An extended outage on the Clipper card system that became a major point of frustration for BART riders last month appears to have been caused by an account being shut off due to an unpaid bill.

The rollout of the so-called "Clipper 2.0" system, which was meant to streamline fare-paying and allow transit riders to use their own credit cards to tap-to-pay, was called "a hot mess" by an executive board member of Clipper four months ago. And much of the blame for that may belong to the contractor, Cubic Corp., that has been managing the fare-paying platform under contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission since 2018.

The most recent of multiple major glitches was a 27-hour outage across the Clipper system on May 18. As the Chronicle reports, that outage was apparently caused by an unpaid AT&T bill — with Cubic relying on AT&T's wireless network for communications between fare gates, ticket machines, and the payment system.

Cubic Chief Operating Officer Lalit Singh explained the situation to the Clipper executive board at a Monday meeting, per the Chronicle, saying that the company had multiple accounts with AT&T, and the account associated with the fare gates was a secondary account that had apparently slipped through the cracks and its bills hadn't been paid.

It sounds like heads may roll over this gaffe, though this is hardly the first problem with the Clipper system in recent months. The rollout of "Clipper 2.0" has been rocky, with some 51 Muni fare-adding machines out of order due to their lack of updates to the new system — and in some Muni stations it's impossible to add fare to a Clipper card.

There have also reportedly been ongoing problems with reloading student passes.

Regarding the unpaid bill story, BART General Manager Robert Powers tells the Chronicle, "Cubic not paying their bill? Are you kidding me? That’s ridiculous. BART is so done with Cubic right now. You have zero credibility."

There are another two years on Cubic's 10-year, $461 million contract to update the Clipper system, and transit officials like Powers and Mulligan are decrying how the recent glitches are hurting reputation and credibility of transit writ large across the Bay Area.

Per the Chronicle piece, Cubic has also missed a May 30 deadline to address issues with the bulk migration of existing Clipper accounts to the new system — only 45% have been migrated despite the new system having rolled out six months ago.

BART and Muni would just like everyone to know, if they've had trouble with these systems, it's not their fault. And on the plus side, the tap-to-pay system with regular credit cards appears to be functioning.

Unfortunately, these glitches have also come at a time when both agencies are making efforts to decrease fare evasion and bolster fare revenue, but Clipper isn't doing them any favors there either.

Previously: Clipper Developer Says It Will Resolve Chaos From Disastrous 2.0 Rollout By May 30

Despite fare evasion being down since BART installed new gates designed to prevent gate-jumping, the agency will soon begin implementing upgrades allowing the doors to close 300 milliseconds more quickly to prevent "piggybacking."

Last month, BART began field-testing upgraded fare gates at the Antioch and Concord stations aimed at cutting down on riders “piggybacking” behind other riders to avoid paying their fare, as the Chronicle reports.

While the current gates have reportedly been effective at reducing fare evasion since they were installed in late 2023, BART officials aim to reduce it even more with new upgrades that allow the panels to close in 500 milliseconds instead of the current 800 milliseconds.

As SFist reported last spring, a rider poll conducted by BART found that 17% of respondents said they witnessed riders evading fares since the new gates were installed, compared to 25% the year before.

Prior to the installation of the original gates, the agency was losing around $25 million a year due to fare evasion, according to the Chronicle, as the old, 1970s-era turnstiles were easy to hop over or squeeze through.

BART engineers went through several prototypes for the gates, including double-decker gates, sharkfin-style barricades, and a revolving door with interlocking teeth, before the board opted for the current style gate, which features Plexiglass panels with cameras and sensors attached.

Per the Chronicle, the amount of vandalism throughout the system has also been significantly reduced since the gates were installed. Analysts estimate the agency is saving almost 1,000 hours of maintenance work, which works out to $10 million annually in costs.

“Basically, we’re taking a really great product, and making it better,” said BART spokesperson Alicia Trost.

