Alternative Service Plan in January<\/a> that includes service cuts, station closures, fare increases, a 40% reduction in system support services and layoffs for about 1,200 employees.<\/p>\nThe plan does not name specific stations to be closed, a decision the BART board would make,\u00a0Chris Filippi, a BART spokesperson, said in a written response to Oakland North.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20161024_BART_Vartabedian-1024x683.jpg\")
A BART train stops at MacArthur station (File photo)<\/p>\n
Connect Bay Area is among the groups campaigning for the measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we have got work to do ahead of us, but there is a really good base of people who are supporting the measure generally, and a strong group that\u2019s ready to get to work to fight for it all the way up to November,\u201d said Jeff Cretan, spokesperson for the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The campaign, which\u00a0 surpassed its signature-gathering target thanks to the effort of more than 1,000 volunteers, is also backed by numerous business leaders and labor organizations. Cretan said major supporters include technology entities like Salesforce and Meta, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Chris Larsen, and unions such as the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The campaign has raised $5.5 million, though the bulk was spent on getting the measure on the ballot.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need a lot of volunteers and people to go to community meetings, Democratic clubs, farmers markets, to go wherever voters are and talk to them,\u201d Cretan said. \u201cWe are going to fundraise and we are also going to have to do a significant amount of advertising to voters because this is a huge region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Transit agencies receiving funding would be subject to financial efficiency reviews conducted by a third-party consultant and supervised by an independent committee established by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Companies would be required to implement efficiency proposals and exhibit compliance to remain eligible for funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want to support transit, but they want to know that the agencies are acting efficiently and responsibly with those dollars,\u201d Cretan said.<\/p>\n
Opposition to the measure<\/p>\n
Contra Costa Taxpayers Association President Marc Joffe said he is \u201cvery skeptical\u201d that the measure\u2019s accountability provisions have \u201cany real teeth\u201d to ensure transit agencies use the additional revenue responsibly.\u00a0 His group is campaigning against the measure and calling on Bay Area transit agencies to figure out how to better spend the billions of dollars they already receive from riders and taxpayers. <\/p>\n
The Bay Area has become very expensive, and it\u2019s very hard for middle-income people to make ends meet here,\u201d Joffe said. \u201cSo the fight for affordability in the Bay Area starts with voters saying no to these expensive taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Connect Bay Area<\/a>, without the additional revenue, AC Transit could face about a 37% reduction in service, Muni could reduce service by roughly 30%, including late-night operations, and Caltrain could eliminate weekend service and reduce weekday frequencies. BART could face the deepest reductions, service cuts of as much as 70% and the closures of up to 15 stations.<\/p>\nWiener did not respond to multiple requests for comment. In a May 26 news release,\u00a0 he said, \u201cThe challenges facing BART and Muni are existential, but failure is not an option here. The Bay Area runs on transit, and we must step up to save it for all our sakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
OUSD vowed reparations for Black students five years ago, but the promise remains unfulfilled<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fundraising, advertising and grassroots efforts are underway to persuade voters to approve a November ballot measure that would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[3767,58396,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-382563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bart","tag-bay-area-transit-funding","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}