BART Meltdowns, Fare Hikes, Budget Cuts and Other Bay Area Transit Woes

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It has been a tough month for Bay Area transit. BART had two major meltdowns this month, stranding and frustrating commuters, all while the agency plans to raise fares. System wide, Bay Area transit agencies continue to struggle with funding challenges and luring back riders after the pandemic fundamentally altered our region’s commute patterns. And now, major cuts in state and federal funding are on the horizon. We’ll talk about how different transit agencies are bracing for cuts, the federal government’s check on California’s shift toward electric vehicles, and the critical ways our transportation system has changed. Guests: Dan Brekke, editor and reporter, KQED News Ted Lamm, associate director for the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley Law School Laura Tolkoff, transportation policy director, SPUR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, boated the number one wellness resort and spa by readers of travel and leisure magazine in 2024.
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0:26.6	Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:34.4	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:40.6	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:46.3	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and
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1:02.1	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
1:06.4	Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
1:09.0	From KQED.
1:24.1	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:27.2	Bay Area transit agencies are hurting. The great work-from-home experiment has cut a lot of
1:31.1	commute time out of people's lives, but its direct strike on ridership, especially in and out of
1:37.6	downtowns, has also been disastrous. So far, transit agencies have avoided huge service cuts or even worse, but major cuts in state and federal funding are now looming.
1:50.0	We'll talk about how Bart, Muni, and others are responding to these difficult times.
1:55.0	That's all coming up next, right after this news.
2:12.9	Thank you. after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. When it comes to Bay Area Transit, the pandemic torched,
2:19.5	what had been a pretty efficient and effective local situation. Ever since then, with ridership
2:26.0	through the floor, I've imagined our situation kind of like the Jaws theme song. From the very
2:32.0	first chord, you know the shark is coming. The shark, in this case,
2:36.5	being a funding cliff that could literally destroy Bart, Muni, maybe everyone else. But even though
	...

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