Previously: BART Fare Evasion Way Down With the New Gates, or at Least That’s What BART Claims

• The city of San Francisco plans to raise water and sewage rates by almost 25% over the next two years, as well as continually over the next decade. The average single-family household bill is expected to increase from $171 a month to $189 this summer and $212 a month next summer. [Chronicle]
• The attempt to persuade all Democratic candidates to drop out of the special election for former Representative Eric Swalwell’s vacant seat in favor of a caretaker candidate has fallen through. [Bay Area News Group]
• Two earthquakes with magnitudes of 3.0 and 2.7 struck off the coast near the San Francisco Zoo Saturday starting around 4:40 pm with weak shaking reported. [KPIX]
• BART’s Red line and Green Lines will be out of service all day Sunday for lighting work, and service will resume Monday. [KRON4]
• Around 75 addresses in Mountain View have been without water since Friday when the main water line was contaminated by a construction crew, and comprehensive drinking water safety testing will not be complete until at least Monday. [Bay Area News Group]
• Novato Police are searching for an older woman who is suspected of striking an eight-year-old on a bike and fleeing the scene Friday afternoon. [NBC Bay Area]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

BART has set aside over $500,000 to fight citations for violations dating back to 2019, as Cal/OSHA considers fining the agency more than $200,000 over a 2024 incident where managers allowed employees to work on a live track, and BART is blaming the workers.

As NBC Bay Area’s Jaxon Van Derbeken reports, Cal/OSHA is considering hitting BART with more than $200,000 in new fines over alleged safety violations tied to track replacement work inside the Berkeley–Orinda Hills tunnel in November 2024, where crews were reportedly allowed to work on a live track without proper clearance.

Fortunately, no one was injured, unlike a deadly incident in 2013 in which two BART engineers were struck and killed by a train that was being operated by a trainee, as SFist reported at the time.

According to Cal/OSHA’s citation for the 2024 incident, one manager believed crews were permitted to perform track work without clearance, while another said he allowed the job to continue after workers told him they were “fine” with proceeding. In its appeal of the citation, BART argues the situation resulted from the “independent action” of unnamed employees.

BART employee Tony Velasquez, who spoke to NBC Bay Area about the incident, said he was in charge of a crew replacing a 40-foot section of corroded track beside the tunnel’s 1,000-volt third rail that day.

Velasquez said he followed BART protocol by requesting “safe clearance” from operations before work began, confirming the third rail was deactivated. Per NBC Bay Area, when operations told him there was a delay in granting clearance, he said he instructed the crew not to start work.

“I told everybody… on the job site that we don't have safe clearance, so no work,” he said.

But two workers later left with a pair of BART managers who had arrived at the site and began the job anyway, as NBC Bay Area reports. Velasquez said he was alarmed by management’s dismissive attitude following the potentially deadly incident.

“One of them just shrugged like, ‘I don't know,’” Velasquez said, referring to management. “Then I asked the other guy and he's like, ‘No, it's okay. We don't need safe clearance, we'll keep on working.’’’

Velasquez disputes BART’s claim that employees acted independently, noting the two managers who were present in the tunnel when the work proceeded, per NBC Bay Area.

“I knew that day when all that stuff happened, it was going to be a bad night and I knew that they were going to try to wash their hands and put the blame on us,” Velasquez said.

The agency has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars challenging Cal/OSHA enforcement actions. As NBC Bay Area reports, BART’s governing board recently approved up to $150,000 more for the effort, bringing the total set aside for legal fights with the state worker safety agency to more than $500,000 since 2019.

BART said in a statement to NBC Bay Area that the citations are for an incident that “did not result in an accident or anyone being injured.”

“Cal/OSHA has previously brought citations against BART related to these same issues, and they were overturned in court,” said the agency. “BART likewise plans to appeal these latest citations.”

As SFist reported back in 2017, NBC Bay Area obtained footage of a deadly 2013 incident where two BART engineers, Laurence Daniels and Christopher Sheppard, were struck and killed by a rookie operator driving an empty train while other employees were on strike. The footage shows the operator’s trainer, who was supposed to be at the trainee’s side during the entirety of the trip, texting and talking on the phone in the passenger portion of the train leading up to the incident.

The trainer can be heard giving the trainee a hard time for “bothering” them with questions, joking, “How many more times are you going to make me get up. G**dammit?”

BART was ultimately fined $1.3 million in 2018 by the California Public Utilities Commission over the 2013 incident, as the Chronicle reported at the time. BART was required to pay half the fine at $650,000 up front, while the commission put the agency on a three-year probation, stipulating that BART must pay the remaining amount if any other safety violations occured in that time.

NBC Bay Area reports that OSHA investigators found no evidence of any employees receiving disciplinary action or being retrained following the 2024 incident. According to BART records, one of the managers involved received a promotion.

John Arantes, head of SEIU Local 1021, said it’s concerning that BART is choosing to stockpile funds for legal fees — while promoting managers accused of disregarding workers' safety — instead of addressing violations and enforcing protocols.

