From its beginnings in 1972, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transport (SFBART) system has been chugging along for quite some time, connecting the Bay Area and providing reliable public transportation for all Bay Area residents.
Alejandro Salazar ‘26, a frequent user of BART recalls, “I took the Red line to get to work, from Balboa to Downtown Berkley.”
However, its inception was not without its struggles.
Since the 1950s, BART has been threatened by financial issues, low voter approval, renegotiation from cities, and construction delays. At one point, counties in Marin and San Mateo pulled out of the plan.
Nevertheless, BART was able to prevail through the mountain of issues in its way and had its first service on September 11, 1972.
Micheal C. Healy, ex-manager of marketing communications for 30 years at BART, remarked, “I always felt BART was going to survive and, you know, flourish.”
While stations were being built, BART contracted companies to build urban infrastructure around stations. In other words, BART became a catalyst for the landscape and development of urban areas in SF.
For its time, BART was a technological wonder, sporting over 75 miles of track and using the most up to date systems available at the time. As time went on, more extensions were added to the original track, soon extending to around 130 miles of track.
It was and still is an improvement to public transit in the Bay Area, as Ellie Umberg ‘28 comments, “It’s a super fast form of transportation and is much more reliable than the bus.”
Today, BART has fallen on tough times. Prior to installing its new fare gates, BART was losing money because of riders not paying fares by jumping over the old gates. According to NBC Bay Area, “BART had estimated that it lost $15 million to $25 million to fare evasion each year.”
To prevent this issue of gate-hopping, BART had to use more of its funds to actually install the new gates. According to Mission Local, “The new BART gates cost about $90 million.”
Not only that, increases in ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, and the introduction of driverless car services like Waymo may make BART obsolete.
To combat the sudden loss of ridership BART experienced during the COVID-19 outbreak, lawmakers in San Francisco passed an emergency funding bill to financially support BART through the pandemic.
However, these funds are going to run out in Spring of 2026. BART must rethink its business model and change it to stop relying so heavily on ridership and fares if it wants to stay a reliable source of transportation in the Bay Area.
Because of these financial difficulties, BART may be forced to cut upwards of 90 percent of its services to stay afloat, reducing the amount of trains running weekly from 4,200 to 500.
As BART carries on providing transit for residents, it will definitely run into more disruptions along its tracks.
Nevertheless, with the continued support of the community, BART will continue to transport riders throughout and across the Bay.
