SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – If you ride BART a lot, be prepared for sticker shock–or at least a small annoyance in your wallet–as of January 1st.
As 2026 begins, BART fares are spiking. The rates you pay to ride BART trains will increase throughout the system, and rates for other services like parking will go up too.
BART says these increases are necessary to keep the system running long-term. Ridership has recovered a lot since the pandemic, but with more people working from home, overall ridership is still lower than it should be.
How much will prices increase?
System-wide, fares are going up about 6.2%. The average ride will therefore increase from $4.88 to $5.18.
That might not seem huge. But if you commute on BART and ride it back and forth to the city on a daily basis, that increase adds up.
The ride from Antioch to SF, for example, could go up by $0.55 each way. For a commuter, that’s an almost $300 additional yearly expense.
Parking is increasing, too. Daily parking rates will go up by 40 cents. Again, it’s not huge in the absolute, but for people who use the system regularly, it will sting.
The fare change is expected to generate around $15.6 million in revenue in 2026. BART is largely funded by ticket revenue, a model that the agency called “outdated.”
“BART costs have grown at a rate lower than inflation, demonstrating we have held the line on spending, and BART balanced the FY26 budget with $35 million in ongoing cuts and strict cost controls,” the agency said.
Still, “Even with the fare increase, BART faces a deficit of $376 million in FY27. The agency must modernize its funding sources to better align with other transit systems in the country that receive larger amounts of public funding,” BART argued.
Basically, raising fares is a stopgap measure. It helps a bit, but BART is saying that the system is a public good, and thus needs more public funding.
Simultaneously, the agency says it’s improving the experience of riding. “BART has seen progress in its efforts to improve the customer experience,” the agency said. “In 2025, customer satisfaction increased to 88%; the number of riders who say they’ve witnessed fare evasion dropped by more than 50%; and crimes against persons on BART dropped by 59%.”
Most people will probably grumble and pay the addition fares. As the agency says, though, it still needs far more funds to keep the trains running in 2026 and beyond.