“It’s very scary now,” he told NBC Bay Area. “You never know if you're going to make it home or not, because you don't know if they're going to provide a safe work environment out there, or they're just going to put you in danger.”

Image: Pi.1415926535/Wikimedia

Related: 2 BART Workers Killed by Train

It's been a bad week/month/year for BART. Around 8:20 am on Thursday, all train service was halted between West Oakland and 24th/Mission stations due to a communication issue.

It's not clear if this is related to the communication cable damage that occurred last Friday as a result of an encampment fire in West Oakland. But BART experienced some new outage Thursday morning that stopped all transbay service and service through San Francisco's tunnels for around 40 minutes.

The trouble began around 8:20 am, according to a tweet from BART, which referred to "an equipment problem on the track."

The agency said that service had been restored as of a few minutes after 9 am.

This is just another in a series of BART meltdowns that have occurred during the height of morning commute hours in the last year, though there have been other troubles, like Friday's outage, that occurred at later hours.

We await further explanation about this morning's communications outage.

Update: Per Bay Area News group, "BART spokesperson Michelle Robertson said the problem had to do with the failure of computer network hardware but that personnel repaired the problem." Residual delays are expected throughout the morning.

Photo by Kace Rodriguez

BART says it is now working with the City of Oakland to "proactively address" other spots where homeless encampment fires could potentially threaten train service.

There have now been not one but two encampment fires that have interrupted BART service in the last week, and one on Sunday — which occurred in a problematic location in West Oakland that BART officials were already aware of — shut down all transbay service from 4 pm on, stranding thousands of riders on both sides of the Bay.

We learned Monday morning that the culprit in Sunday's cable damage that led to the suspension of all train service through the Transbay Tube was an RV fire at a homeless encampment near West Oakland Station. The Chronicle now reports that the encampment was in the area of Fifth and Filbert streets, beneath BART's elevated trackway, and it was an encampment that the agency was already working with the City of Oakland to address.

The fire sent flames high up to the elevated tracks, where they caused damage to communications cables that are essential to service. And, subsequently, repair crews had to inspect the cables "inch by inch" and replace any damaged ones, and then run test trains to make sure everything was working, before service could resume early Monday morning, according to BART spokesperson Alicia Trost.

A look at Google Street View shows photos of the area around Fifth and Filbert Streets in February 2025, one year ago. A trailer of some kind is parked on the street, partly underneath the BART trackway, but more concerning is a large section of chainlink fence, meant to keep people out of the area beneath the tracks, is missing, which would theoretically allow RVs to park off the street and in this grassy area.

Former BART director Debora Allen pointed this out, posting a Google Street View image in response to BART's Monday Xitter post about the fire incident.

"Why is @SFBART allowing the City of Oakland to leave its tracks in danger by allowing RV campers along the streets. No red curbs, unlocked gates. Your BART personnel have lots of cars to drive around and keep an eye on this," Allen writes.

Trost acknowledged to the Chronicle that the process of clearing the encampment in this area was being sped up thanks to Sunday's fire, and she added, "At this time, we are working closely with the City of Oakland to proactively address other areas of concern, to prevent another situation like this."

Another encampment fire the previous Sunday also caused damage to BART cables and forced the temporary closure of South Hayward Station.

BART may be struggling with declining ridership, but incidents like what occurred Sunday show the degree to which many still rely on the BART system, particularly when they want to avoid car traffic and attend large events where there will be limited parking.

We noted the many people who were lined up for bus shuttles at Salesforce Transit Center Sunday, trying to get back to the East Bay after an afternon in SF — that Formula 1 event in the Marina being just one of many potential draws. And the Chronicle notes that many hundreds were also lined up and cramming onto bus shuttles outside 12th Street/City Center Station in Oakland following the Black Joy Parade, which was just winding down when BART's meltdown occurred.

Previously: BART Service Through Transbay Tube Resumes After Fire-Damaged Cables Cause Major Sunday Disruption

An alert was sent out to riders Sunday that BART service was paused in the Transbay Tube due to communication issues, along with information on transbay bus lines, leading to long waits for shuttles throughout Sunday evening.

Transbay BART service resumed around 4:30 am Monday after crews worked through the night to repair cables that were damaged by a street-level fire in West Oakland, leading to a complete halt in service through the Transbay Tube.

As KPIX reports, BART has said that their equipment was not at fault in this case, but a fire that occurred on the street level near West Oakland Station damaged some vital communications cables. And NBC Bay Area had a subsequent report, via BART officials, that the fire occurred in an RV in a homeless encampment beneath or near the BART tracks.

