WestCAT is banking on public transit tax measure to close funding gap
on October 14, 2026
A regional sales tax on next month’s ballot will help decide the future of a series of express buses that connect Pinole, Hercules and nearby residents to BART.
The Western Contra Costa Transit Authority lost about $2.7 million a year in BART funding this summer, or roughly 16% of its $16.9 million operating budget. A bridge loan is keeping four express lines that run to the El Cerrito del Norte BART station running through June.
Rob Thompson,WestCAT general manager, said the transit authority’s board hasn’t determined what services it would cut or where it would seek new funding sources if voters reject the Regional Transit Measure, which will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot as Proposition RTM.
Contra Costa County voters will be asked to approve a half-cent sales tax to benefit BART, AC Transit, Caltrain, Muni and other regional transit agencies beginning in April and lasting for 14 years. The same is being asked of voters in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In San Francisco, a one-cent sales tax is proposed. The tax would generate about $980 million annually to help public transit, which has seen steep ridership declines since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thompson estimated the tax measure would bring WestCAT $4 million to $4.5 million a year.
He could not say what cuts WestCAT might implement if the measure fails. But, he said, “I think it’s fair to say that weekends and late night service are always of concern when you look at the productivity of transit.”
The potential service cuts show how BART’s financial crisis ripples to the smaller agencies that carry riders to its trains. About 5,000 riders use WestCAT buses.
WestCAT made about 680,000 trips in the 2024-25 fiscal year, the agency’s records show. That’s a 46% decrease from the 1.25 million rides during 2018-19. Since the pandemic, ridership numbers have slowly increased but remain lower than pre-pandemic numbers, according to a California State Auditors office report in May.
In 2023, WestCAT said only 56% of its express service ridership had returned. According to Thompson, WestCAT’s average daily ridership totals 2,950. Nearly 41% of daily riders use express bus service.
Nathan Gaines, who lives in Richmonod’s Fairmede-Hilltop neighborhood, doesn’t have a car and relies on the WestCAT JR express bus to commute to his job at Costco. If services are reduced, Gaines said, “It would just make things a lot harder, and it would take me a longer time to get to work.”
Rachel Abad, of San Francisco, uses WestCAT for biweekly trips to visit her aunt in Hercultes. Losing the express bus would make her trips more costly, she said, because she would have to use rideshare apps.
“Here, I just have to pay $1.75 compared to $10 to $15,” Abad said.
WestCAT receives annual funding from BART under a 1997 agreement that includes the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and four East Bay bus operators that provide connector services to places beyond BART lines.
“BART very much recognizes the value that these bus agencies provide to the commuters and the riders in the Bay Area by connecting them to BART,” said Pamela Herhold, BART assistant general manager of performance and budget.
BART and MTC announced earlier this year that it would end that funding because of BART’s own budget shortfall.
BART would save between $8 and $10 million a year on the bus service payments, Herhold said.
While BART and WestCAT say Proposition RTM is essential to maintain service opponents of the measure say the region should close the funding gap by addressing inefficiencies.
Marc Joffe, a Contra Costa County resident who is treasurer of the Committee for Affordable Bay Area Transit, said some alternatives include consolidating transit agencies and standardizing bus design across agencies.
“Sales taxes in West County are quite high already by national standards, and now they would be pushed up even higher,” Joffe said. Higher sales taxes could be a burden on low- and middle-income residents who already are paying more for food, gas and other necessities, he noted.
Thompson said an unsuccessful Regional Transit Measure would impact people who use cars and other modes of transportation as well as public transit users.
“People who do not currently rely on transit will be impacted because of the additional congestion of the streets,” he said.
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