You know, I've done a number of posts (as has John) on San Francisco's public transportation ills, particularly their Bay Area Rapid Transit or BART commuter trains. Two years ago this month, the city was plaintively asking 'Why nobody ride our trains?' What I found was simply a nightmare of breakdowns, robberies, drug addicts shooting up or doing deals, and homeless vagrants plaguing people who were trying to use the trains as they were meant to be used - getting safely and efficiently from Point A to Point B.
In the intervening two years, San Francisco has experienced a steady and ongoing exodus of residents and businesses from the city center that has impacted the BART ridership numbers needed to keep the transit system viable, never having recovered to anywhere near what the pre-pandemic 2019 levels were.
On a recent Friday morning at the North Concord BART station, people exiting trains onto the platform were few and far between. Cows grazing placidly on the nearby hillsides seemed more plentiful.
It’s no surprise: Ridership at the station was down more than 66% in 2024 compared with 2019. And trips to and from downtown San Francisco from the East Bay station were down even more, with 75% fewer trips in 2024 than before the pandemic.
After the pandemic shattered the Bay Area’s commuting patterns, yearly BART ridership has continued to struggle to rise to anywhere near 2019 levels. While San Francisco’s downtown stations have suffered enormous losses in passenger traffic, BART’s most far-flung stations have also seen a disproportionate decline, a Chronicle analysis found.
Only the lower-income communities served by the BART lines experienced any notable ridership recovery, and, even then, not a single BART station has ever again tapped that magic 2019 number.
...BART stations that have recovered better, on the other hand, tend to serve lower-income communities and those with less access to vehicles, BART officials noted in a report in June. Meanwhile, workers in better-off communities at the periphery could have shifted more of their trips to cars or continued to work remotely.
The numbers are even more stark at each of these stations when looking specifically at rides ending at one of the four downtown San Francisco stations: Civic Center, Powell, Montgomery and Embarcadero. Each of the aforementioned stations saw trips to these stations decline by around 70% or more.
On BART's website, they are right upfront about the 'fiscal cliff' the system is facing.
After going through a cycle where they managed to pull themselves out of a $35M budget deficit for this year through rigid cost-cutting and cost control 'efficiencies.' But as of 2026, the funds they have available all go away, and ridership no longer pays the freight and, in the classically incomprehensible verbiage of the woke, relying on fares to pay for the system is 'unjust.'
Don't ask me to 'splain - I'm just here to tell you what they said.
...Before the pandemic, money from passenger fares and parking fees covered nearly 70% of the cost to run BART service. This means that for decades, our riders carried the burden of funding the majority of the BART operating budget, even though all residents of the Bay Area benefit from BART, even those who do not ride. Now, because of remote work, only 25% of operating costs are covered by fares. That significant funding gap puts BART service at risk.
BART's funding model no longer works. Relying on passenger fares is outdated and is unjust.
...Like other transit systems across the country, BART has been fortunate to receive nearly $2 billion in federal, state, and regional emergency assistance since the start of the pandemic to keep trains running and improve service and cleanliness, but this funding will be fully used up by spring 2026. BART closed the FY2026 deficit operating deficit with cuts, but is facing ongoing structural deficits ranging from $350 million to $400 million per year beginning in FY2027.
...Even with belt-tightening, we can’t cut our way out of the crisis. That is because rail has high fixed costs to maintain our infrastructure and low marginal costs driven by changes in service. BART would have to cut service 65% to 85% to save 20% to 40%. Cutting service and scaling back on cleanliness and safety efforts will only trigger a transit death spiral. People will not use BART if they must wait too long for a train or if the experience declines.
The last sentence is strangely prophetic.
Here's BART today with a whale of an infrastructure problem affecting everyone's wait and experience right smack in the middle of the Friday morning commute.
The ENTIRE rail system was down.
Gosh. Wonder why?
Well that explains a lot. Wow just wow!
— Cali Mama Patriot (@gma_here) May 9, 2025
BART was helpful, prodding stranded customers with 'find a ride' maps...
Use the map below to find Transbay Service from BART stations.
— BART (@SFBART) May 9, 2025
Due to a computer networking problem BART service is suspended system wide until further notice. Seek alternate means of transportation.
Find more info at https://t.co/OvfGU3EIc0 pic.twitter.com/ea6OdIM6wu
...and Xweets.
Due to a computer networking problem BART service is suspended system wide until further notice. Seek alternate means of transportation. Find more info at https://t.co/DVWMOmCfmD
— BART Alert (@SFBARTalert) May 9, 2025
The mass transit experience in a blue city only gets better, especially if you have no car, no close friends, and no money for an Uber or Lyft.
Breaking news
— Will Tran (@KRON4WTran) May 9, 2025
Bart trains ARE NOT running system wide because of computer issues
So many caught off guard when they came to Bart stations like this one in Union city
Forced to ask for a ride from family, use ride share or even call out
No estimated time on it will resume pic.twitter.com/7C2DBXc5DO
Absolutely a pain in the butt for a city with a commuter model on moving people with mass transit.
...The parking lot sat largely empty around 7:30 a.m. at the Rockridge BART station in Oakland. Several people sprinted for the stairs to catch a train, only to be stopped by a BART worker in a neon vest and a sign reading “No Transbay BART service.”
Myra Villas was heading to her office in the Tenderloin, where she works as a social worker and doesn’t have the option of working from home. She pulled out her phone to alert her boss.
“It’s annoying, but I’ll figure it out,” she said. “I have a car.”
David Meland waited for more than an hour outside the Rockridge station to see if service would resume. The price of a Lyft to his job was around $70 — not an option for him. He was worried about being late again for work at a coffee shop in San Francisco.
“It’s happened a lot. BART’s just too inconsistent,” Meland said. “This is pretty bad.”
If you did catch a ride, it's best that it was your own vehicle, because the extra traffic was going to make your cab ride the expensive ride of a lifetime.
BART’s system is down today so I’m driving into the office. I’ve been sitting in traffic for 45 minutes waiting to get through the Bay Bridge toll. Why doesn’t the Bay Area Toll Authority spend the money to modernize the pass through so cars don’t have to slow down. pic.twitter.com/Ph0KvCXWo8
— Zeid Houssami (@ZeidHoussami) May 9, 2025
After hours of commuting chaos, BART announced they had things back up and running, but that didn't mean actually 'running' close to whatever their usual high standards were.
San Francisco’s BART subway system is back up and running after service was suspended and shut down on Friday morning due to a “computer networking problem.” The service is back online “system wide” as of about 9:17AM PT, but BART says to “expect major delays in service toward all destinations due to an earlier train control problem.”
You can bet some folks in maintenance and administration are drinking heavily and going 'TGIF,' no?
What the answer is I have no idea.
BART spent all its money on plexiglass fare gates and glass walls around station entrances.
— Y Disassembler (@loomdoop) May 9, 2025
Maybe they should have focused on having an operational transit system? https://t.co/IVG5StQ4xE pic.twitter.com/PEsEXo9VpQ
Whatever it is, perhaps they should stop worrying so much about what's 'just' and just about what makes enough money to get things fixed.
Upgrading anything appears to be another pipe dream until they have a city someone wants to live in again
That's probably unjust, even thinking about it.