BART first issued a service alert on social media around 4:15 pm Sunday, reporting a halt in service due to loss of communication in the Transbay Tube. This was followed up with information about taking AC Transit's F, O and N/L transbay bus lines, which transports riders from SF’s Salesforce Terminal to several East Bay stops.

According to BART’s advisory page, riders were also being directed to take a dedicated shuttle bus between the 12th Street Oakland BART station and the Salesforce Terminal in SF.

“We have crews working to restore that communication right now, but for now trains are turning back at Embarcadero Station in San Francisco and at the West Oakland station in the East Bay,” said Anna Duckworth, a BART spokesperson, in a statement.

Hundreds if not thousands of frustrated East Bay residents formed lines at Salesforce Transit Center Sunday evening to board crowded buses to get them across the Bay, following the surprise disruption. As KTVU reports, many riders arrived in downtown SF BART stations to hear the announcement, and then had to walk to the Transit Center to find buses — this came after some riders had already been waiting in stations for a train for over an hour.

"It's an inconvenience. I've been here for about three hours now," said one rider, Alvonda Meyers of Oakland, speaking to KTVU.

BART had also been running trains on a single track through the Tube late Saturday night due to previously scheduled work to install new lights, though this was unrelated to Sunday's incident.

Image: Pi.1415926535/Wikimedia

*This post has been updated throughout.

This week: The Dipsea Trail, a crow take-over, award-winning BART poem, and site-specific sculptural CD art. Plus, a beloved pop-up bakery gets its own space, a local violinist shines at the Super Bowl, and Black Panther Emory Douglas’s collage images.

Between stations

On a daily ride between San Leandro and the Mission, a young poet found her voice. Sehinne’s poem BART earned a rare sweep of nine-or-higher scores at the 2025 Brave New Voices festival, helping Team Youth Speaks Bay Area take first place.

In the piece, the train becomes a steady, slightly offbeat presence, a place where writing happens in stolen minutes between stations. The poem draws from her internship at Youth Speaks on 16th Street Mission and can be watched in full online. — Bay Area Rapid Transit

In full view

Violinist Rose Crelli’s path runs from one-room cabins in Alaska and the Yukon to the Super Bowl halftime stage. Raised off the grid after being adopted from China, she learned discipline and resourcefulness through long drives for lessons and battery-powered practice sessions.

In San Francisco, she built her own work — teaching, performing locally, and posting online — until a call brought her to Levi’s Stadium to play with Bad Bunny, Lady Gaga, and Ricky Martin. The moment reflected years of work, craft, and a deep connection to her roots. — 7x7

Sweet debut

Grand Opening bakery, run by James Beard–nominated pastry chef Melissa Chou, is now taking orders from its West Oakland kitchen at 2311 Magnolia St. (off Grand), located inside 02 Artisans Aggregate alongside Soba Ichi and other local businesses. Chou, who previously popped up at Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco, offers a menu of whole cakes, pies, and cookies, including a black sesame almond cake with blood orange and a strawberry lychee cheese tart.

Standard favorites like the burnt honey pie and Parisian egg tart remain, alongside a rotating selection of sponge cakes and seasonal desserts. — Berkeleyside

Images of a revolution

At the Fillmore District’s African American Arts and Culture Complex, Emory Douglas’s sharp ink-and-collage images return to the Bay Area, where they first appeared in local papers and the Black Panther Party’s own publication. As the Black Panther Party’s Minister of Culture, Douglas shaped a visual language driven by urgency — scenes of police violence and poverty set beside intimate moments of family life.

The work was never meant for galleries, but its bold lines and clipped photos became inseparable from the movement itself, influencing activists far beyond Oakland. Emory Douglas: In Our Lifetime runs through October at the African American Arts and Culture Complex in San Francisco. — KPIX

Discs of daylight

Inside the Transamerica Pyramid Center, ICA San Francisco opens its program with Stratagems, a room-filling installation by sculptor Tara Donovan. Towering columns made from thousands of recycled CDs catch and scatter daylight, shifting tone and intensity as the sun moves and seasons change, turning the space into something closer to an instrument than a gallery.

The materials are ordinary and familiar, but their repetition bends perception, making hard edges feel fluid and almost biological. Organized with the Transamerica Pyramid Center and timed with SF Art Week, the exhibition runs through July 31. — Groove Atelier

Lifting without limits

In SF’s Noe Valley, Iron + Mettle offers a space where women focus on heavy lifting without intimidation or macho energy. Founder Danielle Repetti built the gym to teach proper form, gradual strength building, and confidence in a welcoming, small-group setting.

