Search

BART fares will increase January 1, 2025, to keep pace with inflation so that the agency is able to pay for continued operations and to work toward restoring financial stability. BART's current funding model relies on passenger fares to pay for operations. 

Fares will increase 5.5 percent on New Year’s Day. The increase is tied to the rate of inflation minus a half-percentage point. It’s the second such increase – the first took effect January 1, 2024.

The average fare will increase 25 cents, from $4.47 to $4.72. BART's fare calculator and Trip Planner have been updated with the new fares for trips with the date 1/1/25 and beyond. Riders can learn how the increase will affect their travels by entering a 2025 date for their trip.

“We understand that price increases are never welcome, but BART fares remain a vital source of funds even with ridership lower than they were before the pandemic,” said BART Board Vice President Mark Foley. “My Board colleagues and I voted in June 2023 to spread necessary fare increases over two years rather than catching up all at once. At the same time, we voted to increase the Clipper START means-based discount from 20 percent to 50 percent to help those most in need.”

The fare increase is expected to raise about $14 million per year for operations. Combined with the previous year’s fare adjustment, BART will use this $30 million per year to fund train service, enhanced cleaning, additional police and unarmed safety staff presence, and capital projects such as the Next Generation Fare Gates project. 

Discounts available for those who are eligible

The regional Clipper START program is an important resource for low-income riders of BART and other Bay Area transit systems. The program is for adult riders with a household income of 200% of the federal poverty level or less. Administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, program participants receive a personalized Clipper card that cuts half the cost of fares on more than 20 transit systems.

• Limited income riders get 50% off with Clipper START.
• Youth 5-18 years old get 50% off with a Youth Clipper card. 
• Seniors 65 and over get 62.5% off with a Senior Clipper card. 
• The RTC Clipper card is a version of Clipper created for passengers under 65 with qualifying disabilities to provide 62.5% off.  

Regular, predictable increases a long-term strategy 

January’s fare increase is the latest adjustment in a strategy to provide BART funding while providing riders predictable, scaled changes to the costs of riding. In 2004, BART first implemented this inflation-based fare increase program that calls for small, regular, less-than-inflation increases every two years, allowing fares to keep up with the cost of providing reliable and safe service. 

BART is also much less expensive than driving on a cost per mile basis. The Internal Revenue Service standard mileage rate for driver is 67 cents per mile; BART riders pay an average of 27 cents per mile, 60% less than the cost of driving.

Outdated funding model

BART's current funding model relies on passenger fares to pay for operations. Even with the fare increase, BART is facing a $35 million operating deficit in FY26 and $385 million in FY27. Since BART’s outdated model of relying on passenger fares to pay most operating costs is no longer feasible because of remote work, the agency must modernize its funding sources to better match other transit systems throughout the country that receive larger amounts of public funding. BART needs a more reliable long-term source of operating funding and continues to advocate at the federal, state, and regional levels for the permanent funding needed to sustainably provide the quality transit service the Bay Area needs.  

Addressing BART’s ongoing financial crisis will take a variety of solutions including securing new revenue and continuing to find internal cost savings. BART costs have grown at a rate lower than inflation, showing we have held the line on spending. We have implemented a service schedule that better matches ridership and we are running shorter trains, reducing traction power consumption and maintenance costs.

This article was first posted on November 26, 2024.

The year was 2006. Nintendo was releasing its latest gaming console, the Wii. Pluto got a planetary downgrading. And every tween was belting “High School Musical” hits in the hallways.

Crystal Matson had just graduated from Spelman College with dreams of one day going to law school. Though she had never been to the Bay Area before, Crystal, adventurous spirit in tow, accepted a job in San Francisco and quickly found an apartment near Oakland’s Lake Merritt.

Crystal grew up in a small town outside of Houston, where public transportation was nonexistent. She’d taken Atlanta’s MARTA for a few airport trips, but it was hardly part of her daily routine.

Things changed when she moved to the Bay. Though she hadn’t used public transit much before, Crystal quickly became a bona fide expert on BART, which she’d take every weekday to her job in San Francisco.

On these daily trips to Embarcadero Station, Crystal began noticing a man on the Lake Merritt platform. The two often rode on the same train car, through the Transbay Tube and into the city.

“I probably saw him for a month, every day, waiting on the same platform,” said Crystal, who now works as an attorney at BART.

With only a few months in the Bay under her belt, Crystal was on the hunt for friends and community – “Definitely not a boyfriend,” she said. In fact, Crystal already had a significant other. 

So, one day, Crystal decided to gather her courage and introduce herself to the mysterious, well-dressed man on the train.

“I said, ‘Hey, I see you on the train all the time, and I’m trying to meet new people. Can you tell me where all the young professionals hang out?” Crystal recalled.

The two had a casual conversation, with Crystal chatting about her time at Spelman as well as her youth in Texas. It turned out the man, an accountant named George, had grown up in Houston himself. Believing she’d secured a new friendship, Crystal handed him her business card and went on her way.

But the very next day at Lake Merritt Station, George was not on the platform, so Crystal got on the train. He wasn’t in the car, either.

“This went on for months,” Crystal said. “He vanished!”

Fast forward months later, and Crystal once again spied George on the platform. This time, he came up to her.  

“He said, ‘Hey, how are you?’ And I go, ‘Why are you talking to me? Where were you?” Crystal said.

It turns out, George had a girlfriend who also went to Spelman College and overlapped with Crystal’s time there. He thought his then-girlfriend was setting him up.

“Instead of just saying he was in a relationship, he hid from me!” Crystal said, laughing.

