The upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on Jan 3, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
Commuters and day-trippers will find it just a little more expensive to get around the Bay Area in the new year, with tolls going up Jan. 1 for the region’s seven state-owned toll bridges and fares increasing on its two biggest transit agencies.
Drivers’ cost to cross the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Antioch, Benicia, Carquinez, Richmond-San Rafael, San Mateo and Dumbarton spans will rise from $7 to $8. That charge covers two-axle cars and trucks; the toll will range up to $38 for tractor-trailer combinations with seven or more axles.
The increase is the third and final $1 hike that voters approved in 2018 as part of Regional Measure 3, with revenue dedicated to a wide array of transit and highway improvements across the Bay Area’s nine counties.
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More toll hikes are already on the horizon. Earlier this month, bridge officials approved a five-year series of hikes that will raise tolls 50 cents a year starting Jan. 1, 2026. By 2030, drivers using FasTrak toll tags will pay $10.50 per trip. Money raised from the next series of toll increases is earmarked for bridge maintenance and operations.
Transit fares
Travel is also getting a little more expensive for those using BART and Muni. Here’s what to know about the increases, as well as fare information for other transit agencies in the Bay Area:
BART: Fares will go up 5.5% on Jan. 1, marking the 20th increase since BART carried its first paying passengers in September 1972.
A train approaches the station at the San Leandro BART station on March 13, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
The one-way fare for the shortest trips — for example, those beginning and ending in San Francisco and most trips within Oakland — will rise from $2.30 to $2.40. The one-way cost for the longest trip on the system — from Antioch to San José’s Berryessa station — will increase from $10.85 to $11.45.
For more typical commutes? If your trip is from Downtown Berkeley station to any of San Francisco’s four downtown stations, the one-way fare will rise from $4.75 to $5. For a longer trip — say Concord to the downtown San Francisco stops — the one-way fare increases from $6.85 to $7.20. See BART’s fare calculator for more.
Muni: Clipper fares are rising for the first time since before the pandemic, from $2.50 to $2.75. Most of the agency’s extensive list of special fares — daily, weekly, monthly and income-related discounts — are also going up between 7% and 10%. Muni remains free for youth under 18, eligible adults age 65 and older and for people with disabilities. See Muni’s complete fare table for more.
AC Transit: No change. Local fares were set at $2.25 for Clipper and $2.50 for cash in 2019.
VTA: No change. Local fares were set at $2.50 in 2019.
Caltrain: No change. The Peninsula train operator will begin a three-year series of fare increases on July 1.
SamTrans: No change. The agency hasn’t increased its basic local and Clipper fares — $2.25 and $2.05, respectively — since 2016.
Golden Gate Transit: No change on the system’s buses and ferries. The agency approved a 25-cent increase on all fares that took effect July 1.
