North Bay public transit agencies set to receive portion of $1.3 billion in federal stimulus package

North Bay transit agencies are among the recipients of almost $1.3 billion in emergency federal aid to help the Bay Area’s public transportation system survive dramatic declines in ridership, the result of shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed the historic $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package, which directs $25 billion in grant funding through the Federal Transit Administration to rescue the nation’s public transit systems. With passenger counts just a fraction of usual totals, crippling drops in fare revenue otherwise threatened major cuts to transit schedules and operations.

“This is what every transit agency in the Bay Area and presumably almost every transit agency across the country is dealing with right now,” said John Goodwin, spokesman for the region’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. “So this is really important. This gives a lifeline, really, to transit operators, and particularly those that are heavily dependent on fare revenue, because ridership numbers just cratered.”

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, which has been running more limited weekday service and no weekend trains amid the pandemic, reports ridership at just 10% of its regular daily number. Between lost fares, increased costs from supplies to combat the coronavirus and dips in sales tax, the commuter rail system estimates it is losing $90,000 per week, according to an agency spokeswoman.

SMART is projecting total losses of $11 million through the summer, mostly from an anticipated slump in the sales tax that primarily funds the 2½-year-old system. Last year, the quarter-cent tax generated $41.2 million toward SMART operations.

“We’re appreciative of the federal stimulus funding and appreciate that transit agencies were included in this bill,” SMART General Manager Farhad Mansourian said through the spokeswoman.

Golden Gate Transit, which operates buses between Sonoma and Marin counties, as well as ferries from San Francisco to the end of SMART’s line in Larkspur, has experienced comparable drops in passenger counts over the past two weeks. Ridership aboard the agency’s fleet of buses is down more than 90% and more than 95% on its ferries, according to a spokesman.

The agency’s financial losses, including toll revenues across the Golden Gate Bridge that help fund the bus and ferry services, total about $3 million per week. Under current emergency conditions before the federal aid was announced, the Golden Gate Bridge District had reserves to operate its reduced schedules for about two months, the spokesman said.

BART, the Bay Area’s largest transit operator, also began reducing service this week after ridership plunged by 90%. Under current conditions, as well as a 50% drop in economic activity that impacts Bay Area Rapid Transit’s other revenue sources, the agency projected a debilitating loss of about $60 million per month.

The American Public Transportation Association applauded the bipartisan federal stimulus package and inclusion of the money for the nation’s transit agencies.

“This legislation will provide much needed support to the transit systems working tirelessly to provide essential public transit services,” Paul P. Skoutelas, president and CEO of the association, said in a statement.

Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt, who serves on each of the boards for SMART and the Golden Gate Bridge District, as well as with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the roughly $1.3 billion in federal money will help keep the Bay Area’s public transit agencies running during uncertain economic times ahead.

“We don’t want them to go belly up, and when the economy is inevitably out of the health crisis that we’re in … we’ll want public transit to be available for people to get back to work,” Rabbitt said. “We can deal with the recession. We’ve been through those before. But no question, public transportation plays a vital role in America’s infrastructure, and we don’t want to see that go away.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com.