Caltrain recently disclosed likely devastating service cuts if a Bay Area transit measure does not succeed in 2026. Without additional funding, Caltrain would be forced to:
- Reduce service to once an hour during the week
- End weekend service
- End operations by 9 p.m.
- Close more than one-third of stations
- Cut segments of service
These cuts would reverse the dramatic ridership gains in the last year following the start of electrified service in September 2024. With faster and more frequent service, ridership has grown by 47% since the launch of electrified service in September 2024.
The cuts would undermine the benefits that riders value according to Caltrain’s 2025 Customer Satisfaction Survey reporting the highest rating in the survey’s 27-year history.
The grim projection from Caltrain is similar to the dire news from other major Bay Area agencies facing a fiscal cliff.
- BART, which directly serves nearly 200,000 trips a day in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties with trains running every few minutes during peak periods, would be forced to run trains only once an hour, close nine stations, stop service at 9pm, and lay off over 1,000 workers.
- Wait times for Muni buses and trains – which hundreds of thousands of people take every day in San Francisco – would double as service gets cut in half, entire routes are eliminated and regular service would stop at 9pm, with only bare-bones late-night service.
- In Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, AC Transit would be forced to cut up to 37% of its service.
Caltrain projects a deficit of $75 million annually from 2027 to 2035 if new funding does not pass. Taken all together, Bay Area transit agencies are looking at $900 million annual budget deficits. Without the vital train, bus, and ferry service our communities depend on, freeways would become clogged, our economy would stall, our air would be dirtier, and people would have to shell out thousands of dollars more each year on car payments, gas, and insurance.
Thankfully, new polling shows that voters value Caltrain and the Bay Area transit system, and a majority would be willing to provide funding to prevent cuts. If you’d like to volunteer to get the word out about the risks to Caltrain and Bay Area transit, and the opportunities to save and improve service, sign up here.