Let's start with staffing, the perennial punching bag. BART runs about 62 trains simultaneously at peak hours. Each of those "slots" requires at minimum 4-5 operators per day once you factor in 12-hour shift caps, 11-hour mandated rest periods, overtime rules, and the union's restrictions on part-time workers and split shifts. That's not some bloated bureaucratic fantasy — that's basic math dictated by labor agreements. Could loosening those rules help? Sure, on the margins. But we're not talking about slashing headcount in half. We're talking about modest gains in scheduling flexibility.

The deeper rot is the funding model itself. As one local put it bluntly: "I don't even get why BART needs to make money. How much money do the roads make? What about water treatment? Public education?" It's a fair point. We treat transit like it should be a profitable business while subsidizing every other piece of public infrastructure without blinking. The federal government covers roughly 80% of highway construction costs. BART and MUNI? They're left cobbling together a patchwork of fare revenue, sales taxes, and bond measures — sources that crater the moment the economy hiccups or ridership dips (hello, remote work).

Meanwhile, the cost of actually operating in the Bay Area keeps climbing. Another resident nailed it: "The cost of living in SF continues to skyrocket. Nothing involving manual labor can function sustainably under these conditions. We need to build housing." Bingo. When your train operators, mechanics, and station agents can barely afford to live in the region they serve, you end up paying premium wages just to keep the lights on — and even then, recruitment is brutal.

So what's the path forward? First, stop pretending transit agencies can be run like businesses. They're public goods. Fund them like it. Second, get serious about housing. Every dollar we fail to invest in supply is a dollar we'll pay later in inflated labor costs across every public service. Third — and this is where we get fiscal-conservative about it — demand radical transparency in how transit dollars are spent. Union contracts, capital projects, consultant fees: all of it, searchable, online, in plain English.

The Potrero MUNI yard just sent out its last bus before a rebuild. Let's hope what comes back is actually built for a system that works — not just one that survives.