California Rejects Loan to Save Bay Area Transit

The California governor’s office has indicated they will not sign off on a proposed $750 million loan to shore up Bay Area transit agencies before the end of this legislative session, reports Juan Carlos Lara for KQED.

The delay could mean significant service cuts for BART, Muni, and other regional transit operators. “But Newsom’s Department of Finance pushed back on the idea that delaying the deal would lead to immediate service cuts, saying it was the department’s understanding that local transit agencies don’t need backfill funding until the middle of 2026 at the earliest. That, the department argued, still leaves time for the deal to be finalized next year.”

BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency that connects San Francisco to other cities across the bay, faces a shortfall of $350 to $400 million beginning in 2027. According to one of its board members, a lack of additional funding could mean the loss of two of its five train lines, the closure of stations, and “a dramatic reduction in our service hours and a dramatic reduction in service frequency.”