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BART director tells Brentwood council agency is balancing safety gains with a deep budget shortfall
Summary
BART Director Mark Foley told Brentwood council on June 9 that fare gates, policing and cleaning have improved safety and customer satisfaction, but BART faces a multi-hundred-million-dollar operating shortfall and is considering service reductions and other measures if new revenue does not materialize.
Mark Foley, the Bay Area Rapid Transit board director who represents the district including Brentwood commuters, briefed the council on June 9 about recent operational changes and a looming budget deficit.
Foley highlighted capital and operational moves he said have boosted safety and system performance: installation of more than 700 fare gates across 50 stations (expected to yield roughly $10 million a year), a reconfigured police deployment that he said has coincided with a "drop of crime over 41% year-over-year," doubled cleaning crews, and escalator replacements downtown. He also described fare-technology adoption: Tap and Ride accounted for about 900,000 trips in April and Clipper Start produced nearly 200,000 rides.
Despite those gains, Foley said ridership remains at roughly half of pre-pandemic weekday levels and BART faces an estimated operating shortfall approaching $370 million beginning in FY27. He described the board's work on a range of responses, including using bridge loan options cautiously, pursuing a regional funding measure (Connect Bay Area) and, if necessary, service reductions or staffing impacts to balance budgets. Foley said staff had identified planning scenarios that could include major service reductions beginning January 2027 — potentially cutting service frequency and closing stations — and warned of the workforce impact of laying off certified employees who would be difficult to rehire quickly if ridership recovers.
Foley said the board has also worked to improve financial oversight, noting an inspector general, an audit committee and a multi-phase independent fiscal review tied to enabling legislation under SB 63. Foley told the council the board expects to consider a budget later in the week intended to push a major operating shortfall into FY28 while the agency pursues additional revenue options.
Quote: "We're at about 50% of our pre-pandemic ridership during the week," Foley told the council, noting the structural challenge that fixed-rail systems do not scale down proportionately when riders do not return.
What comes next: Foley said the board plans to adopt a balanced budget proposal and pursue additional revenue strategies, including a ballot measure; he urged local leaders to support measures that shore up BART's operating resiliency.
