Bay Area Rapid Transit breached the 200,000 daily rider mark earlier this week for the first time since the pre-pandemic era, partly boosted by fans of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, according to the transit agency. BART's rider count on Tuesday was 204,265, including 7,286 riders who left the Coliseum station, according to a transit official. “We've been getting closer to the 200,000 mark on weekdays every week this month, and now we've finally broken through,” BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said in a statement.

The BART Silicon Valley project will create 75,000 jobs construction that will help build the 6-mile, four-station extension of BART into downtown San Jose and ending in Santa Clara.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation in partnership with other Bay Area transit agencies, today announced 50% discounted fares for lower-income Bay Area residents. The “Clipper START” pilot program administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission aims to make public transportation more affordable. To participate in the “Clipper START” program, individuals must meet the following criteria:

Be a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area.

VTA now projects the cost of the final phase of extending BART into downtown San Jose and Santa Clara will be more than 30% higher, and take three years longer, to 2036, to complete.

After weeks of negotiations, state legislators will start voting today on a budget deal that sets spending and policy across a wide range of issues affecting Californians.

Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, said that without the state cash, BART and other big-city transit systems will have to make drastic service cuts.

If the free transfer project allowing riders who transfer between two or more transit agencies to pay only the full fare for the first transit agency they use is approved , transfers from BART to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, for example, could be discounted up to $2.50.

Without additional revenue from fares, new taxes or some other source, BART is on track to run out of pandemic-era emergency relief funding by mid-2025.

In a Tuesday interview, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan discussed prioritizing public safety and accelerating housing construction to address the homelessness crisis.

The VTA needs to use eminent domain because of the urgency to meet its expected 2030 opening date for the BART extension through downtown San Jose.

The VTA board authorized the purchase of a high-tech tunnel boring machine for a massive underground train line under downtown from Berryessa to Diridon Station.

Although Clipper cards were already available to the greater student body at the university, the BayPass allows students to take public transit without worrying about crossing county lines and having to pay fares in public transit within that county,

The first contract package, for the tunnel and trackwork, for $235 million, has been awarded to Kiewit Shea Traylor

BART reversed itself to reinstate masks, even though the California Department of Public Health also announced last week that it would align with the CDC and drop its own mask requirement for public transit and transit hubs like bus stations and airports.

Airlines, airports and other transportation agencies, including BART and Caltrain. had followed suit in making masks optional.

The VTA had said in February that it would not update its anticipated cost and schedule for the project until it awards four major contracts, including one for tunneling and trackwork slated to be finalized this summer.