Members gradually increase weights and celebrate personal milestones, supported by coaches who understand women’s training needs. The studio blends community, education, and barbell work to make strength accessible to anyone who walks through the door. — Mission Local

Ferns and water

In Marin County, a short trail slips quickly out of the everyday and into something greener and quieter. The 3.8-mile route winds through fern-lined canyons and shaded forest, opening now and then to ocean air, waterfalls, and wide views that feel borrowed from another era.

It’s a moderate hike that rewards an unhurried pace, the kind where you stop often without meaning to. Best tackled with a friend, enough water, and the patience to leave the place exactly as you found it. — California Views/Instagram

A crow boom

San Francisco’s winter crow population has surged to a record 3,260 birds, more than double last year’s count and well above historical norms. Drawn by easy food, warm roosting spots, and fewer natural predators, crows have adapted quickly to city life while other bird species struggle.

At dusk, the birds gather in large, coordinated flocks — a daily spectacle shaped by both social behavior and survival. — SFGate

Top image: Rose Crelli Violin/Facebook

Previously: Field Notes: 124-Year-Old Light Bulb, UC Davis’ Cheeto the Cat, and ‘Trash Falcons’ Art Exhibit

It's a bit less than what was promised last year, but Governor Gavin Newsom has signed off on a $590 million loan package for Bay Area transit agencies, which have been facing serious budget problems since the pandemic.

Ridership is not back nearly where it was, and BART continues to grapple with potential station closures and service cuts as a result of the revenue blow. But the state has come through with a $590 million loan fund that BART says it will tap into only if Bay Area voters approve a sales tax measure in June that is mean to help close BART's budget gap in the long term.

Governor Newsom announced the loan approval Thursday, saying, "California is stepping up to support Bay Area transit—this agreement will help protect transit service for more than three million monthly riders. The benefits of a strong transit system are clear: growing ridership, cleaner air, and less congested roads."

The funds, which will also be shared by Muni, AC Transit, and Caltrain, will be disbursed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

The $590 million is $160 million shy of the $750 million loan number that was promised when the state legislature passed the budget last June, but officials say it will help stanch the bleeding, especially for BART. And, as state Senator Scott Wiener said in June, this funding was meant to complement SB 63, the senate bill that put the sales tax measure on the ballot.

In a statement, the BART agency said Thursday, "These loan funds will be used if a November transit funding ballot measure is successful or another reliable source of funding is provided to BART... If it fails, we would not use the loan money because we wouldn’t be able to pay it back."

BART officials have been issuing dire warnings since the start of the new year that seem aimed at scaring voters across all BART-serving counties into voting yes on the ballot measure. Among those warnings is a doomsday proposal to close 15 stations across the system, and to end service each night at 9 pm — both of which would likely result in further ridership and revenue declines.

BART spokesperson Alicia Trost tells KTVU that the agency has already made cuts to service to try to save money. "Service now is not where it was before the pandemic. We're running shorter trains, there's fewer trains running," Trost said.

The measure will appear on ballots in five counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Mateo.

Wiener, in his social media announcement about the loan approval Thursday, struck a somber note.

"If nothing happens — if inertia sets in — BART will collapse, Muni will reduce up to 50% of all service & AC Transit & Caltrain will enact massive service cuts," Wiener wrote. "This would be horrific for the entire region, including both transit riders & drivers. Everyone will lose."

But, he added, "Transit is essential for the Bay Area’s success... Here’s to a bright transit future."

Previously: As Chronicle Moves on From 'Doom Loop' Headlines, It's Now Calling BART a 'Dying Rail System'

Photo by Derek Zhang

While the Saturday night BART delays are not expected to kick in until 10 pm, late-night Saturday BART riders should bring a book or something, as trains in the Transbay Tube will be delayed by at least 20 or 30 minutes.

The BART system has been getting a lot of guff lately over its equipment failures causing commuter delays, all while the system is asking taxpayers for more money and threatening to close entire stations if they don’t get it. But in the case of some BART delays that are in store for this coming weekend, these are totally routine maintenance jobs that are planned in advance, and riders are given plenty of prior warning.  

And those BART delays coming this weekend are 20-30 minute delays late on Saturday night, so BART can do some maintenance work to the lights inside the Transbay Tube.

“BART crews will be in the Transbay Tube the evening of Saturday, February 21, to replace lights in the Tube,” the rail system announced in a Wednesday Xitter post. “The work is scheduled to begin at 10pm and continue into the overnight hours.”