The duo decided to meet for a friendly brunch at Le Bateau Ivre in Berkeley. At least Crystal thought it was friendly. George, she’d learn later, had other ideas. (Editor’s note: Both Crystal and George were single at the time.)

“Even if I had thought it was a date, when the bill came, he didn’t pay! We went Dutch,” Crystal said.

Alas, the two enjoyed each other’s company and began hanging out – as friends – regularly.

“Ultimately, over time, that friendship became a relationship,” Crystal said. “This was about six months after that brunch.”

Crystal recounted doing “everything” with George on BART. They joined the AIDS Walk, ran Bay to Breakers, picnicked in Dolores Park. Their favorite spot was a bar in the Mission District called Double Dutch.

“BART has always been a staple in our relationship,” Crystal said. “We’ve taken it everywhere to get around and explore.”

In 2009, three years after meeting on the BART train, George proposed at Le Bateau Ivre surrounded by friends. Crystal said yes, and the two married on a yacht in Newport Harbor in 2011.

BART has remained a seminal part of their lives. So much so that six years ago, Matson joined the transit agency as an attorney.

Even now, Crystal still remembers the way she felt taking BART around the region as a bright-eyed and bushytailed twentysomething.

“It was the way I got around everywhere,” she said. “It just felt like I was a grownup in the city, and that was exciting.”  

Photo courtesy of Anya McInroy Photography. 

Valentine's Day is just around the corner (and so is our Valentraine speed dating event ) and, well, there is just something romantic about trains!

So many people have found love on BART.

Read some of our past BART meet cute stories:

Former BART attorney met the love of her life on San Francisco-bound train

Meet Crystal and George, who met each other on the Lake Merritt Station platform.

On her daily trips to Embarcadero Station, Crystal began noticing a man on the Lake Merritt platform. The two often rode on the same train car, through the Transbay Tube and into the city.

“I probably saw him for a month, every day, waiting on the same platform,” said Crystal.

With only a few months in the Bay under her belt, Crystal was on the hunt for friends and community – “Definitely not a boyfriend,” she said. In fact, Crystal already had a significant other. 

So, one day, Crystal decided to gather her courage and introduce herself to the mysterious, well-dressed man on the train.

Read the story here.

“BART Guy” and “BART Girl” find love on an empty Embarcadero platform

Thanksgiving Day morning, 2001. Embarcadero Station platform. Gene and Stefani are the only two people waiting for a train. Both are heading to see their families. They make small talk. Gene's train pulls up, and he boards the train. Before the doors close, Gene stepped off.

“It was a split-second decision,” said Gene. “I never thought, ‘oh, that’s my future wife’. It was more a thought of ‘I’ll never see her again, what a shame’. That compelled me to step off the train...I was so embarrassed, and I was asking myself ‘what have I done?’.”

Read the story here.

BART Connects: A transit wedding happened naturally for these newlyweds

Photo courtesy of Anya McInroy Photography. 

Mahalia LeClerc and Benjamin Frisbey never set out to have a transit wedding. It just kind of happened that way...

“We were never like, let’s make sure we include BART in the wedding,” the bride said.

"[But] we value public transit. And though we didn’t plan it that way, our experiences using it naturally led us to having a transit wedding.”

Read the story here.

Couple who met on BART tie the knot with whimsical BART-themed wedding at Fairyland

Photo courtesy of Katie Weinholt Photography.

Seven years ago, Marylee and Armin met on a BART train. In May at Oakland's Fairyland, they tied the knot with a BART-themed wedding.

"I don’t believe in soulmates, but I do believe in the right people at the right time...You were exactly the right person at BART to talk to."

Read the story.

They chatted in the Transbay Tube in 1983. This fall, they celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary

It was 1983. BART was pretty new to the Bay Area and so was 23-year-old Cindy when she stepped onto a BART train that would change her life.  

The train was packed that evening, and Cindy – her feet aching from too many hours squished into heels – couldn't find a seat.
 
“Why didn’t I bring flat shoes today?” she said aloud, speaking more to the universe than any person in particular.  

But then a human voice responded. It belonged to a young man hanging onto the strap beside Cindy.

The two struck up a casual conversation as the train began its underwater journey through the Transbay Tube.

Read the story here.

The BART Police Department’s continued focus on boosting its visible presence in the system appears to be having an impact for both rider and front-line safety. The end-of-the-year Chief’s Report shows overall crime on BART in 2024 was down 17% from the previous year and violent crime was down 11% over that same period. The substantial drop in crime happened even as BART served 2.6 million more trips than it carried in 2023.

Additional highlights from the latest Chief’s Report include:

*The total number of property crimes on BART fell by 536 incidents compared with 2023.
*There were 229 fewer auto thefts, a 34% drop.
*BART PD’s response time to Tier 1 emergencies in December was 3 minutes and 56 seconds, among the fastest for any law enforcement agency in the Bay Area.

BART PD is using both sworn officers as well as non-sworn, unarmed Crisis Intervention Specialists, Transit Ambassadors, Fare Inspectors, and Community Service Officers to maximize its visible presence in the system. Their efforts are being bolstered by the installation of Next Generation Fare Gates, which are already in place at 16 stations across the system. The taller and more resilient gates are improving the station environment and deterring fare evasion. BART plans to install new gates at all 50 of its stations by the end of this year.

Last year was also BART PD’s strongest recruitment year since the pandemic. The officer vacancy total has fallen to 16 and the department is continuing its aggressive recruitment campaign by highlighting its $15,000 hiring bonus for officers and dispatchers as well as the unique career opportunities only BART PD can offer.