BART’s Board of Directors met late last week to review contingency plans in case a November ballot measure aimed at stabilizing the agency’s finances fails.
The transit system faces annual budget shortfalls of hundreds of millions of dollars and is considering sweeping cuts if voters reject the proposed “Connect Bay Area” sales tax measure. A staff report outlined a two-phase reduction plan that could close up to 15 stations, eliminate night service, cut up to 70% of operating hours and raise fares by as much as 50%. In a worst-case scenario, BART could shut down entirely.
Phase One, proposed for January, would cut about 63% of train hours, close 10 stations and raise fares at least 30%. Phase Two, beginning in July, would close five more stations, reduce service to mostly rush hour and eliminate more than 1,100 union positions. The proposal to shut down the Blue Line to Dublin/Pleasanton drew strong opposition from some board members and East Bay residents.
The Connect Bay Area measure would raise sales taxes for 14 years in several Bay Area counties to provide long-term transit funding. Even if it passes, BART would still face smaller deficits. Without it, officials say major service reductions — and possibly bankruptcy — would be unavoidable.
Let it fail and make riders pay their fair share. Why does everyone need pay for this with sales tax measure that will never go away.
No new taxes.
“…eliminate more than 1,100 union positions” nothing about cutting executive positions, hmm or general restructuring of the workforce.
The top brass would probably give themselves a raise with the money saved by slashing the workforce.
Actually, eliminating more than 1,100 union positions sounds like a very good start.
Remember that janitor who made $270K a year on a base salary of less than $60K? Who racked up over 4,000 overtime hours and was caught on cameras every day retiring to a storage closet for several hours?
That’s one of those union jobs.
It doesn’t matter how the people vote.
The government will override the will of the people
and give Bart all the Money they need.
What Bart really needs is professional managers.
There are certainly no professional managers there now.
The California state democrat government once served and represented citizens. Now the state democrat government expects citizens to serve them.
Cut costs. Reduce overhead. Eliminate defined benefit retirement plans (pensions) and replace with defined contribution retirement plans (457, similar to a 401k).
This is not an income problem. It is a self-inflicted out-go problem. The evidence of this are future deficits, even if the measure passes. These BART dopes don’t seem to realize that there is only so much money available and that the well will eventually run dry. Maybe that day is near.
They should begin at Phase Two and eliminate 1,100+ positions. Start at the top.
Final thought: The closing of stations and reduction of service will be a boon to The Bay Area Toll Authority’s coffers.
From 1989 until NOW, they have sat on that Merrit Lake property… Anything they build now will cost 10 or 20 times more than it would have then. But then…by now they’d be wanting us to pay for 20 year old renovations…. The TAXPAYERS cannot beat the the system — but we can try to~~~at the BALLOT BOX.
Now they’re trying to scare people. Let them file bankruptcy. All they’re going to do is blow this on raises, then cry that they need more money.
I feel like bart is acting like a bully, pay up or we shut down.
Maybe they start at the top & get rid some of the board members & the huge salires they all have, or instead of us paying more taxes they take a cut in pay. Just a thought
That’s called extortion and it is how organized crime works.
…and notice they don’t say they’ll lose a thousand workers. They say they lose UNION workers. Who do you think really runs BART.
My very small violin has to be around here somewhere.
.
Tactic used governmental agencies, threaten cutting most visible
or appreciated service provided when government agency is
facing financial problems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument_syndrome
.
Put these words in search engine, transparent ca bart
Can click on column headers . . . . .
burn it down, BART is rotten to the core. At some point, you have to throw all the cards in the air and start over. This is the time. Very soon their personal copy of Windows XP that is running the whole system will crash once and for all. Might as well make it a controlled catastrophic failure and start shutting it all down now. NO NEW TAXES until all known fraud is rooted out, litigated and guilty parties incarcerated. NO NEW TAXES
No BART bailout without reform! Vote no on this plan and demand BART be run efficiently. It’s worth it even if they carry out their threat to shut it down. Then we can start fresh with better people.
They’re trying the extremist / alarmist route – don’t give in ….say NO! Cut management salaries 15% now! , NO bonuses, gut higher management positions, freeze contracted wages, and NO new hiring for a least 3 years – maybe 5!
WE DON’T CARE! Trim the fat like UPS, Amazon, Walmart and any other company is doing. NO MORE HANDOUTS AKA BAILOUTS.
NO MORE TAXES. THIS STATE IS TAXING US TO DEATH.
The story says: “The transit system faces annual budget shortfalls of hundreds of millions of dollars.”
I would say more accurately, they; …”annually face annual budget shortfalls.…”
” We gave them and will pay for decades, Measure RR sales tax BOND to “upgrade” to plastic seats … plastic that they can hose down after the feral-beings use them as toilets.
