The following is the transcript for the Northgate Radio episode entitled Routes, Riders and Rondo Alla Turca. Reporters: Ellie Prickett-Morgan (host/reporter), Julia Mayer, Anna Zou, Lisa Plachy, and Nava Iman Rawls
🎤 Host intro (Ellie Prickett-Morgan)
EPM: Public transportation is a lifeline — for office and late-night workers, for the elderly, for students, for anyone who can’t or doesn’t want to drive. But it’s in trouble in the Bay Area.
NEWS CLIPS (:15)
ARCHIVE: Do you ride BART? Half a million people a day used to. But the pandemic…
ARCHIVE 2: Transit agencies in the Bay Area and really across California are struggling with continued low ridership.
ARCHIVE 3: And the agencies’ finances are so bad that state officials are looking for ways to keep them from running out of money.
EPM: Many people have a mixed relationship with public transportation. They depend on it, but it frustrates them. It can bring moments of beauty and respite or bring up issues of safety and hardship. It gets them places, but not everywhere. In other words, transit is imperfect, even when it’s not struggling. And we set out to unpack this.
I’m your host, Ellie Prickett-Morgan. Together with four other reporters from Northgate radio, we looked into what works and what doesn’t across BART, AC Transit, and the area’s ferries — and what that means for riders.
🚢 Ferry Story (Julia Mayer) 4:21
HOST: Part of transit’s struggle in the Bay is that ridership, a crucial source of funding for these agencies, hasn’t recovered from the Pandemic. But one agency, the ferries, is an exception to the rule.
Ferries have connected Bay Area communities for more than 150 years. Our reporter Julia Mayer takes us on board to find out why ferry ridership is up in the Bay.
JULIA: [soundbed: water] It’s a beautiful day at the Oakland Ferry Terminal. The water glistens in the morning sun. In front of me is a long line of commuters – with backpacks, cell phones and bicycles.
[Ambi: getting on the ferry]
JULIA: We depart at eight o’clock sharp. The skyline of San Francisco appears on the horizon. Cars pile up on the Bay Bridge as we glide through the water below.
[Ambi: ferry engine sound]
JULIA: 25 minutes later we reach the Ferry Building. A place steeped in history. In 1930, this was the Grand Central Station for ferries – 50 million passengers a year passed through these halls to get on a boat.
[Ambi: ferry building]
JULIA: A perfect place to catch up with Carl Nolte, a longtime San Francisco chronicle columnist.
C. NOLTE: When I was a little kid, I got hooked on the ferry boats. And my big problem is, I never grew up.
JULIA: Having watched these waters for over seven decades, Carl witnessed both the ferries’ decline after the bridges were built… and their unexpected comeback in the seventies.
C. NOLTE: My favorite boat is the Saucido Ferry Boat, Marin. Doesn’t run every day, except sometimes. My favorite seat is on the main deck, on the starboard side. Usually I read on there. Otherwise I go on the after deck and watch the city fall away.
JULIA: Today, 17 vessels run six routes across the Bay. And while Caltrain and BART have only recovered about half their ridership, the ferries are up to more than 80 percent. Michael Gougherty, Planning Director at the Water Emergency Transportation Authority – or WETA – explains that the ferry offers a unique experience.
M. GOUGHERTY: It really actually is the best part of my day. On the way to the ferry I purposely pocket my phone and detach from screen time and pick up a book and read. Our approach is: don’t mess that up, run the boats on time, have crews that are safe, professional and courteous. And, just let the service sell itself.
JULIA: BART is actually faster AND cheaper between Oakland and San Francisco. But, these commuters are still choosing the Ferry experience. Why? I reached out to Kari Watkins, a California transportation researcher from UC Davis. She told me public transit ridership is back to pre-pandemic levels in Los Angeles.
K. WATKINS: And, that’s because the LA system is much more based on people who rely on transit, and really for financial reasons often don’t have a choice of another way to get around. Whereas in the Bay, they were transit riders because of congestion and stress.
JULIA: Perhaps – socio-economics also plays a role in why the Ferry is the only public transit doing better in the Bay, post-pandemic. Ferry riders, here, are choosing a longer and more expensive commute…well, because …they probably can. And it’s not just here. In Seattle, ferries are at 78% of pre-pandemic ridership, compared to just 62% for buses. And New York City’s ferries have not only fully recovered their ridership levels, they have surpassed them.
