After voicing dissatisfaction with staff recommendations on how to quell a $300 million budget deficit, some BART board members offered bolder suggestions, such as merging with Caltrain or incorporating San Mateo and Santa Clara counties into the agency’s districts.
“I think it’s time that we really think about what expanding the district looks like and what bringing in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties looks like. It gets brought up all the time, and it increases accountability in our system if those are also our voter bases,” BART board President Janice Li said during the Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, Oct. 26. “It also reconsiders our tax base. I don’t want this to just be an option where we say, ‘oh yeah, but it’s really hard.’”
While eight BART stations run through San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, the board does not represent those areas, instead covering nine districts spread throughout San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Adding San Mateo and Santa Clara counties would indeed have revenue impacts for the agency, as sales tax from currently participating counties accounts for a substantial portion of BART’s revenue.
Where budgetary challenges have arisen, however, revolves less around sales tax revenue and more around fare revenue, a direct result of ridership levels that have yet to fully recover from pre-pandemic levels. Prior to 2020, fare revenues covered about 60% of operating expenses, but that share more than halved last fiscal year.
But Gina Papan, member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and a Millbrae councilmember, said there are structural and operational issues that need to be addressed before BART can expect a substantial increase in ridership, stating that there is also the question of whether the agency should even have their own elected board.
While BART’s Board of Directors are elected directly by the public, the Caltrain and SamTrans boards often tend to be comprised of elected officials who are appointed by the county or the City Selection Committee.
She cited long-neglected problems such as fare gate evasion, panhandling and empty kiosks that affect public safety and perception. Allowing retail businesses in the stations could give them a modest financial bump as well.
“Will it bail them out? No, but it will improve the customer experience, which will improve the ridership,” she said, also noting that more station activity heightens users’ overall sense of security.
The issues speak to a larger concern around the fragmented nature of the region’s many independent transit agencies, each with their own set of ridership and budget challenges. While a consolidated network could lead to a more streamlined experience and better ridership in theory, uncertainty around how it would unfold in practice remains.
“It’s certainly worth the exploration to have San Mateo County join the BART district. As a member of the MTC Board of Commissioners, Supervisor Canepa is keenly interested in creating a seamless network of public transit in the Bay Area, which includes BART, Caltrain and SamTrans,” Bill Silverfarb, policy adviser to David Canepa, member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and member of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, wrote in an email. “But the devil is in the details, and our main goal is to protect the interests of all San Mateo County residents. I encourage BART staff to conduct extensive outreach to every city in the county to ensure this is a completely inclusive and transparent process before we even consider joining the district.”
Adding San Mateo County as a BART district could mean a higher portion of the county’s tax revenue would go to the agency, something Papan said would not be popular with residents. A spokesperson for BART said the agency has not spearheaded similar initiatives in the past, and the move to consolidate with San Mateo and Santa Clara counties would require state legislation.
(3) comments
So this is BART’s answer? What exactly will occur during this merge that will save $300 million? It seems to me that if ridership levels are low, we should cut the number of trains running and the number of personnel until such time that ridership increases. Time to vote in a new BART Board of Directors that isn’t always looking to the general public, and in this case, San Mateo County residents as an ATM. As Mr. van Ulden noted, let’s start getting rid of folks at the inefficient, bloated employment bureaucracy. I’d posit that those actions will improve the customer experience more than any other action.
Perhaps someone can explain why our counties need to bail out a most inefficient, bloated employment bureaucracy that attempts to pass for a transit agency?
Because democrat politicians approve and provide bloated salaries and pensions to the unions, the unions then return millions back to Newsom, Pelosi, and the local democrat yahoos in the name of campaign contributions.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.