By the end of the year, locals won’t have to pay twice when transferring between BART and Muni — if they’re using a Clipper card.
Better than that: Any transfer between transit agencies in the Bay Area, whether it’s Muni, BART, Caltrain or the Bay Area Ferry, will come with a maximum discount of $2.50 if you transfer within two hours of the first tag, according to BART. For San Franciscans, that means the bus ride is free.
“Transit riders have been asking for free transfers in the Bay Area,” said BART spokesperson Alicia Trost, who said roughly nine out of 10 transit trips in the Bay Area involve BART. “So this is a really great way to show our riders that we’re giving them what they want, as well as to attract more riders.”
BART and other transit agencies hope the program will remove barriers for customers making multi-agency trips, and subsequently increase ridership. Four years into the pandemic, BART’s ridership is still around half what it was prior.
“The intent of the policy is that no one should pay extra just to switch agencies,” said BART financial planning director Michael Eiseman during Thursday’s BART board meeting. “We want riders to be able to use all of our services as if they were operated by one agency.”
The discount will apply to customers switching between any transit system to a second one. The discount is capped at $2.50.
When customers transfer onto any local bus using Clipper, for example, they will receive a free transfer. When customers transfer to BART or another rail, ferry or express bus service, they will receive a discount roughly equal to the cost of a local bus trip.
Take San Francisco, as an example. For a customer who takes both Muni and BART within two hours, the $2.50 for Muni is waived, and only the cost of BART will be charged.
The pilot program will be funded by both the transit agencies and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a regional transit agency. Transit agencies will fund the first $0.50 of the discount, and the MTA will reimburse the remainder.
According to BART, the pilot program is planned to go into effect later this year when the next generation of the Clipper system is available. The discounts will last at least two years, and more if the agency identifies additional funding.
People do not move to San Francisco to be part of the rest of America. They move here because they want to experience life in a major, walkable, thriving, global city.
The attempts by some of our politicians to defund BART/MUNI is the absolute most weapons-grade gaslighting I have ever seen. We are really going to dismantle the systems which gave this city the ability to stand out from the rest of North America and become a global powerhouse?
Vote out any politician who tries to shortchange our public transit. Stand up to the NIMBYs and so-called “progressives” who hold up progress on critical infrastructure with fake CEQA reviews and other petty nonsense.
Build a second Transbay tube and run it down Geary and into the Sunset! Build BART into Marin. Think big! We need more transit. We need more trains. We need fewer driverless cars. We need fewer cars. This should be the takeaway of the Pandemic.
Is the amount of the transfer cap lower for those on discounted fares e.g. seniors, kids, the disabled?
Good. Probably an easy decision given that nobody pays for MUNI bus rides anymore anyway.
This is a great change. I just hope that we can secure more funding for BART in the long term. It will be devastating if service is reduced any further.
can’t wait, good to see city leaders caring! would love to learn how this was pushed through all the bureaucracy.