Starting January 1, 2014, BART riders will pay on average an extra 19 cents in fares to help pay for new train cars and other top priority projects that will ensure reliable, safe and clean train service for the Bay Area for years to come.
In February 2013, the Board of Directors voted to continue BART’s inflation-based fare increase program and dedicated the new revenue to replace and improve BART’s aging system.
The projects supported by the program include the purchase of Fleet of the Future train cars, a new train control system to improve reliability and to allow more trains to run more frequently, and the expansion of and improvements to the Hayward Maintenance Complex to serve the new fleet and support future service to Silicon Valley.
The inflation-based fare increase program has been in place since 2003 and provides passengers a predictable pattern of small fare adjustments over time as opposed to larger increases with little notice. 60% of surveyed BART passengers support small, predictable increases like these. The renewed program will mean fare increases at a rate below inflation in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 and will generate a total of $325 million to be applied toward these important programs. The first increase will be 5.2%, raising fares on average by 19 cents.
“BART is required to come up with a portion of funding for many of our capital projects in order to qualify to receive extra money from other sources,” said BART Spokeswoman Alicia Trost, “BART must pay $800 million toward the cost of new rail cars—this fare increase will help us achieve that goal. We understand no one wants to pay higher fares but riders should know this money can only be spent on these identified projects which will benefit passengers.”
Source
Bay Area Rapid Transit
3 comments
The first thing Bart has to do is get rid of Joel Keller. Do not re-elect this man folks. He stuck us more than once but the last time was ebart. One of his famous statements to the Antioch city council meeting was, “Livermore will NEVER get Bart”. Guess what, they get Bart and we get a horse and wagon.
Julio, you are 100 percent correct. Keller is not doing East County any favors. The entire BART board needs to go, starting with Joel Keller.
Voters need to fire Keller and replace him next election. He is worthless and has failed us as East County’s BART Rep. He has failed East County in terms of BART coming this way. After Keller, fire the rest of BARTS Board. I can’t beleive this guy was even going to run for Supervisor with his record.
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