That means delays of 20-30 minutes, the agency says, likely with the trains stopping outside the Tube for that long, because the system needs to run the train single-track for that period. But if you’re on either side of the Bay waiting for that incoming train, you are likely to have to sit and wait for 20-30 minutes longer.

Of course, BART only runs until a little after midnight on Saturday nights (or technically Sunday morning), so the delays only affect a late-night two-hour span this coming Saturday night, basically between 10 pm and a little after midnight.

And the whole thing is expected to be finished, and not affecting anyone’s travels, by the time the BART system reopens at 8 am Sunday morning. According to BART, “The project is not expected to impact service the next day, Sunday, February 22.”

Related: Equipment Problem In Transbay Tube Leads to Major BART Delays [SFist]

Image: Eric Fischer via Wikimedia Commons

In reporting on what is otherwise good news for BART, the Chronicle couldn't help today but to throw cold water on things and sensationalize the agency's financial woes once more.

Remember when the Chronicle was one of the chief promulgators of the "doom loop" storyline, breathlessly suggesting, on a weekly basis, that San Francisco was headed for an unavoidable death spiral and everything sucked and everyone was going to leave? Well, as we can see, that didn't come to pass. And several months after the newspaper went whole hog on that, in mid-2023, someone over there started to question the wisdom of the hometown newspaper also being the hometown's naysayer-in-chief, essentially helping to bring the doom narrative further into being by convincing everyone here and elsewhere that it was true and already happening.

Don't get me started on the "This business we're not going to name is doing something unusual" teaser clickbait headlines. But today we have a new example of a headline that is arguably unfair, and almost certainly unhelpful, when it comes to the state of BART's finances and the oft-mentioned fiscal cliff they've been heading for.

"New BART fare gates generate $10 million annually for a dying rail system."

Now, it should be a positive news story about how things maybe, in one small way, are turning around for BART after six years of pretty gloomy news. The evader-proof fare gates, which are now installed at all 50 stations in the BART system, are estimated to be generating an extra $10 million per year, which should help things a bit in the years ahead.

The gates have also reportedly saved the agency 961 hours in maintenance work.

That cleanup and maintenance decline apparently stems from fewer people being able to sneak into the paid areas of the station to commit acts of vandalism, or otherwise cause problems in need of fix-it work by staff.

"When you see how dramatically these maintenance requests fell, the numbers tell us that these fare gates are preventing unwanted behavior that impacts the station environment," says BART spokesperson Alicia Trost in a statement to the Chronicle. "Those people are no longer entering BART."

BART General Manager Bob Powers presented this new data ahead of a Thursday meeting of BART's board, at which the board will also be hearing about the doomsday plans being made to close over a dozen stations and curtail service if a November ballot measure fails that would generate some new tax revenue for the system.

We still have nine months to go before we know how well that ballot measure is doing, and measures relating to BART tend to do fairly well at the ballot box. But the Chronicle is doing the "Yes" campaign no favors by calling BART a "dying rail system" before it's even happened.

The Chronicle story even strikes a positive tone if you make it to the end of it, saying that BART is "finding remarkable strategies to be more nimble and efficient," and noting how ridership has been increasing at stations where the new secure fare gates have been installed.

But many will not read past a headline or a first paragraph or two, and if the Chronicle would really like BART to die in the near term, they should keep calling it a "dying rail system" long before its last rites are being read, and make sure to poison the voter pool that might be able to help save it in November.

Previously: SF Chronicle Now Seems to Regret Amplifying the 'Doom Loop' Narrative It Heavily Amplified

The cash-strapped BART system has revealed its ‘doomsday scenario’ of drastic service cuts if a November transit tax measure doesn’t pass, with as many as 15 stations potentially closing, and service stopping at 9 pm every night.

BART’s social media accounts are talking a big game today about the throngs of Super Bowl riders they’re getting this week, which are indeed likely to set or break ridership records for what is normally a humdrum first full weekend of February. But these numbers are just a synthetic sugar high, because we do not have the Super Bowl in town every weekend, and rarely will these numbers be matched.

That boasting will end the day after the Super Bowl, and then BART will speak in ways intended to strike fear into riders’ hearts. In fact, they already have. The Chronicle reports that BART gave an update on its “fiscal cliff’/”doomsday scenario” financial panic, and in it the Chron notes that the transit agency may be forced to permanently close as many as 15 BART stations in 2027.

