BART on track to hit ‘fiscal cliff’ in March 2025 in preliminary budget

BART is on track to run out of federal relief funds by March 2025, with estimated operating deficits of more than $300 million per year over the next several years, according to the transit agency’s preliminary budget.

In a presentation to the agency’s governing board, Pamela Herhold, BART’s assistant general manager for performance and budget, along with Michael Eiseman, the agency’s financial planning director, outlined that BART’s operating revenue remains hundreds of millions of dollars below where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic began, mostly due to a sustained lack of ridership at pre-pandemic levels.