☆ Insight: Overhauling BART for a bus system an understandable, but excessive, proposal

It's no secret that Bay Area residents are rapidly transitioning away from BART: overruled by anarchy, inefficiency, and ballooning expenses wreaking havoc on the foreseeable future. However, argues transit analyst Tom Rubin, it's not time to throw in the towel and abandon BART for a discrete system—for several reasons. An Opp Now exclusive.

Should we replace the existing BART system? My short answer: No. We should really stop trying to expand BART at a minimum. The Bay Area made a huge investment in BART, and it's been successful in many ways. It's just that times have changed. It's very slowly recovering ridership-wise, and may one day be close to pre-Covid levels, but an expansion will never make sense.

Pre-Covid, I wrote a paper for Reason suggesting that rather than establishing another BART tube across the Bay—at the time, they were concerned BART would run out of capacity—we should consider a long-haul commuter express bus service. This could be a very competitive alternative and is worth studying, though it may no longer be viable after the pandemic. My idea was this: Convert one lane on the Bay Bridge into an express lane for buses (e.g., Caltrain, Capitol Corridor, Amtrak commuter) and other vehicles paying a premium—what the Metropolitan Transportation Commission calls an “Express Lane,” such as on I-680, I-580, and CA-101.

But as far as overhauling BART for a bus system, here's the thing: If we replaced BART, we'd have to repay an incredible amount of money to the federal government. This is because of a grant BART received; if they don't use the facilities for their full life, they'll have to repay the government for that grant.

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