BART recorded its highest monthly ridership levels since 2019 in March, advancing a slow, years-long comeback from reduced commuter traffic that evaporated during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The transit agency is facing an ongoing yearly budget deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars and has pinned its hopes on a regional ballot measure this fall that would raise the sales tax in the five counties that carry BART trains.
BART relies heavily on passenger revenue from fares and parking fees from customers who park and ride. The system was kept afloat by significant federal and state assistance in the years after the pandemic, which caused significant shifts in customer activity. Commuter traffic into downtown San Francisco took a particularly sharp hit, according to the transit agency.
The increase in ridership crossed multiple metrics in March that BART said were positive signs of the system’s comeback, including average weekday ridership of over 200,000 people for the first time since the pandemic. That’s still far below the system’s average weekday ridership of about 410,000 trips in the years before the pandemic, according to BART.
BART General Manager Bob Powers said during his presentation of the numbers at the BART Board of Directors meeting last week that the system also recorded its fewest train delays in a decade in March.
“If you couple the two together, the ridership and our reliability, what we’re doing is working,” Powers said. “Ridership is up, folks are feeling better about taking public transportation, and connections with our partner agencies are there, we just need to stay the course and continue to push to improve the rider experience and good things will happen,” he told his colleagues.
Over 5.4 million riders were recorded exiting the system in March, exceeding the previous high of Oct. 2025 by about 60,000 trips.
The San Francisco Giants’ opening day on March 25 also helped set the new single-day high for riders since the pandemic, with nearly 230,000 exits recorded.
Saturday ridership was also up by about 38% compared to March 2025, according to the transit agency, which highlighted “No Kings” protests against the administration of President Donald Trump and Chinese New Year celebrations in San Francisco.
BART’s Board of Directors said that these numbers highlighted the system’s ability to move substantial numbers of people throughout the region for large events, including the Super Bowl, which had the previous single-day ridership high in February.
Funding gap looms despite ridership gains
The regional ballot measure planned for this fall, called “Connect Bay Area,” would increase the sales tax in the counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa by a half-cent and in San Francisco by a full cent. The tax would start in 2027 and sunset after 14 years.
The tax would generate an estimated $980 million a year and would be divided mostly among several transit agencies including BART, Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), Caltrain, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), and Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).
A smaller portion would also go to San Francisco Bay Ferry, Golden Gate Transit, San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans), and certain smaller scale operators in the East Bay.
About a third of the revenue would go toward BART’s operating budget, according to an analysis of the tax from the nonprofit policy advocacy organization San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, known as SPUR.
That means that even if the measure passes, BART will be left with projected deficits of tens of millions of dollars.
The BART Board passed a contingency plan in February outlining drastic cuts to the system if the measure does not pass, including station closures and significant service reductions. The stations planned to close if that happens have not yet been finalized.