Saturday, June 04, 2005
BART raises fares, cuts service
Facing a $50-million deficit on its $500-million operating budget, BART is raising fares by 10 cents a ride, charging for parking at ten park-and-ride stations, and cutting service. Despite these changes, the budget adopted by the BART board of directors is still in deficit, and it assumes that union workers will accept zero pay increases when the unions are demanding 6-percent increases.
BART ridership peaked in 2001 and dropped by 10 percent since then due to the recession. The recession also reduced the tax revenues that support the agency. Although BART carries a lot of riders each day, mainly middle-class suburbanites, total transit ridership in the San Francisco Bay Area was greater in 1984 than in any year since. BART's critics say this is because BART is taking funds that could otherwise be used to improve bus services for low-income workers in Oakland and other parts of the Bay Area.
BART's actions show that even popular transit systems are not sustainable as long as they rely on subsidies that are themselves unreliable.
BART ridership peaked in 2001 and dropped by 10 percent since then due to the recession. The recession also reduced the tax revenues that support the agency. Although BART carries a lot of riders each day, mainly middle-class suburbanites, total transit ridership in the San Francisco Bay Area was greater in 1984 than in any year since. BART's critics say this is because BART is taking funds that could otherwise be used to improve bus services for low-income workers in Oakland and other parts of the Bay Area.
BART's actions show that even popular transit systems are not sustainable as long as they rely on subsidies that are themselves unreliable.
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