Bay Area transit systems can't afford to park the bus

OAKLAND, California — Thousands of soccer fans from around the world will funnel around the windy San Francisco Bay area by train, bus, and light rail to watch the United States take on Bosnia and Herzegovina in an elimination game at Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium. But operators of the region’s interlocking mass transit systems are more likely to be concerned with the opinion of local riders than visiting ones. In November, voters across San Francisco Bay Area counties will vote on a ballot measure that serves as something of an existential political referendum on the sometimes maligned but widely utilized public networks that knit together one of the United States’ most transit-dependent regions. The measure would increase local sales-tax rates by up to a full percent to provide a stable funding source for BART, Muni, Caltrain and AC Transit, and the San Francisco Bay Ferry — all of which have faced lower ridership and declining fare revenues since the COVID-19 pandemic. Should it fail, transit agencies have warned of dramatic cuts to service that could lead to less ridership, even less fare revenue, and the end of the system altogether. The Connect Bay Area campaign behind the ballot measure is already working overtime to convince voters that they do in fact hold a deep and abiding love for public buses, trains and boats, embarking on what local press has referred to as a “charm offensive,” through transit-sponsored speed dating, anime festivals, and even a 1980s prom-themed party at a train station east of San Francisco. The campaign did not schedule the World Cup match but is hoping the high-profile encounter involving the U.S. national team will serve as a very public test of the systems’ function and ability to remind both regular and infrequent users of their value. “It's an opportunity to remind people of what public transit means on a large scale,” said Jeff Cretan, a spokesperson for the ballot-measure campaign funded largely by a coalition of business grou