May 2025

Bay Area transit’s transformation into a more connected, more efficient and more customer-focused mobility network continues to move forward, due in large part to the strong collaboration between MTC and the Bay Area’s transit agencies.

Using the Bay Area Transit Transformation Action Plan as its roadmap, MTC and the transit agencies have focused on five areas—fares and payments, customer information, transit network, accessibility, and funding—to reshape the Bay Area’s transit network and improve it for existing and future riders.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed how Bay Area residents live, work and travel. It hit the public transit system hard, decimating transit ridership and along with it, the transit fare revenue that many of the Bay Area’s transit agencies rely on to keep their buses, trains and ferries in service.

Despite these ongoing challenges and transit funding shortages, we have made progress on several initiatives. Below is an update on some of the work we have done, as of May 2025.

Fares & Payment

Clipper® BayPass Pilot Program

MTC, in conjunction with all Bay Area transit agencies participating in the Clipper fare payment system, launched the Clipper BayPass pilot program in August 2022 to study the impact of a single pass that will provide Bay Area residents unlimited access to all bus, rail and ferry services in the nine-county region. Phase 1 provided unlimited access to a group of 50,000 Bay Area residents and students. Clipper BayPass now has expanded to Phase 2, reaching more than 80,000 residents. Clipper BayPass is being sold to interested organizations who would like to offer their employees, students or residents an unlimited Bay Area transit pass. Current partners include UCSF, San Francisco State University, the City of Menlo Park, the City of Palo Alto, Open AI, Robinhood, Piedmont Gardens, San Francisco International Airport, and others.  

To date, Clipper BayPass participants used their passes for more than a combined 6 million transit trips. The Phase 1 program evaluation found that students with access to Clipper BayPass took 30% more transit trips than their peer students who only had access to a single agency pass.

The Survive & Thrive roadmap released in 2023 by MTC, transit agencies, and business and policy advocacy groups identifies Clipper BayPass as a key strategy for retaining and growing ridership.

Clipper® START pilot program

MTC, together with Bay Area transit agencies and community partners, is working to build a simpler regional transit fare system that removes cost barriers to using public transit for people earning lower incomes.

The Clipper® START pilot program provides a 50% transit-fare discount for lower-income adults ages 19 to 64 for rides on all systems that accept Clipper for fare payment. 

Clipper START began as an 18-month pilot program initiated in June 2020 by MTC and four transit agencies—BART, Caltrain, Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, and SFMTA—to reduce the cost of transportation for adults whose household incomes are no more than twice the federal poverty level (currently $60,000 for a family of four). Since then, 19 additional transit agencies have joined the pilot program, and the pilot’s end date has been extended twice to June 30, 2025.

Previously the transit agencies varied in which ones offered discount programs and by how much. With Clipper START, eligible riders can receive a uniform discount, no matter which transit system they use.

As of February 2025, enrollees in the Clipper START program have taken over 6 million trips in total.

MTC is now considering making the Clipper START Pilot an ongoing fare project.

Free or discounted transfers

Today, inconsistent fare structures and transfer policies across Bay Area transit agencies can discourage people from taking transit trips that involve multiple transit operators.

Free or discounted transfers offer a more seamless experience for riders: treating connections between multiple agencies as though they are connections within a single agency.

MTC is working with transit agencies to implement a pilot program for free or discounted transfers for transit riders who use two or more transit agencies. When making a trip that requires transferring between transit agencies, customers using Clipper will pay the full fare for just the first agency. Any transfer to a different agency within two hours will be discounted.

The transfer pilot program will launch with the rollout of the Next Generation Clipper system currently scheduled for 2025.

Learn more about fare integration and coordination projects.

Customer InformatioN

Mapping & Wayfinding

In late 2024 and early 2025, Bay Area transit agencies and MTC at the El Cerrito del Norte BART station, Santa Rosa Transit Mall and Santa Rosa Downtown SMART station unveiled new test transit maps and signs designed to help make transit journeys easier to understand for both existing and new riders by delivering information that is clear, predictable and familiar across service areas and county lines. A new, comprehensive regional transit map, which enables riders to discover key destinations they can reach on the Bay Area's extensive bus, rail and ferry network, also was released. 

The installation of these test maps and signs initiated an evaluation period for the project, in which MTC and its transit partners invited Bay Area residents and visitors alike to share their thoughts about the test signs and maps. Transit riders engaged with the test materials during their journeys and shared with MTC their ideas about how to make new signs and maps work better for them. This public feedback will help inform the next stage of the project, in which the new maps and wayfinding materials are expected to be installed at seven additional locations across the Bay Area in 2025 and 2026.

In January 2024, transit agency and MTC staff presented new design guidelines to be used at all transit locations. To establish and reinforce a common identity for all Bay Area transit services, the new signage employs a three-color palette of golden yellow, sky blue and dark blue; as well as simple icons to identify service by trains, buses or ferries. These icons are larger and more visually prominent than the logos of the individual agencies providing the services at each location. 

