BART eliminates projected $35M budget gap for FY26

Bay Area Rapid Transit's board eliminated what was projected to be a $35 million budget deficit for fiscal-year 2026 through cost control and revenue generation strategies, the San Francisco-area transit agency announced earlier this week.

The FY2026 preliminary budget memo, which was set to be released by March 31, now will show a balanced budget for the new year that begins July 1, BART officials said in a press release. However, structural deficits of $350 million to $400 million loom in FY27 and beyond unless long-term funding sources are identified, they said.

To eliminate the budget gap, BART implemented a hiring freeze, reduced near term retiree health-care costs, reduced budgets across all departments, began running shorter trains, locked in electricity rates and implemented the inspector general’s efficiency recommendations. 

BART generated additional revenue to eliminate the gap by installing updated fare gates to reduce evasion and increase ridership, increasing fares with inflation, offering new fare products such as the Clipper BayPass, which is now revenue positive, improving coordination, holding station activations and events to increase ridership and negotiating new agreements for telecommunications revenue, agency officials said. 

Even with these changes, BART will need to find new sources of funding to avoid service cuts, as its historical reliance on passenger fares to pay for operations is outdated and no longer sustainable.