08 Sep Advocates Rally for California to Deliver on Emergency Loans to Prevent Public Transportation Cuts

Workers of a transit operator participate in a rally for public transit funding at San Francisco City Hall on Monday. Transit advocacy groups and elected officials are asking the state of California to provide funding for local public transit agencies. (Andres Jimenez Larios / Bay City News)

By Audrey Tomlin
Bay City News

Advocates dressed as emergency medical responders carried transit vehicles on stretchers across San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza on Monday morning at a rally for California to deliver emergency loan funding to prevent drastic public transportation cuts.

In June, as part of California’s 2025-2026 budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state legislature committed to a $750 million emergency loan to prevent Bay Area public transportation service cuts until longer-term regional funding could go into effect.

Yet the Bay Area has yet to receive the emergency loans. Advocates warn that without the loans, Bay Area public transportation faces severe cuts, leaving residents without a safe and affordable way to travel throughout the area.

BART could be forced to cut 65-85% of service, according to a press statement from state Sen. Scott Wiener. That would mean trains running only every 60 minutes, no weekend service, station closures and line shutdowns, Wiener said. Muni could reduce service frequency by 50%, cut regular service after 9 p.m., and eliminate Muni fare subsidies for low-income riders, according to Wiener.

Currently, the state Legislature is set to approve Senate Bill 63, a funding measure that would allow five Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara — to propose a sales tax in support of public transit operations on the 2026 ballot. But the funding from the bill will not begin until 2027, making state loans critical to prevent immediate public transit cuts, advocates argue.

Elected officials including Wiener, members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the BART Board of Directors spoke in support of the emergency loans at the rally.

“There is this misconception that the challenges with transit are new, that they came from the pandemic,” Wiener said. “We have been facing these problems for a while.”

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