BART to look at service cuts, reduced discounts to trim costs

Riders and the Warm Springs BART station on first day of service, Saturday, March 25, 2017 in Fremont, CA. Riders and the Warm Springs BART station on first day of service, Saturday, March 25, 2017 in Fremont, CA. Photo: Eric Kayne, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Eric Kayne, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close BART to look at service cuts, reduced discounts to trim costs 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

Reduced BART service and smaller discounts are among the proposals expected at the rail system’s Thursday Board of Directors meeting in Oakland to close a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.

The proposals by BART staff, which had been previously announced, are intended to help BART balance its budget for next year.

Among the ideas are starting weekday service at 5 a.m. instead of 4 a.m. and reducing the amount of the youth-senior-disabled fare discount from 62.5 percent to 50 percent.

In addition, the nine BART directors will consider imposing a 50-cent surcharge on traditional paper BART tickets in an effort to encourage patrons to use Clipper cards, which are cheaper for BART to process. Other proposals to address the budget shortfall call for cutting 15 positions and reducing the amount of operating budget that goes into capital expenditures by $16 million.

If the board goes along, the changes would be enacted at a time when the system is facing a projected budget deficit of $25 million to $35 million for the budget year that starts July 1 and ridership that is stagnating.

“BART wants to get rid of its deficit in ways that impact the public the least,” BART spokesman Taylor Huckaby said. “BART is much more interested in reducing waste than increasing fares.”

Sources say BART directors are less inclined to reduce discounts and service than to make other cutbacks.

BART fares are already set to go up 2.7 percent across the board in January under a policy the agency has adopted to raise prices automatically with inflation. That will raise the cost of a $5 ticket by 10 to 15 cents.

The board is expected to make a final decision on the revenue-saving proposals in June.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com