BART could put fare hikes on hold

BART leaders desperate to get riders back on board are considering delaying an upcoming fare hike — but only for six months.

The transit agency is recommending its board push back the previously approved 3.4% fare increase, set to take effect in January 2022, to the following July. It was approved under a plan to raise ticket prices based on inflation every other year through 2026; future hikes still would proceed as planned.

That’s one of several strategies BART could pursue in its next budget as the transit system hopes to recover from the pandemic that at one point drove away more than 90% of its riders.

Others include restoring most of the service cuts implemented in the spring of 2020, as well as a shift in cleaning strategy away from saturating trains with disinfectant — a practice epidemiologists now regard as unnecessary in the fight against the coronavirus — and toward more noticeable problems like litter and graffiti.

The BART board is set to discuss the budget proposal at a meeting today.

The service restoration plan the agency staff is recommending would extend the end of the system’s operating hours from 9 p.m. to midnight six days per week starting in September and would increase the frequency of trains to their pre-pandemic base schedule of running every 15 minutes. Between now and September, agency leaders say they could add more trains as needed during busier commute hours.

BART has been kept afloat over the past year thanks to federal COVID-19 relief packages, which provided it with $755 million in emergency funding that made up for massive declines in ridership.

In normal years, passenger fares are BART’s primary source of revenue, adding to the urgency of its efforts to attract more riders as the economy reopens. Though the agency has enough money thanks to federal aid to get through the coming fiscal year, officials are projecting large deficits in the years after that if revenues don’t improve significantly.

BART has been serving more passengers lately amid loosening restrictions but remains far below its pre-pandemic ridership. Thursday and Friday were the system’s best ridership days since March of 2020, with more than 59,000 passengers — compared with over 400,000 riders on a typical day before the coronavirus.