Ridership on the $1.2 billion Bay Area Rapid Transit line to San Francisco Airport — which was never very high in the first place — has declined by 10 percent since 2013, which translates to a $4 million annual loss in fare revenues. Ridership on the $500 million BART-funded cable car to the Oakland Airport, which was also well below expectations, declined by 6 percent in the past two years, equal to about $620,000 in lost revenues.
BART blames ride hailing services for the loss in business, claiming that no one could have predicted the rise in such services when the agency planned these lines. Ride hailing is very predictable now (hindsight being 20:20), yet BART is still planning new lines, including an extension to Livermore, a second transbay crossing, and of course the line to downtown San Jose.
To pay for these new lines, as well as reconstruction of existing lines, BART asked voters to approve $3.5 billion in new funding in 2016 — and spent two years and an unknown amount of tax dollars promoting the ballot measure (without actually mentioning the measure) with the slogan “it’s time to rebuild.” It also failed to report these expenditures in a campaign filing statement, for which it was fined a whopping $7,500 by the state Fair Political Practices Commission. As one voter noted, “that’s not a fine; that’s a fantastic investment.”
With transit agencies spending taxpayer money like this on political propaganda, it’s no wonder that polls show that most voters favor spending more money on transit. In most states, government agencies aren’t legally allowed to lobby voters, but the transit agencies just claim it is “educational” and usually get away with it (or get fined a paltry $7,500).
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BART is one of the worst examples because it has spent enormous amounts of money while doing great harm to the Bay Area’s transit systems. Between 1982 — the earliest year for which comprehensive data are available — and the year ending in September 2018, BART gained 72 million riders per year, but regional buses lost 152 million riders per year. When added to other transit modes, the result is a net loss of almost 40 million trips per year, or 8 percent, during a period in which the region’s population grew by 35 percent.
This isn’t because former bus riders are now riding BART; it’s because money going to BART has meant less money available for Alameda-Contra Costa (AC) Transit, Golden Gate Transit (Marin County), San Francisco Muni, and San Mateo Transit (SamTrans). In 1982, for example, vehicle-revenue miles of bus service offered by AC Transit declined by nearly a third; Muni bus service declined 7 percent; Golden Gate declined 45 percent; and SamTrans declined 4 percent. In all, there was a 12 percent decline in bus service.
BART itself has seen a 17 percent decline in ridership since 2015 despite a 15 percent increase in train service. Of course, BART’s solution to the decline isn’t more sensible transit spending. Instead, it is more propaganda. How about a BART plush toy for Christmas? As Bay Area residents note, unlike the real thing it doesn’t “smell like peepee.”
One of the reasons that BART ridership to SFO and OAK is so disappointing is that in both instances there is an airport rip-off surcharge that makes fares for families with luggage noncompetitive. Ride sharing only made this worse, but groups of two or more would usually go with taxis, shuttles or have friends drop them off. Expense account types will just pay to park at the airport.
No one could have predicted ride hailing. But soliciting cars you don’t own for servicing you………has been around for a while. What’s changed is we have the technology in an app format, so casual that we are no longer geographically bound the way transit agencies are. For transit agencies to expand their influence and reach…..they have to spend Millions or BILLIONS of dollars for infrastructure out in the middle of nowhere……..for a car ride…..you just have to push a button and it comes to you. In an era when Pizza, packages, pornography are available at the push of a button…..the idea that automotive services couldn’t establish, seems kinda dunce at this point.
“BART itself has seen a 17 percent decline in ridership since 2015”. I’m not surprised, The train stations even refurbished still resemble post apocalyptic scenery where junkies shoot up in plain view of riders.
As usual, you can’t rely on what The Antiplanner says, let alone his “analysis.”
The first step in establishing credibility is to get the facts everyone can agree on straight. BART ridership HAS NOT declined 17% since 2015. From FYs 2016 to 2017, BART ridership declined slightly by 2.3% and was relatively stable between 2015 and 2017 overall. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_Rapid_Transit.
I don’t know where The Antiplanner got the -17% figure, but it wasn’t for the BART system overall.
Maybe the -17% figure relates to airport ridership?
The -17% figure is from 2015 to 2018, not 2017.
Those tweets at BART about the plush toy are priceless.
Just looked at the ntd ridership profiles, and at least for Bart the 2018 data has not been published yet, so I think we should wait for official data before we can conclude Bart has had such a huge 1 year ridership decline.