Accessibility and equity are important aims of the regional mapping and wayfinding work. Key to the process is getting input from people with disabilities, who rely heavily on public transit to get around the Bay Area. 

The new wayfinding system includes high contrast between text and background for better visibility, information at an accessible height, Braille and tactile bus service information, and simplified instructions for using the Clipper electronic transit-fare payment system. Track our efforts on improving transit navigation.

Transit NetworK

Schedule Alignment

The Bay Area’s transit agencies are coordinating for better near-term service and schedule planning. We’re aligning our schedules so it’s easier for riders to make connections between transit agencies. For example, we are sharing schedule changes with each other earlier and developing data tools to enable better coordination of connections. This means fewer near misses and less waiting time. Transit agencies also are now making schedule changes at the same time twice each year, once in summer and once in winter.

Transit Priority

We’ve made major strides giving buses priority on our roadways. The SFMTA added 15 miles of transit lanes during the pandemic, and those lanes have made it possible for Muni buses that drive on those roads to be 15 – 20% faster. Golden Gate Transit also has access to SFMTA’s Van Ness Ave. lanes. The SFMTA and Caltrans partnered to launch the first urban high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes in California.

In Dec. 2023, MTC sponsored a workshop with attendees from county transportation agencies, cities, transit advocacy organizations, Caltrans, and transit agencies to kick off the development of the Bay Area Transit Priority Policy for Roadways (TPPR), which aims to enhance the transit rider experience by supporting implementation of transit priority infrastructure and policies, and promoting the interagency coordination required to do so.

The goal of the TPPR is to establish a common definition and vision for transit priority in the region that guides agencies toward roadway investments that improve transit travel times and reliability and help transit better serve people’s needs and move more people in the Bay Area.

In spring 2025, MTC staff developed a draft TPPR Policy Memo which outlines proposed TPPR content, and staff are now conducting outreach and soliciting feedback from agency partners and the public throughout the Bay Area. Staff will develop draft TPPR Policy in the summer, based on spring feedback, the final TPPR Policy is expected to be approved in late 2025.

Bus Accelerated Infrastructure Delivery (BusAID)

In 2023, MTC implemented the Bus Accelerated Infrastructure Delivery (BusAID) program, which funds the delivery of quick-build transit priority projects. BusAID invests in projects that maximize bus (and light rail) travel time savings and service reliability improvements for the most people as quickly as possible, while centering on the groups of people that depend on transit the most. BusAID funding rounds are anticipated on an annual or biennial basis.

The first round of BusAID funds were awarded to eight transit priority projects in spring 2024, followed by an additional project award in fall 2024. These projects may be completed as early as mid-2026. A call for a second round of BusAID projects is anticipated in late 2025.

Transit Network Planning

MTC is working closely with the region’s transit agencies on Transit 2050+—a long-range planning effort that will develop a first-of-its-kind plan to re-envision the future of the public transit network in the nine-county Bay Area. Transit 2050+ aims to lay the foundation for a service-oriented, fiscally constrained transit network plan for the Bay Area.

In Fall 2024, the Transit 2050+ project team finalized a draft project list that included more than three dozen transit projects and several programmatic investments envisioned over the next 25 years. Transit projects featured in the network include improvements to existing services, new bus, rail and ferry capital projects, and strategies throughout the Bay Area to improve the passenger experience. The project list was adopted by MTC as part of the Plan Bay Area 2050+ Final Blueprint in January 2025. Learn more about Transit 2050+.

Regional Network Management

Regional Network Management (RNM) looks at the entire transit system to identify ways to improve the network and rider experience.

Three meeting bodies—RNM Committee, RNM Customer Advisory Group and RNM Council—are guiding the Regional Network Management work at MTC. Together, these committees provide input and make recommendations based on the expertise of transit leaders and Bay Area transit riders.

In 2025, MTC is undertaking the two-year review of the Regional Network Management framework to identify any opportunities to evolve and improve the RNM.

Funding

MTC and Bay Area transit agencies helped secure funds in the fiscal 2023-24 state budget to give Bay Area transit a near-term lifeline to help support their operations. The state investment is helping transit agencies avoid a near-term ‘fiscal cliff’ that likely would have led to deep service cuts by Muni, BART and other agencies whose fare revenues remain well below pre-pandemic levels.

The state budget offered an important but temporary fix for Bay Area transit agencies. State budget funds are assisting the Bay Area’s transit agencies as they recover from the pandemic, but these funds will soon run out. Many agencies face devastating cuts that will have serious impacts on the Bay Area’s quality of life.

MTC and Bay Area transit agencies are working to develop long-range funding plans, such as a future regional transportation funding measure for voter approval that will support the region’s transit network. In January 2024, after spending much of 2023 engaging with the public and partners, MTC voted to seek enabling legislation in 2024 to put a regional transportation measure on the 2026 ballot.