California Lending $590 Million to Keep Bay Area Transit Running

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation authorizing the state to lend $590 million to keep major public-transit operators around San Francisco running as post-pandemic travel patterns continue to strain their finances.

The funds, which officials called an “emergency loan,” are aimed at agencies such as Bay Area Rapid Transit that are still recovering from fare revenue lost to remote work and weaker ridership roughly six years after the Covid outbreak.

With one-time federal aid largely exhausted, several operators are staring at budget holes large enough to force deep service cuts — a scenario local officials say would push more commuters ...