Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley

The looming mass transit fiscal cliff threatens the viability of long term operations of BART and future Link21 projects. BART’s historic reliance on farebox recovery for financial stability necessitates an evaluation of available funding sources in an effort to increase funding for both long term project planning and ongoing operations. Given existing State and Federal policies that call for increased investment in public transit and rail and California’s stated goals around greenhouse gas emission reductions and equity improvements, the time is ripe for changes to the current funding mechanisms which have long favored highway and road projects over transit and rail. A streamlined process to ensure continuous and advanced planning is necessary for the successful completion of megaregional transit and rail projects that cross political jurisdictions. Further, this type of planning and funding is necessary for California to remain competitive for Federal funding opportunities, especially given the unprecedented amount of funding currently available from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021).