[Ambi: Ferry sounds—engine hum, soft chatter, footsteps on deck]
JULIA: On board the ferry to Vallejo, the atmosphere is calm yet lively. Passengers work on laptops, read books, or unwind with a drink after work. I asked a few what keeps them coming back to the ferry.
PASSENGER 1: It’s quiet, clean and easy.
PASSENGER 2: No traffic. Great Wi Fi, easy to work, so I get an extra hour on each end for work. And sometimes I visit the bar after work and it’s a nice way to get home.
PASSENGER 3: I take the ferry because it is better than taking BART. It’s cleaner and I think it’s safer.
JULIA: These voices paint a picture of what makes the ferry experience unique—a blend of comfort and charm that other transit options just can’t match. And, WETA has big plans to expand routes to Treasure Island, Mission Bay, and Berkeley by 2050. The challenge? Funding.
That’s why passenger numbers are so crucial, explains Michael Gougherty.
M. GOUGHERTY: The more riders we get back, the further our subsidies can stretch and the more new services, the more enhanced services we can begin to offer.
JULIA: The current success shows that ferries are becoming more essential – especially on routes where BART isn’t an option – like San Francisco to Vallejo where I spoke with this enthusiastic rider:
PASSENGER 4: Taking the ferry is literally the best way to cross the bay. I moved from the East Bay to Vallejo specifically to take the ferry and it’s been a great ride ever since.
JULIA: On the Ferry in Vallejo, I’m Julia Mayer – For NorthGate Radio.
🚆 AC Transit (Ellie Prickett-Morgan) 6:15
EPM AS HOST: Unlike the ferries, AC Transit, the bus operator for Alameda County, has had a harder time getting riders back.
And that put its finances in a tough spot.
To stay “cost neutral”, back in October AC Transit’s board approved a controversial plan to change existing bus schedules that will cut and consolidate routes across the East Bay.
It’s called the Realign plan.
But, East Bay bus drivers say they’re already working grueling schedules and this plan – won’t help.
EPM: Jack Watkins has been driving buses in the East Bay for 5 years.
I joined Watkins on the 51A, which starts at Fruitvale BART.
JW: So a bus full of kids, right? Full, full of children and people getting to work.
EPM: But – today’s rainy – so there are fewer passengers and it’s right before the Thanksgiving holiday, so – Watkins is optimistic that he can finish this leg of his route on time.
When we get to the end of the route, that optimism proves to be unrealized.
[FADE UP BUS]
JW: I was about 11 minutes late…WOW, even under those conditions..yes, yes, yes… fade out
EPM: For Watkins, every minute he’s late is a minute less of break time. Today, that 11 minute delay means he loses more than half of the time he could use to recover … before he’s right back on the road.
It’s a vicious cycle where drivers feel pressured to forgo rest, skip meals, and drive faster just to make the schedules work.
JW: We’re all guilty of it. Um, okay, so I got to drive faster. If I got to get to the end of this line, I got to drive faster, but driving faster means not being safe.
FADE DOWN BUS
EPM: The other tradeoff drivers make to get to their destinations on time — they don’t stop to use the bathroom. A 2018 survey of Amalgamated Transit Union drivers across the country found that almost a third of bus drivers report having urinary tract infections or kidney infections.
EPM: That’s twice the rate of the general population.
EPM: Watkins explained that if it’s a bathroom emergency he can press the “bathroom button,” which lets a supervisor watching the bus’s GPS know “hey this bus isn’t moving because the driver’s pulled over to use the facilities.”
JW: But that only acts as a band aid to the problem because the problem is every day. I’m going to be 15 minutes late to get to the end of the line. So these schedules need to be modified in such a way that accommodates for the actual real life time it takes to get to the line, right?
EPM: Watkins worries that those “accommodations for real life” are not being thought about in the new Realign Plan.
EPM: Realign came out of AC Transit’s struggle to get ridership back after the Pandemic. Under Realign, bus service will be 85% of what it was back in 2019. AC Transit says when making the plan they tracked ridership, did 49 public engagements, and quite a bit of social media outreach over the course of two years.
EPM: Laurel Paget-Seekins, a Transportation Justice advocate for the Bay area non-profit Public Advocate, says that the “data-driven” methodology used by AC Transit is missing some key driver-related information.
