(The Center Square) – The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency expects to see an increase in ridership in August with students turning to schools, but it can’t do that without an increase in state funding.
The transit agency is still working to get back to its pre-pandemic ridership.
For example, the bus has been the most popular mode of transportation for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Before the pandemic, the transit agency would get up to 9.7 million bus riders during peak summer months. In March 2020, there were 8.8 million bus riders and that plummeted to 2 million the next month when the pandemic hit. Since then, there was a slow growth that reached 6.9 million bus riders in May 2023 but dropped to 6 million in June 2023. Bus ridership in June was at 62% of peak pre-pandemic ridership.
Transit fare revenues are projected to shrink by $22 million, according to budget documents from San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Authority (SFMTA). The system is expected to lose $10 million by the end of fiscal year 2023 and $12 million by the end of fiscal year 2024.
Data from the National Transit Administration illustrates how the federal government has stepped in to bail out local transit agencies.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency generated $281.8 million in fares in 2019. That dropped to $27.8 million in 2021. But the local transit agency’s federal money increased from $9.4 million in 2019 before the pandemic to $452.2 million in 2021.
SFMTA officials in May warned that service would have to be scaled back to pandemic levels unless the California legislature provided financial support.
“Without funding support from the state, 40,000 daily riders will be directly stripped of their primary means of getting around San Francisco,” SMFTA’s statement read. “Seniors and people with disabilities will have to walk twice as far to catch Muni to the grocery store or a medical appointment, and that simply isn’t feasible for many people. Without Muni, many more people will choose to drive, which will lead to more cars on our streets and more greenhouse gas emissions.”
SMFTA did not respond to a request for comment.
