In case you haven’t heard or missed the continuous automated announcements in buses and train station platforms, Muni fares will rise for the first time in several years starting Jan. 1, 2025.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has been informing passengers of the increased Muni fares for next year that were approved by the agency’s board of directors back in April as part of the agency’s two-year budget. The SFMTA paused increasing Muni fares in 2020 during the early stages of the pandemic and continued pausing fare increases until now. Fares have remained the same since July 2019.
An adult single-ride fare using Clipper or MuniMobile will rise from $2.50 to $2.75 after directors decided to reduce the Clipper card discount. Transit officials said the original intent of the Clipper discount was to get more Muni passengers to get a Clipper card, and they have more or less achieved that goal. The cost for passengers who pay with cash for adult single ride will remain at $3.
The fare for seniors and people with disabilities will increase.
The Muni Day Pass (unlimited rides on Muni with the exception of cable cars), which can be purchased on the MuniMobile app or at the fare box, will rise from the current $5 to $5.50.
Muni monthly passes will also see a jump in price. The adult “M” monthly will increase by $4 from $81 to $85. The adult “A” monthly pass (includes BART within the S.F.) will cost $102 in 2025, up from $98. Cable car fares will remain the same at $8.
The single-ride discounted Clipper card and MuniMobile fare for seniors and people with disabilities will rise from $1.25 to $1.35.
During budget talks, SFMTA staff had originally recommended a higher cost for the adult “M” monthly pass, but due to different ridership patterns, especially employees who need to travel to downtown five days a week to an office, directors decided to decrease the multiplier used to calculate the pass from 32 to 31 days and then reducing it again from 31 to 30 days the following fiscal year.
BART fares are also increasing starting at the beginning of 2025. Fares will increase by 5.5 percent with the average fare increasing by 25 cents. BART passengers can already start using the transit system’s fare calculator and entering a travel date of Jan. 1, 2025 and beyond to calculate the new fares. It’s the second year in a row that BART fares will increase.
Both transit systems are struggling financially despite breaking ridership records in recent months. For example, the SFMTA said on X that they had an average of 524,000 weekday passengers ride Muni in October making it the highest ridership month since the pandemic. BART also reached a ridership milestone in September, a month that included several events, including Dreamforce and the final Oakland A’s home games.