LPS: They know how long it took the bus to get from A to B, right, from the sort of GPS tracker on the bus. What they don’t know is what the driver had to do to make that time, right, like, did they always pull over to the curb and lower the bus for the senior who needed it? Did they run a yellow light? Did they start the bus before you as a passenger got seated?
EPM: Robert Lyles AC Transit’s media affairs manager said via email that AC Transit has a dedicated Labor Relations team and they did engage drivers in the route designing process. They were given surveys – in both hard-copy and digital formats. The labor relations team set up town halls to listen to bus operator concerns.
EPM: And, Lyles wrote that those concerns led to two lines being redesigned to accommodate driver needs. He added that AC Transit has been working closely with the bus operator’s union throughout the process.
EPM: Watkins, is an assistant shop steward with that union, ATU local 192. He told me those input opportunities were not enough, and he wasn’t alone in feeling that way.
[FADE UP – BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING] – “Twenty Four Roll Call Director Beckles…” [FADE DOWN]
EPM: At the October 9th AC Transit Board of Directors meeting, where Realign was up for a vote, ATU 192 packed the conference room — it was a sea of Red ATU T-shirts.
EPM: Early on the board realizes how many public commenters showed up and this happens:
FADE UP – um, the Board President has chosen to limit public comment on item 6A to 1 minute… so public comment will be 1 minute [BOOOOO]
EPM: About 15 minutes into public comment – Darlene Robinson-Cornell, who says she’s been a driver for 17 years takes the stand.
DARLENE: I start at 5 a. m. I get a break at 7 at the top of the hour 7… [FADE DOWN]
EPM: Darlene works a morning schedule, like Watkins, which means the middle of her shift includes rush hour, so she’s always behind schedule. She starts talking about her workday the day before, and the energy in the room shifts.
DARLENE: Yesterday was so bad. I went home and cried. I am emotionally exhausted. I bring a salad… I bring a salad for lunch everyday and I take it home everyday! Since this new sign up and I’m tired of it! [APPLAUSE – FADE DOWN]
EPM: Darlene’s speech hits a nerve, and other drivers who go up keep referring back to her.
[FADE UP] After witnessing that speech I wasn’t going to say anything but you can see the passion… [FADE DOWN]
EPM: More than 50 public commenters, including drivers, teachers, and other community members make their case as to why the plan should not pass.
EPM: Not a single spoken public comment is for the plan.
After more than 2 hours the Board gets to a vote, and Realign passes 5-2. Ultimately the need to keep operating costs stable won out.
Watkins called the whole experience demoralizing.
JW: These are our conditions, we’ve been telling you these conditions for years. You know what they are and you have to accommodate us or you’re not going to have drivers to drive this bus.
Realign will take effect in August of 2025.
Also coming this summer – the expiration of ATU 192’s contracts, which will have to be renegotiated, and Watkins says that conversations are starting amongst drivers about a potential strike.
Either way, for East Bay drivers and riders, the summer is going to bring a change.
MUSIC TRANSITION
Host Intro: AC Transit, the Ferry and BART – are on the Clipper system, a reloadable transit card that riders use to pay for most Bay Area public transportation.
The Ferry and BART fares are calculated based on distance and the daily cost of a commute can add up.
Clipper Start, a program that offers low-income riders half-off fares, is trying to address high prices – but its future is uncertain.
Anna Zou has more.
ANNA: I met up with Cal undergrad, Noah Soriano at Downtown Berkeley BART to join them on their commute home from school.
They’re currently unemployed and live in San Francisco’s Mission District.
ANNA: Noah relies on their bike, buses and BART to get around. And, BART is the priciest option.
NOAH: I was just trying to find any resource possible to reduce the costs since I can’t drive.
ANNA: On campus Noah ran into students tabling about transit issues.
NOAH: “and I was like, is there any way that Berkeley can pay for my Bart rides and they were like no. But you can get Clipper Start at least.”
ANNA: Clipper Start began as a pilot program in 2020. It was funded using a one-time Covid relief grant from the federal government and was supposed to end after 18 months.
The program originally gave low income commuters 20% off all clipper system rides – including BART.
And, It’s been so popular that the discount got bumped up to 50% in January, 2024.
JOHN GOODWIN: Making transit easier for low income people to ride is not going to solve the problem of poverty in the Bay Area,
ANNA: John Goodwin’s the Assistant Director of Communications for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, known as MTC.
JOHN GOODWIN: but it can make life in an expensive area like ours easier for folks with low incomes.