That is, unless voters approved their half-cent sales tax ballot measure in four Bay Area counties, which would additionally be a full one-cent sales tax in San Francisco County. That ballot measure is up for a vote on the November 3, 2026 ballot, and it will appear on the ballots in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties.

There are other even more dire cutbacks than the station closures. As KRON4 points out, BART says they may have to stop train service at 9 pm every night, and might not begin weekend morning service until 8 am.  

The Chronicle has some maps of which stations BART says they might close. It’s a two-phase approach.

In January of 2027, the Antioch line would lose its Orinda, North Concord/Martinez, and Pittsburgh Center stations. Oakland International Airport, South Hayward, and Warm Springs/South Fremont would all be axed from the Berryessa line. The Dublin/Pleasanton line would lose its Castro Valley and West Dublin/Pleasanton stations, and the SFO line would lose the Colma and South San Francisco stations.

And that’s just Phase One. Come July 2027, they’d further shut down the Pittsburg/Baypoint and Antioch stations (that line would then just end at Concord, like it did in the early 90s), and the Dublin/Pleasanton-bound Blue Line would just cease to exist — with Orange Line service ending at Bay Fair. On the SFO line, San Bruno and Millbrare stations would also close, which means the BART would just go straight from Daly City station to SFO, with no stops between.

These are, for now, just proposals that the BART Board of Directors will discuss in an upcoming workshop.

“What we’ll discuss in our board workshop next week is not only the monumental scale of what’s in front of us but the incredibly high degree of uncertainty,” BART Board member Edward Wright told the Chronicle.

That meeting is Thursday, February 12, at 9 am, and will be livestreamed.

Related: That Half-Cent Sales Tax To Save Public Transit From ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Will Indeed Be on the November 2026 Ballot [SFist]

Image: Pi.1415926535 via Wikimedia Commons

Rideshares and public transit can get Super Bowl and World Cup fans from San Francisco to Santa Clara for as little as $10 each way, or as much as $200 each way. Here’s how to navigate all of the available options.

Super Bowl 60 is at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, but San Francisco is where they’re having all of the big parties like the Sting concert, the Benson Boone and Shaboozey show, Shaq’s Fun House, the Chris Stapleton concert, and more. And San Francisco is 45 miles away from Santa Clara and Levi's Stadium, so it’s not exactly walking distance.  

If you're visiting for the Super Bowl or World Cup, regardless of whether you’re staying in SF or Santa Clara, you will probably need to get between these two cities at some point. And you may not have a car. But there are a number of different methods to get back and forth between Santa Clara and San Francisco even if you don’t have a car.

There are the well-known public transportation options like the rapid transit system BART and the commuter rail Caltrain, both of which will also require a brief trip on the Santa Clara light-rail train known as VTA (Valley Transportation Authority) to get to and from Levi’s Stadium itself. These options will cost between $11-$13 each way ($22-$26 round trip), and they’ll get you between SF and Santa Clara in about 90 minutes.

There are also the rideshares Uber and Lyft, and the famous self-driving robotaxis of Waymo. These will cost substantially more, and they may or may not get you there more quickly. After all, game-day and event-night traffic is notoriously bad around Levi’s Stadium.

Here's a rundown of your best options to get between San Francisco and Santa Clara if you don’t have a car.

Uber and Lyft (At Least $65 Each Way, At Least One Hour and Ten Minutes Each Way)

You are surely already familiar with how to use Lyft and Uber. If you’re taking Lyft or Uber between San Francisco and Santa Clara, it’s about a one-hour and fifteen-minute trip at a cost of $65-$70 (before tip) under normal circumstances. But the Super Bowl and the nights of large Super Bowl events are not normal circumstances.

We found Lyft to be more affordable for the same trip. A Lyft trip came in at $65 between Santa Clara and San Francisco, and the trip was just under one hour and 15 minutes. But be aware that surge pricing will likely be in effect during large events, as will the potential for lengthy traffic jams.

Uber was slightly pricier for the same trip as of today. Uber clocked in with the trip at one hour and 11 minutes, with a minimum price of around $70. But again, you may be looking at surge pricing and traffic jams depending on when you travel.

Waymo (Possibly $200 Each Way, Might Not Even Be Available)

You may be keen to ride in the famed self-driving robotaxis of Waymo, and those robot-driven cars do indeed go between San Francisco and Santa Clara. Sometimes.

Using the required Waymo app, we were only able to successfully hail a Waymo between SF and Santa Clara one time out of several attempts. And that ride cost an astonishing $172, and was assessed as taking three hours and eight minutes, because Waymos cannot yet use the freeway for the entire route between the two cities.

