New report outlines potential BART service cuts without new funding measure

According to a recently released report, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) would need to make significant service cuts if a long-term funding solution to fund agency operations isn’t found.

Connect Bay Area would provide necessary funding for Bay Area transit services in the form of a five-county sales tax measure that, if it makes the ballot and is approved this November, would provide long-term operations funding for major Bay Area transit agencies, including BART, and support regional projects to strengthen transit throughout the Bay Area.

According to Connect Bay Area, BART service cuts would include cutting service on most of the system created after 1976, setting BART back by 50 years. Included in the report are the following potential cuts to BART service:

• The closure of up to 15 stations.
• Shutting the Blue Line (Dublin/Pleasanton) down and reducing other lines to only peak hour service or shortening routes.
• Cutting train service hours by 70%.
• Cutting 25% of the miles off the system.

“These cuts would eviscerate service and set BART back 50 years,” said Connect Bay Area spokesperson Jeff Cretan. “The Bay Area needs public transit, so people have a safe, affordable and efficient way to get wherever they need to go. This will make the region less affordable for working people and jeopardize the Bay Area’s economic recovery.”

The organization says these reductions would hurt riders by forcing longer wait times and loss of service, impact drivers who would be stuck in worsening traffic as transit riders flood the roads and make the entire Bay Area less affordable. BART’s full report will be discussed by the BART Board of Directors on Wednesday, Feb. 11. 

"The cuts that BART is contemplating are a looming disaster,” said San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association Transportation Policy Director Laura Tolkoff.  “But the good news is that we know exactly what to do to stop it from happening—pass a regional transit measure in November."

These proposed cuts reflect a broader regional emergency facing transit systems throughout the Bay Area, driven by declining revenues and the absence of long-term operating funding. The BART report follows on recent reports by other major transit agencies highlighting the devastating impacts these funding cuts would have on Bay Area transit, including that from San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority last week and from Caltrain last November.