ANNA: John told me MTC continues to fund Clipper Start with money from the California Transit Assistance Program and the Cap and Trade program.
And Clipper Start has been extended until June 2025
<>
Back on BART – Noah shares what they love most about their commute.
NOAH:<< when it goes above ground and you get to get a really good view of the city and all the lights…that never gets old…dip…>>
ANNA: Noah’s one of 43,000 people who currently use Clipper Start.
NOAH: It’s definitely helping me reduce the costs. It’s not helping eliminate the costs.
ANNA: Noah pays 4 dollars and 80 cents, round trip with their Clipper Start discount when they travel from Downtown Berkeley to 16th St. Mission. And, they make that trip at least 4 times a week. They had no idea the program could sunset as early as June until I broke the news.
NOAH: That would really suck. Then I would have to pay a lot more money. I think I already pay like 20 dollars a week just to get here. And if I didn’t, I’d have to pay 40 dollars a week.
ANNA: Noah told me they used to jump over the fare gates before getting Clipper Start – to save money. But new – much taller gates were installed at 16th St. Mission to help reduce fare evasion.
So, when I asked what they’d do if Clipper Start ends…
NOAH: Maybe I’d feel less motivated to go to class. I feel like I would buy less food and eat less because I’d be like I’m already spending so much money on BART>>
<>
ANNA: It’s still unclear whether Clipper Start will be extended – yet again – or terminated. Here’s John Goodwin from MTC.
JOHN GOODWIN: I’m just really hesitant to say when a decision would be made to either extend the Clipper Start pilot, eliminate the Clipper Start pilot, or make Clipper Start permanent. Too many moving pieces in my view.
ANNA: While I was reporting this story BART announced that fares will increase by 5.5% in January 2025 – due to inflation.
For Northgate Radio, I’m Anna Zou.
Host intro: Thousands of people use Clipper to travel around the Bay Area, where one BART station in San Francisco has its own particular quirk. [:08]
SFX: Train pulling into station and announcement: “Now boarding: Civic Center, UN Plaza.”
Host intro: Lisa Plack-ee reports.
Music fades in; play throughout first narration + a few seconds after.
SFX: “Rondo Alla Turca”
Lisa Plachy: In a large hallway at the Civic Center BART Station, you can hear Mozart.
Music fades out.
Lisa Plachy: Centuries-old hits like “Rondo Alla Turca” and “Fur Elise” have been playing here for the past six years. But that wasn’t always the case.
ARCHIVE: “New at 5, we have shocking video of what’s going on in one of the busiest BART stations in the Bay Area. Several junkies blatantly shooting up out in the open…” (KPIX | CBS NEWS)
Archive fades out as narration comes in.
Lisa Plachy: In April of 2018, KPIX 5, a local news station, picked up a video circulating the internet that documented one man’s commute through that same hallway.
ARCHIVE: “Open IV drug use, unconscious men and women, piles of vomit on either side of the hallway. This is a morning walk through the Civic Center BART and Muni station.” (KPIX | CBS NEWS)
Lisa Plachy: The video showed multiple people in states of crisis — using drugs, slumped over or passed out, in the open, with no intervention. It didn’t take long to make its way back to BART officials.
Bevan Dufty: So obviously the video did go viral.
Lisa Plachy: That’s Bevan Dufty.
Bevan Dufty: It was explosive in terms of the reaction from the public.
Lisa Plachy: Dufty was on the BART Board of Directors for the district that includes Civic Center when the video went viral. Afterwards, he worked with his team to figure out different ways to tame activity at the station.
Bevan Dufty: We just walked around and I think we looked and saw that there was the infrastructure to have music and we just said, “Huh? What would this be like?”
Music fades in
SFX: Classical music from BART station
Lisa Plachy: Dufty said they were looking for literally anything they could do. And the music seemed to have a positive impact. So BART kept it playing, almost 24/7, for the next six years.
Bevan Dufty: It just was calming. It just had this sense of like, it’s not, you know, you’re not walking through mayhem.
Music fades out
Lisa Plachy: BART isn’t the first to try using music to influence behavior. It’s a common practice by all kinds of businesses, either to make people more comfortable in a space — or to move them along.
But does it actually work? I talked to Dan Stokols, a professor emeritus at UC Irvine who studies social ecology and environmental psychology. He told me that it depends — on a lot of different factors.