And that was the one occasion we could actually hail a Waymo for that trip. Most of our attempts to hail a Waymo between SF and Santa Clara produced a message saying "Pickup Unreachable.” That may be because of Waymo’s relatively small fleet, as NBC Bay Area reported this week that Waymo will only have “about 1,000 Bay Area-based cars” for the weekend, and will not be adding to the fleet size. That said, you might find Waymo to be very trusty for a simple ride to the airport.

An you might also find public transit to be a quicker and more efficient option.  

Caltrain ($11 Each Way, Exactly 90 Minutes)

Caltrain is an electric commuter rail train that goes between San Francisco and San Jose. If you’re heading back and forth between SF and Levi’s Stadium, you’ll want to get on and off at the Mountain View station (not the Santa Clara station!), though your Santa Clara hotel or Airbnb may be closer to the Santa Clara station. The San Francisco station for entering or exiting at Fourth and King streets, though check the Caltrain station map for your best entry and exit points.

Caltrain’s Mountain View station is in the system’s Zone 3, and traveling between three zones costs $8.50 for a one-way trip. For a same-day round trip, you’ll save a couple of dollars buying a Day Pass for $17.

Caltrain won’t take you all the way to Levi’s Stadium, but the VTA Orange Line (located right at the Mountain View Caltrain station) will take you right to the Levi’s Stadium doorstep. That VTA pass will cost $2.50 for the trip. VTA trains synch their schedule with Caltrain, so head right to the VTA stop once you exit the Caltrain. Your Caltrain ride will be one hour long, and the trip between Mountain View VTA and Levi’s Stadium takes about 30 minutes.

Caltrain takes about 12 minutes longer than your other public transit option BART. But we prefer Caltrain, because of its nicer seats, clean restrooms on the train, and they allow outside food and drink on the train. They even allow open containers of alcohol! So game days and event nights definitely have a “party train” feel on Caltrain.

BART ($12.45 Each Way, Exactly 78 Minutes)

BART is your quickest public transit option, though you will also have to take a VTA light-rail train between the BART’s Berryessa/North San Jose station and Levi’s Stadium. The BART fare is $9.95 each way, and the VTA fare is $2.50, for a total round trip of $24.90.

You have many San Francisco options for which BART station to enter or exit, but you’ll want a train heading to Berryessa/North San Jose station. That station (seen above) is pretty nice, with a working pay phone and a clean bathroom. But the BART trains themselves do not have bathrooms, so know that going into your one-hour, eight-minute BART ride.  

Amtrak ($15 Each Way, Not Recommended)

Amtrak trains go to Santa Clara, but we do not recommend this method for a number of reasons. You would need to head to the Oakland suburb of Emeryville on your San Francisco end of the trip, which will add about an hour (each way) onto your trip. But if you’re staying in the East Bay, check the Amtrak trip planner, and plan your trip between that stations “Emeryville, CA” and “Santa Clara, CA - Great America.”

Related: Super Bowl Drone Ban Declared at Several SF Locations, in Addition to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

• Protesters formed a human banner at SF’s Ocean Beach Saturday, creating the word, “ABOLISH” in reference to ICE, along with signs spelling, “We have eyes, no more lies.” [Chronicle]

• Additionally, Jane Wiedlin, co-founder of the iconic band The Go-Gos, took part in the weekly protest in front of the Tesla dealership at Van Ness and O’Farrell Streets Saturday. [Jane Wiedlin/Instagram]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A major medical emergency stemming from a person possibly being struck by a BART train shut down West Oakland Station Friday afternoon, and service was being impacted throughout the system.

Update (5:15 pm): BART announced at 5:04 pm Friday that "West Oakland Station is open and regular transbay service has resumed," and that "BART is recovering from major delays systemwide," after the train incident from earlier in the afternoon.

Original story (3:36 pm): The emergency was announced at 2:20 pm by BART, along with an announcement about "a major delay in all directions" occurring as a result.

BART spokesperson Chris Filiippi informed the media that the medical emergency followed a person entering the trackway, and he said that a collision with a train may have occurred.

ABC 7 subseqently confirmed with the Oakland Fire Department that a female victim had been killed, and was being "extracted."

No further details were given about the circumstances of the death.

As a result of the situation, trains are only able to travel through West Oakland Station on the opposite track from where the incident occurred. And all Red and Green line service was temporarily suspended Friday.

This is a developing story.