frequency of trains, then baffled at loss of ridership they’ll raise fares . . . . .
Endless circle

15

Wow the discount list grows.
Pg@e
Internet
California health care
Cell phones
Even camping reservations
Section 8
Sure makes going to college worth wild.

11
2

“Historically, BART relies on rider fares to fund safe, reliable, and clean service….”

Wtf???? They DON’T HAVE “safe reliable and clean service!”

What in hell have they been spending it on?!?!?!

We DO know that they refused to cooperate with their own Inspector General on an audit – which should tell you plenty.

13

Well starting in January I’ll identify myself as low income. If I get stopped and questioned, I’ll just call it discrimination.

13
1

Criminal when BART management refuses to allow an inspector general to oversee waste, fraud, and abuse. Last inspector general quit because BART refused to allow her to do her job.

15

I don’t know what the solution is, but if it costs more to operate the system than fares and funding you can collect, it’s doomed., don’t matter who’s in charge, what they charge, or what charges you bring against them.

8
1

I challenge anybody to argue against the fact the corporations no longer care about customers, they care 100% about their profit margins.. This has to be an absolute joke! Ridership is at an all time low and the solution is to raise prices!? I haven’t taken BART in years. I always felt like I needed a bath after riding!

I would call BART a corporation.

I wouldn’t call BART a corporation but a government agency.

3
1

Legally, BART is classified as a “Special District”, similar to CoCo Central Sanitary, CoCo Water, and EBMUD to name a few.

EXIT 12A,
.
We keep getting more special districts, too, because it’s a loophole workaround of Proposition 13 to be able to raise more taxes.

.
Pay more for less!
.
That’s Bidenomics & Newsomnomics!
.

8
1

Instead of raising it in a year like they should,they are doing us all a favor and raising it now,because the outrage in a year would be too much,and its all a psychology game,anything the govt does.

2
1

PS
Sarcasm….

2
1

Bart is almost as bad as PG&E wanting to sponge more money from the public. They need to fire all of the Bart board of directors followed by eliminating the PUC which always approves and
raises everyone’s monthly power bills. Time to remove the foxes guarding the henhouse. Utterly useless…

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