Fade up ambient music
SFX: Classical music from BART station
Dan Stokols: One being how loud the music is being played. If it’s overbearing and it’s too intrusive, people can be annoyed by it. On the other hand, if, if it’s played softly or people are at least amenable to, or open to classical music, it might be a kind of a soothing, positive addition to the situation.
Lisa Plachy: So I went back to Civic Center to ask people what they thought — and whether the music was making the station better.
Fade out ambient music
Angus Kirkenwell: And I feel like, even though this is like super depressing and grim down here, like a dystopian science fiction movie, like the music actually like cancels it out a bit, you know?
Norma: I like it. It’s nice. Ah, you know, I wouldn’t mind if it continued but I could understand why constantly it might be a little too much but maybe it will calm down some crazy people.
Chelsea Caudell: It’s calming. It is. But I don’t know if it’s gonna help. Maybe you’ll have more people falling asleep in here, I think.
Fade out ambient music
Lisa Plachy: Over the years, BART has also increased police presence, hired more crisis intervention officers, and installed fare evasion gates at Civic Center. So while it’s hard to pinpoint what the music is or is not doing, there is a noticeable difference in what you see there.
Fade in music
SFX: Classical music from BART station
Bevan Dufty: The people that are coming here are not stopping and setting up shop. They’re going about their business, they’re going to school or work or whatever.
Lisa Plachy: While everyone I talked to liked the music, they were all passing through. Dan Stokols, at UC Irvine, says that could be another factor in its “effectiveness.”
Fade out music
Dan Stokols: There’s such a huge variety of response — depending on, you know, how long they have to spend in the space, whether they have control over the source of the sound or not.
Lisa Plachy: And the more time I spent there, the more I understood why you wouldn’t linger.
Fade in ambient sound
Lisa Plachy (in situ): I’ve been in this hallway for about 37 minutes and I have to say I’m kind of over it.
Fade out
Lisa Plachy: According to Dufty though, there’s a happy medium between negative and positive reactions.
Bevan Dufty: The wild thing about transit is if it’s kind of a neutral experience, you don’t really, it’s not in your memory bank. But maybe it’s just nice that they don’t have to think about anything and just have a normal, uneventful, not particularly memorable transit experience.
Fade in music
SFX: Classical music from BART station
Lisa Plachy: In a station long defined by chaos, maybe that’s the ideal. But a little music doesn’t seem to hurt.
Lisa Plachy: I’m Lisa Plachy for North Gate Radio.
Music fades out
HOST INTRO: Reporter Nava Rawls moved from Atlanta to the Bay Area a few months ago – and immediately started riding BART.
She was impressed with how easy it was to get around – until the clock struck midnight.
That’s when the trains stop.
A fun night out was suddenly ruined by the stress of navigating a route home.
Fun is one thing… but how does this affect the late night workers who actually depend on BART to get to and from their jobs?
Nava went on a mission to find out.
Outdoor sound up here…
NAVA: It’s Saturday night, or Sunday morning rather, in San Francisco’s Tenderloin Neighborhood. I’m waiting for the bus with 27 year old Nikita Daron, a bouncer at a local music venue. He clocked out at 12:30 a.m. and is trying to get home to East Oakland. The Civic Center BART station is already closed. So –
NIKITA: We’re gonna catch the 38 to Market Street. And from there we’ll wait for the 800.
NAVA: As we wait for the bus, a heated screaming match begins across the street. A man lays face down on the sidewalk near our feet, which is covered with litter and used needles. San Francisco’s Tenderloin, where Nikita works every night, has a reputation as a dangerous, crime-ridden neighborhood.
NIKITA: It’s becoming a little bit more dystopic at night these days.
It’s, uh, I don’t know. It’s, it’s, it’s always been crazy, but I think the class disparity has become much more apparent.
There are people out here and all kinds of situations, desperate situations. Um, acting unpredictably. I kind of just keep to myself.
NAVA: Bus noise in background
At 1:19 a.m. the 38 bus arrives.
Sound of getting on the bus.
This will be our first of three buses tonight — if we catch them all.
NIKITA: GOSH the 800 — one frustrating part about catching that bus is bus drivers will not always stop for you.
NAVA: After an eight minute ride on the 38…
RUNNING SOUND HERE….
We ran to get on the 800 – which as predicted, almost left us in the dust.
NIKITA:If we missed this bus, we would have had to wait for another like, hour and a half.
NAVA: The 800 takes us across the Bay Bridge to Oakland.
