The BART system continues its ridership dregs due to remote work and persistent three-day work weeks, and it may come begging for a tax increase, but Muni just scored its highest monthly ridership numbers since before the pandemic.
BART touted record ridership days since the pandemic in June, and then again in September, garnering local headlines each time. But these “records” are highly misleading. Overall BART ridership is still just roughly half of what it was pre-pandemic, though those numbers fluctuate daily. And the Chronicle reports that BART is being hit especially hard by three-day work weeks, where remote work has led many companies to reduce employees’ office obligations to Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday in-person work weeks.
BART was averaging 400,000 weekday riders pre-pandemic, but these days the system averages only 200,000 on the good days of Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. (Consider that last Friday, ridership was at 38% of pre-pandemic levels, and this past Monday was 37%). The agency, which relies heavily on rider fares to cover its costs, is now facing a funding gap of an estimated $300 to $400 million per year once its state and federal emergency funding runs out.
“A three-day workweek would not work to fund our operating budget,” BART spokesperson Alicia Trost told the Chronicle.
BART is responding by working on a 2026 ballot measure that would increase funding for public transit. But the options that yet-unwritten measure would employ would be hikes in either sales taxes, parcel taxes, or payroll taxes. Any of these might be a difficult sale to voters.
But the cuts BART might have to make would also be very difficult to swallow. They might have to eliminate two lines, close numerous stations permanently, end service at 9 pm on weeknights, or eliminate weekend service outright.
“BART going into a death spiral is a very real possibility if we don’t find the resources to keep it running,” Metropolitan Transportation Commission vice chair Nick Josefowitz told the Chronicle.
Such drastic reductions in the BART service we’d already relied upon could have drastic unintended consequences, like people having to leave their jobs, or the closure of businesses close to BART stations.
Yet meanwhile, KPIX is reporting on Muni’s biggest month of ridership since the pandemic, which they just logged in September. Muni averaged 521,000 riders each weekday in September, the highest ridership month since February 2020.
"This month marks a remarkable milestone, in that we hit more than half a million average daily weekday boardings," SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin said at Tuesday’s SFMTA board meeting, per KPIX.
Of course, those impressive September figures still only represent a 74% recovery from pre-pandemic ridership. And Muni’s recovery has, like BART's, been uneven, with certain heavily used lines above pre-pandemic ridership, but many other lines still relatively empty.
The big unexpected bright spot for Muni is their weekend ridership, which is at a robust 92% of pre-pandemic numbers. But if BART goes through with those possible draconian service cuts, weekend Muni ridership will be even higher, for reasons no one wants to see.
Image: Kyle B via Yelp
