BART Hears From Mission Residents About Possible Fare Increases

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BART is considering raising fares so it can replace its 40-year-old cars, which are the oldest in the country. The only question now is, raise them by how much?

At a community meeting at Mission High School on Wednesday, BART officials heard from six Mission residents about how to pay for the $3.2 billion cars.

Most of that money will come from the feds, the state and other regional agencies, but BART is on the hook for 25 percent of the total.

A neighbor pointed out that BART had a surplus last year and will likely have another this year. He wondered why BART couldn’t just use that money to pay for the trains.

It’s not so simple, said BART spokesman Jim Allison.

BART has two budgets: one for operations and another for capital projects, which deal with infrastructure. The surpluses come from the operational budget, while the capital projects budget will have a $7.5 billion deficit over a 25-year period.

The main proposal being floated is to increase fares every two years for eight years, based on inflation. BART already increases fares based on inflation, but that will expire this year. The proposal calls for the increases to be extended.

Two other proposals are to raise fares by 10 cents for passengers traveling through the Transbay Tube, or to increase all fares by 5 cents.

BART created a nice little chart illustrating the differences between the proposals:

Last year’s operations surplus has already been spent, and this year’s surplus is not yet known. The decision will be up to BART’s board of directors.

Residents can let BART know what they think of the proposals by filling out a survey online.