But, we have one more shuttle to catch.
It doesn’t arrive until 2:40 a.m. – two hours after Nikita first got off work. More sound effects
NAVA: With a limited budget, taking an Uber or Lyft home from work is out of the question.
NIKITA: Especially on a Saturday night, it can be like over 40 bucks.
NAVA: But, if BART was open later, Nikita’s commute could be less than an hour without breaking the bank. And he’s not the only one. 70 percent of BART ridership is commuters. But, its limited schedule excludes a big chunk of those commuters. Why?
JIM (12 seconds): We get the question a lot. Why don’t you run 24 hours a day? Well, it’s simply not feasible for us to do that and maintain a safe system and make sure that we meet all the requirements of maintaining the tracks.
NAVA: That was Jim Allison — a spokesperson for BART. According to Jim, it’s not fair to compare BART’s hours to subways in other major cities like New York or Chicago. Those systems have many more tracks – so when maintenance is needed – it’s easier to re-route the trains. BART doesn’t have that luxury.
JIM: I think the biggest change that would take place would be if we were to have a second Transbay crossing, a second Transbay Tube.
NAVA: But – building an underwater rail system is really complicated and expensive. The one we have now was built 50 years ago. It took 4 years and 180 MILLION dollars which in today’s money is 1.4 billion dollars.
JIM (9 seconds): I would say it’s not out of the question that we would be able to do that, but it would be a long, long time in the future.
NAVA: And… extending BART’s hours wouldn’t be an easy fix for all late night workers.
RACHEL (3 seconds): I try to avoid the BART at night as much as possible.
NAVA (17 seconds): That’s Rachel Fuller, an East Bay bartender. During the week, her shift ends at a time where she could catch the last train home from Downtown Berkeley to El Cerrito. But, she’d rather pay for a rideshare service. And, unlike Nikita – she lives much closer to her job, so her rideshare costs are cheaper.
RACHEL (12 seconds): I’ve had a man follow me around, at the BART, and I have, I have had people harass me on the BART, so if that’s happening during the day, I don’t even want to imagine what’s happening at night.
NAVA (10 seconds): But even with her discomfort using the BART at night – Rachel thinks hours should be extended.
RACHEL (13 seconds) : I think it should run all night I don’t think it should close, personally. Like, I, I think that that’s something that I feel like should be constantly running because, what about service industry workers? Like they need to get home.
Music, bus transition sounds
NAVA: It’s 2:55 am. Nikita and I finally arrive in East Oakland— and the journey STILL isn’t over. He could either walk or take ANOTHER bus to get the rest of the way home. But – tonight – he gets a ride from his roommate Josh.
NIKITA: I’d say that this was like a 6, 7 out of 10 pretty, pretty successful commute. And here my angel on golden wings has arrived to save me from an extra 20 minutes walking on my two feet.
NAVA: And with that, Nikita finally got home without the help of BART at around 3:15 a.m.— nearly three hours after the end of his shift. For Northgate Radio, I’m Nava Rawls.
🎤 Host outro (Ellie Prickett-Morgan)
EPM: Over the next few years, the Bay Area will face an uphill battle to save service as a financial crisis looms. For now, morning through night, buses, trains, boats, and trolleys are still the shepherds of thousands—to work, to school, and back home again—who are not only depending on transit, but rooting for it.
EPM: We want to thank Shereen Marisol Meraji and Ethan Toven-Lindsey for their guidance, input and edits. Also Rick Johnson for incredible production support! We’d also like to thank Jack Watkins and Jordan Williams for being down to get interviewed after LONG days at work. For archive news footage, thank you to KPIX 5, CBS News Bay Area, and ABC 7. Music is courtesy of Blue Dot Sessions free music archive. For Northgate Radio, I’m Ellie Prickett – Morgan.
News clips:
BART report highlights need for additional funding and why ridership has dropped (ABC7 News Bay Area | July 10, 2024)
“Starting in 2026 BART is facing a multi-million dollar deficit.” (2:25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qblDExz_VIE (Scott Wiener talking at 28 secs) (AC Transit mentioned at 1:36)
SFMTA, BART, Caltrain host meeting as agencies could face $700M deficit in 2027: Here’s what to know (ABC7 News Bay Area)
“Multiple Bay Area transit agencies are facing fiscal cliffs that they say, if not addressed, could lead to catastrophic cuts in services.” (0:00)
