Golden Gate Bridge district tolls, fares set to rise on July 1
Golden Gate Bridge tolls will climb to $9.75 for many drivers this weekend, while bus and ferry riders will also pay more for fares.
The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District will hike its bus and ferry fares by 25 cents beginning Saturday as a part of a five-year fare plan. The fares will continue to increase by 25 cents per year for the next four years.
Further toll increases on the bridge could be coming as the district contends with the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic and as federal emergency aid runs out.
“Our board is going through a strategic planning process as we speak and may begin the conversation about a new toll program after that process is completed,” said Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, a spokesperson for the district. “Any new toll proposal would also include a conversation with the public and outreach similar to past toll programs.”
For two-axle vehicles, bridge tolls will increase from $9.40 to $9.75 beginning Saturday. Tolls for drivers with FastTrak will rise from $8.40 to $8.75. Drivers who have a “Pay-As-You-Go” account, which includes drivers who register their license plates or set up a one-time payment through the district, will see tolls increase by 20 cents from $8.80 to $9.
Bridge tolls are the district’s largest source of revenue, making up about 46% of its revenue forecast for the upcoming fiscal year. Along with funding bridge operations and projects, the tolls are used to subsidize about half of the costs to operate the agency’s bus and ferry services.
The toll hike on Saturday will be the last in a five-year plan the bridge district’s board adopted in 2019. The plan sought to bolster ferry and bus service as well as cover a projected $74 million deficit at the time caused by inflation, rising pension and benefits costs and ongoing bridge projects.
The onset of the pandemic in 2020 year significantly affected the district, causing transit ridership to plummet and significant reductions in bridge toll revenues. The agency says bridge crossings are down 15%, bus ridership is down by 55% and ferry ridership is down by 45% compared to before the pandemic.
Denis Mulligan, general manager of the district, said these reductions have reduced revenues by about $1 million per week. In response, the agency has cut bus and ferry services but has added back some services through the years as riders have returned.
Some services have not recovered, however. Only about 20% of the district’s express commuter bus service into downtown San Francisco is operating as companies abandon office buildings in favor of remote working, according to Mulligan.
Mulligan told the district board during a budget discussion this month that there are about 150 staff vacancies as well, including about 100 bus driver positions.
“We don’t need to fully staff the organization until our customers come back,” Mulligan told the board during its June 22 meeting.
Like other transit operators in the Bay Area, the bridge district is facing the exhaustion of federal stimulus funds provided during the pandemic. The federal government has provided the bridge district with about $282 million to sustain its operations since 2020. The funding is expected to run out in the 2025-2026 fiscal year and result in a nearly $94 million shortfall, according to district projections.
But Bay Area transit operators received news this week that Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature have struck a deal on a proposed $5.1 billion transit bailout. The deal, approved as part of a placeholder bill this week, would restore $4 billion over the next two years for transit and transportation capital projects that Newsom proposed to cut in his budget proposal earlier this year. The potential cuts were in response to a projected deficit of $31.5 billion in the 2023-2024 state budget.
As part of the deal, the transit operators will be able to access these funds over the next two years to fund operational costs, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The commission, the agency that administers transportation funds for the nine-county region, estimates about $800 million could come to the Bay Area. Additionally, transit agencies would be allowed to cover operational costs for the next four years using $1.1 billion in other state funds, mostly state cap-and-trade funds normally reserved for electrifying transit fleets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The bridge district’s $314.3 million budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which was approved earlier this month, does not include any of the bailout funds because the deal was struck after the budget was adopted.
“But if and when it moves forward and amounts for each agency area are known, the new funding would be reflected in a finance update to the board,” Cosulich-Schwartz said.
“Balancing a budget at this time is not easy, as we all know,” bridge district board member David Rabbitt, a Sonoma County supervisor, said before the budget vote this month.
More information about the Golden Gate Transit and Golden Gate Ferry fare changes is online at shorturl.at/isxUV.