This is a reminder of their bad luck tied to poor management skills and decisions. Note at the end. The old property that was seismically UNFIT for their headquarters after Loma Prieta… they are now $PENDING GAZILLION$ to build a Transit Apartment complex on the same site. BART is going into the RENTAL HOUSING business? On seismically faulty land?
~~~
I love AI…you just have to be very precise with the questions:
Taxpayers bought, but…
BART owned the seismically unfit property at Lake Merritt Station, located at 800 Madison Street.
BART is a “transit agency.” Anything other than transit (including housing development) is outside of their scope.
shut it down.
My last post was so long…I saved this gem for its own $$$$$$$$Story.
BART purchased the office building at 2000 Broadway in Uptown Oakland, with the sale closing on August 14, 2024. The Board authorized the purchase for a new police headquarters from Kaiser Foundation for $25.5 million to $26.5 million in November 2023. The department is expected to relocate to this new 87,000-square-foot facility by the end of 2026.
~~~
(remember the Millions in rent, per year, for 20 years that BART paid rather than get off their stupid arses and actually DO something with the Loma Prieta damaged building that we initially paid for in the ’70s…? That rent went to Kaiser Oakland property too. hmmmm? I’m sure there was no
💵🤝collusion. Really.
Trump needs to take over it and paint the trains gold.
Line all the cars up end to end along 880 and use them for
homeless housing.
What’s needed is a DOGE investigation of BART to uncover and expose all of its mismanagement, waste, corruption, and more.
We need someone to tell us why BART needs another 87,000 SF Headquarters building in
Oakland to house their Police Department separately from their other new Oakland
Headquarters building ~~~ considering that, with the possible exception of a Top Cop or two elite execs, 100% of their Police Officers are assigned, and work out of Eleven(+) Field Offices
spread around the Bay in six distinct zones.
BART PD has approximately 300 total employees, of which 200 are sworn officers~~per their Wiki pg. That means there is one clerical for every two officers?!? No bleeping wonder their broke!
District 2 BART Boardmember Mark Foley, who represents North Concord and East Contra Costa County, wants to delay all possible BART station closure votes until after November 2026. Why? It’s all because Mark Foley is up for reelection this year and he doesn’t want his reelection campaign to be hurt by the BART Board making hard votes. Mark Foley has just proven himself to be part of the problem!!! He’s been a disappointment and needs to go!!! Wake up and pay attention District 2 voters!!!
Enough is just never enough for NGOs and Politicians. $$$$$$$
NameJob titleRegular payTotal pay &benefits
Mark J. Foley—Information Sys Admin Ii East Bay Municipal Utility District, 2022$173,161.00–PLUS benefits for total income of $247,306.00
Mark J FoleyDirector—San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District,
2022$21,725.19– PLUS (even more) benefits for total grab of $25,685.04 for his volunteer(elected) job.
Typical governmental entity propaganda scare tactics of a beyond worse case scenario. If things have been so bad for the last 6-years, then BART should’ve made more cuts and greater increases in prices over the last 6-years. Just 4 months ago, BART bragged about increasing train lengths because ridership was up. The time has come to make BART a self-sufficient user-based operation!!! Raise ticket prices an average of $7.30 per trip and BARTs budget deficit disappears. If ridership keeps increasing as BART is constantly claiming, then the average increase of $7.30 per trip to cover the current yearly BART deficit actually decreases. An additional $1.00 increase in per trip ticket prices over the last 6-years would’ve brought in about an additional $262 million in revenue.
BART is incapable of long-term planning and budgeting, as demonstrated historically over the past 10-20 years. They’re not interested in efficiency, just where the next handout is coming from.
They’re a transit agency, not a real estate investment company or high density housing agency. Stick with transit – period.
Shut it down.
BART owns their stations. Supposedly we own BART. (This is a LMAO🤣 moment.)
BART is in the process of planning and in several cases built/building High Density, Low
Income housing at or even over the stations/parking lots. BART and the elected crooks
in Sacramento do indeed need to be shut down. However….. Even though California
Assembly Bill (AB 2923) was- not- voted- on- by- the- people; it was passed by the
California State Assembly (we generally used to call that taxation without representation!)
and Senate and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on September 30, 2018 As
usual the First paragraph description (all voters usually read) wording of the Bill was on
the high sharp edge of ambiguous! WE THE PEOPLE are indeed in the high-rise,
(migrant free) & low-income apartment real estate business…! We will never see any of
the income …we will only see the construction and maintenance bills, low income, welfare
supplemental taxes, and multiple 40 year Bond costs.
Nope. Not a cent from me. BART is underfunded because it is poorly run and has been for many years. When you are short on money, you do not keep extending to new areas. Silicon Valley never paid into the system, and there is no reason to extend down there. The SF Airport should be the end of the line.
………….Aaaannnnnnnnd Newsom gave them a Bailout! Because they are “essential” according to WEF and Hunger Games – You all will be riding these, and You’ll BE HAPPY!!