North Bay Fuels A Public Transit Surge But Don't Celebrate Yet

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Bay Area trains, ferries and buses saw a surge in ridership during the first three months of the year, which reverberated across the region, according to transit officials.

The nine transportation agencies that reported gains handled 3.2 million more trips from January through March compared with the same period in 2024.

While the East Bay is the first thing that comes to mind, the North Bay — Sonoma County and Marin — are also on the public transit map.

They did their part by riding the SMART train, which saw a healthy bump that created a leap above pre-pandemic levels.

• Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) saw a 38 percent ridership increase. SMART’s ridership averaged 134 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
• Marin Transit ridership increased by 10 percent.
• Petaluma Transit was up 7 percent.
• Golden Gate Transit increased 5 percent.
• Golden Gate Ferry ridership increased nearly 16 percent from last year and 40 percent from 2023.
• The San Francisco Bay Ferry experienced a 21 percent increase from the same time last year, up 47 percent over ridership in 2023.
• Caltrain led the charge with a 50 percent ridership increase over the first three months of 2025.

Larger systems also saw significant ridership growth in the first three months of the year, according to the report.

BART ridership was up almost 6.5 percent from 2024, while Muni increased by 4 percent.

The growth in ridership coincided with campaigns to improve rider experiences by boosting safety, cleanliness, and reliability, BART General Manager Bob Powers said in a statement.

BART and other agencies will be offering swag and face-to-face time with agency officials this week to celebrate and convince riders to continue the rebound.

Emergency post-covid funding is running out and until state and federal budgets are settled, so is future local funding for the agencies. Ultimately riders, especially commuters without alternatives, will feel the effect.

Cars remain popular among commuters, who met some nudges in Sonoma and Marin counties with hostility, as was the case with new, longer carpool hours on US-101 from Santa Rosa to the Golden Gate Bridge. Longer hours are intended to give drivers and incentive to carpool or take public transit, but the move sparked a Change.org petition and letter campaigns.