transit agencies like Bart and Muni. They are appealing for more state funding to keep their operations running. KTVU Elissa Harrington Joining us now live from the Orinda Bart station to tell us what they're asking for, and Alyssa what they say could happen if they don't get enough money. Christian Bart is calling this a do or die moment and is asking for a continuation of federal aid that is set to run out in 2025. Transit agencies. Bart and Muni say they are on a fiscal cliff and are asking for financial aid from the state to fund transit operations in a statement munis Ed Without state funding, we will have no choice but to scale back money to pandemic levels of service. Janice Lee, the BART board of directors, president wrote one time federal funds are dwindling, even with Bart's stringent cost controls and will be exhausted by early 2025. If transit operations funding is not included in this year's state budget. Bart must begin making severe cuts to service and staffing as early as this year. Those cuts, according to Lee, could include no weekend trains and our long wait times We can writers I spoke with that the Pleasant Hill Station said That would be horribly unfair for people that work on the weekends. People who want to go to ball games and you know the It it I think it would be a really tough way to go if they If they shut it down on the weekends, and I believe that bar should be. They should prioritize like even on weekends to or late night service because you got people who also work in a weekend or coming home late at night. Ridership has not recovered to what it was pre pandemic. Recently A survey by the Bay Area Council found safety to be a major concern. 45% of those who said they don't ride bar choose not to because they don't feel safe 11 of these days, Bart can improve on security. More police on the trains. Yeah it's not enough of that. There's people writing those rails all day long, and I see him. Everybody sees him. Bart said it is trying to increase ridership by adding police to patrol trains by cleaning inside the cars more often, and Bart plans to crack down on ferry Vader's with new fare gates at all stations by 2026. The money Bart is asking for was supposed to be a one time Federal emergency fund. But COVID has changed the way people travel, and Bart says that they need that to survive. Reporting live
