Transit Fare Coordination & Integration

Institutional transit pass programs allow employers, schools and other organizations to buy all-you-can-ride passes for their employees or students. These programs reduce price barriers for recipients, and can help to increase transit ridership.

MTC's two-phase Clipper BayPass pilot program gives riders unlimited access to all public transit agencies in the Bay Area.

Phase 1 of the pilot program provides more than 30,000 Bay Area selected residents (students and residents of several affordable housing communities) with unlimited access to all bus, rail and ferry services in the Bay Area for a two-year period to study the impact of a single transit pass. Launched in August 2020, early results from Phase 1 show that Clipper BayPass users take an average of 35% more trips than their peers, with pass recipients taking more than a combined 2 million transit trips through June 30, 2023.

Phase 2 of the pilot program launched in December 2023, expanding the Clipper BayPass program to up to 10 additional institutions or employers. The goal of Phase 2 is to generate additional data and determine if an employer/institutional pass could be rolled out on a wide scale across the Bay Area in the future.

Today, inconsistent fare structures and transfer policies across Bay Area transit agencies can discourage people from taking transit trips that involve multiple transit operators.

No-cost and reduced cost transfers offer a more seamless experience for riders: treating connections between multiple agencies as though they are connections within a single agency.

MTC is working with transit agencies to implement a pilot program for no-cost and reduced cost transfers for transit riders who use two or more transit agencies. When making a trip that requires transferring between transit agencies, customers using Clipper will pay the full fare for just the first agency. Any transfer to a different agency within two hours will be discounted.

The transfer pilot program will launch with the rollout of the next generation Clipper system (Clipper 2), currently scheduled for summer 2024.

Building on the work of the Fare Coordination & Integration Study & Business Case, MTC will continue working with transit agencies and county transportation agencies to refine the vision for creating a common fare structure for regional rail, ferry and express bus service after the rollout of the next generation Clipper system (Clipper 2).

MTC and transit agency staff are continuing to evaluate:

• The benefits and costs of a common fare structure for regional transit services in the context of a broader evaluation of post-COVID-19 pandemic ridership patterns;
• The role of regional transit service in the region; and
• The funding strategy for these regional transit services.

This work will be informed by evaluations of the Clipper BayPass and No-Cost & Reduced Cost Transfer Policy pilot programs.