The first time I wrote about things going badly for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system was back in 2018 when a local station ran a story about drug addicts shooting up in the system’s walkways. But that was nothing compared to the disaster that came later. During the pandemic, people in San Francisco started working at home and even once the pandemic ended, people didn’t come back.
Two years ago it became clear that BART was in big trouble.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reported today, BART was once the pride of US rail system because it generated more money from fares than any similar system in the US. BART still didn’t break even but in 2019 72% of its funding came from fares which is a lot better than similar systems in New York or Boston for which ridership covers only about half of the cost to operate the trains.
BART ridership was in decline even…
