Commuters crowd on a dimly lit BART platform as the roar of an oncoming train pushes cold air through their hair. It’s a daily ritual for over 200,000 Bay Area commuters — but due to the transit agency’s funding crisis, their rides could grind to a halt.
Facing up to $400 million in budget deficits, Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, announced on Feb. 2 it could soon reduce services, raise fares and paralyze travel for hundreds of thousands who rely on the region’s line connections in the state’s second-largest metropolitan area.
Now, the agency is seeking a permanent funding source after recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic that devastated ridership, and is banking on an upcoming sales tax measure to keep service going through 2027.
Senate Bill 63, passed by the state legislature in late 2025, allows for a local transit sales tax measure across five bay area counties — San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and San Mateo — to be put on the upcoming ballot through citizen’s initiative.
If approved in November, the measure will generate $1 billion annually for Bay Area transit. BART would receive $310 million each year, effectively slashing its deficit by half.
For an agency historically reliant on ridership, which plummeted during the pandemic, the tax measure could be life or death for commuters.
“Service cuts are gonna be brutal,” said Astral T., a 21-year-old woman who lives in Berkeley, for whom BART represents the only affordable way to reach San Francisco.
Without the measure, BART will be truncated to only three core lines, reducing key routes like the Red and Green line to rush hour service. On top of this, trains would come only every 30 to 60 minutes system-wide.
Such changes could have measurable impacts on the way Bay Area workers get to and from work — for starters, by adding more cars to the region’s already crowded highways and bridges.
“I probably wouldn’t ride it as often,” said an anonymous middle-aged rider who commutes on the Orange Line weekly.
“I own a car, but I prefer to use BART. It beats traffic.”
For those without a car, the threat is much more dire.
“How would I travel without BART?” said a San Jose resident named Kane. Although currently unemployed, Kane, 30, said he’s worried the cuts would impact his quality of life — like his ability to travel to see friends.
“It’s important to have these systems,” he said, and “government services should not be required to [make] a profit.”
Although BART received an emergency $590 million loan from the state legislature in February, these funds will run out by the end of 2026.
In the past, BART has relied on commuter revenue like tickets and parking permits to fund the agency. While they used to account for 70% of BART’s budget, once ridership dropped in the pandemic, those funds plummeted to just 32% — even though the number of riders has since rebounded.
“Despite record post-pandemic ridership, fare revenue still falls short of what is needed to sustain BART operations,” explained BART in a press release. “Even with continued growth, ridership alone is not enough to close the funding gap, and a new funding source is needed.”
For Raven T., a 22-year-old commuter from Pleasanton, life without BART would be costly.
“It’s my main source of transportation,” they explained. “I usually take it for work. [The cuts] would make it very hard to do that, at least on a reasonable price.”
“You can Uber, but that’s triple the price than taking the bus or BART.”
In order to get on the November ballot, the measure needs 200,000 signatures from local residents. With a month left until the deadline, volunteers like Jacob S. are hard at work petitioning riders and others who support BART.
“It’s the lifeline of the bay,” Jacob said while collecting signatures at the Downtown Berkeley BART station, where he approached riders on the platform. “People rely on this infrastructure — a lot use it to get around.”
Jacob, along with numerous volunteers and canvassers, say their effort represents BART’s last defense against irreparable service cuts. For transit activists like Carter Lavin, who is also trying to put the funding measure on the ballot, it’s an existential issue for the Bay Area economy.
“Things are not going to be okay” if BART follows through with its proposed cuts to service, explained Lavin.
“It’s extremely important for people to understand the stakes at play here. We’re facing massive cuts and disruptions to our communities.”
Lavin pointed out that County Connection, the primary transit agency for central Contra Costa County, would also face service cuts if the measure fails to make it on the ballot.
“It’s not getting nearly the same attention, but County Connection is also facing major cuts,” Lavin said. As a result of “ less frequent bus service, people won’t be able to get where they need to go, [and] they’ll have to drive, which means more competition for parking and more traffic.”
The impact on young people in particular could be severe, he added, since “it’ll be harder for students to go to and from class and work.”
“Whether or not you drive or take transit, these cuts will affect you.”
As activists aggressively campaign for the transit measure, riders are worrying over a future without BART.
“People say we don’t need it,” said Vanessa R., a DVC alum in her mid-20s who primarily rides BART to work in San Francisco. “But it’s going to affect them more. [There will be] more commuters on the bridge, which makes city travel slower.”
“BART isn’t perfect, but we really need it.”