BART
BART fares will increase Jan. 1, 2025, “to keep pace with inflation so that the agency is able to pay for continued operations and to work toward restoring financial stability.” BART’s current funding model relies on passenger fares to pay for operations.
Fares will increase 5.5% on New Year’s Day. The increase, BART says, is tied to the rate of inflation minus a half-percentage point. It’s the second such increase—the first took effect Jan. 1, 2024.
The average fare will increase 25 cents, from $4.47 to $4.72. BART’s fare calculator and Trip Planner have been updated with the new fares for trips with the date 1/1/25 and beyond. Riders can learn how the increase will affect their travels by entering a 2025 date for their trip.
The fare increase, BART says, is expected to raise about $14 million per year for operations. Combined with the previous year’s fare adjustment, the agency will use this $30 million per year to fund train service, enhanced cleaning, additional police and unarmed safety staff presence, and capital projects such as the Next Generation Fare Gates project.
“We understand that price increases are never welcome, but BART fares remain a vital source of funds even with ridership lower than they were before the pandemic,” said BART Board Vice President Mark Foley. “My Board colleagues and I voted in June 2023 to spread necessary fare increases over two years rather than catching up all at once. At the same time, we voted to increase the Clipper START means-based discount from 20 percent to 50 percent to help those most in need.”
PANYNJ
PATH’s October ridership numbers were strong, as the system set new post-pandemic highs both for total monthly riders and average weekday ridership for the second consecutive month, while reaching a new high of 75% of pre-pandemic ridership levels, according to PANYNJ.
PATH welcomed approximately 5.7 million passengers in October 2024. This, PANYNJ says, was the highest total for any month since February 2020. October’s passenger total broke the post-pandemic ridership record set in September 2024 by 11% and also surpassed October 2023 by 18%. It was 75% of October 2019’s passenger total, the system’s best performance to date relative to the same month in 2019.
The system also recorded its highest mark for average weekday riders since the onset of the pandemic. PATH welcomed 211,525 riders on an average October 2024 weekday. This was a 2.4% jump from the previous post-pandemic high for the figure set in September 2024 and was an increase of 14% over October 2023. October 2024’s average weekday ridership was 71% of October 2019’s average weekday ridership.
PATH service attracted more weekend riders this October than during pre-pandemic October 2019. Average Saturday ridership in October 2024 was up 7% from October 2019, while average Sunday ridership was up 22%.
During the first 10 months of the year, PATH has welcomed approximately 47.6 million passengers, an increase of 14% from the same period in 2023.
