Falling ridership and high operative costs put the system in a difficult situation. It's now been two and a half years since the opening of BART's long-anticipated Oakland Airport Connector. Put into service on November 22, 2014, the 3.2-mile system transports passengers between Coliseum station and Oakland International Airport during a gentle, quiet ride of about eight minutes. Now, however, it seems the fears some had over the Oakland Airport Connector are turning into a reality. The Connector was not without its controversy, both in the general public and the BART board itself. Those who supported the Connector before it was built argued that it would bring economic prosperity to Oakland International Airport, and that accessibility to OAK would receive a huge boost. Those who were against the system expressed concern over how much the system was going to cost and whether that price was worth paying for such a small system. Indeed, the Oakland Airport Connector cost a large amount of cash to build - $484 million - and even forced BART to take out $110 million in bonds just to be able to complete the construction process. While this was happening, there was even resentment from some members of the BART Board of Directors, including Vice President Robert Raburn. “The feeling is that while taking BART may be a good deal for solo travelers, for families and groups of people, the ride-shares are more affordable," he said to the San Francisco Chronicle. He's not wrong; the Oakland Airport Connector costs $6 per adult ticket, a price many argue is too high to be justifiable. In a highly competitive market between public transit, cars and ride-shares such as Uber or Lyft, many are turned off by the Connector's hefty price. In a family of four, expect to pay $24 exclusively for the Connector, as well as the cost of riding BART to the Connector in the first place. BART spokesman Jim Allison admitted this unfortunate impediment in the Connector's success. “We didn't anticipate Uber and Lyft and the others, and that’s hurting us," he told the SF Chronicle. This all begs the question: Was it worth building the Oakland Airport Connector? There are a number of factors you can use to try and come up with a definitive answer, but let's look at a few of them. Operating Costs & Ridership A major concern critics of the Connector always held to was how much the system was going to cost to keep in service, as well as if enough people would ride the system to sustain that price. The annual cost to run the Oakland Airport Connector is $61 million. In order for BART to break even on operative costs vs passenger revenue, a minimum of 2,800 daily passengers is required. For a while, the Connector was exceeding this required number, reaching nearly 3,200 people at one point last year, but more recently ridership has been declining. Now, daily ridership rarely exceeds 2,800, and often dips far below that number. Adding up how many times each train stops at each station every weekday and dividing that by 2,800 tells you each train would have to pick up an average of just over 15 people, per station, in order for BART to financially break even on the Connector. Simply by riding and observing the Connector, it's quite obvious this doesn't always happen, meaning there are not enough riders per day to sustain the cost of the Oakland Airport Connector. The statistics show this too; BART has lost around $860,000 in operating costs since the opening of the Connector in 2014. Based off of all this, it can be agreed upon that from a financial standpoint, the Oakland Airport Connector is certainly not succeeding; believing it to be a "failure" is still debatable, but it's important to keep in mind there's always a chance, no matter how small it may be, that this still-new system will experience a financial revival in the future. Performance & Reliability It's very hard to argue against the Connector's outstanding reliability and operative performance. The system has won several innovation awards and is unique when it comes not only to people movers, but in any form of public transit. The Connector is fully automated and is pulled by a thick cable set on the tracks, making for an incredibly quite, smooth, comfortable ride. The Oakland Airport Connector has an over 99% on-time rating, and since its launch, has been subject to breakdowns only a handful of times. From a performance viewpoint, the Oakland Airport Connector has kept its promise as being an extremely reliable system ever since it began revenue service. Part of the reason why is how it was constructed by utilizing a cable system capable of keeping the fully automated trains on-time without much difficulty. Accessibility Those in favor of the Connector argued the system would greatly improve Oakland International Airport's accessibility and general ease of getting to the airport. Those against said the process by which people would get to the OAK Airport station was not streamlined enough, and that the ease of pedestrian access to and from the station was not as convenient as it should be. It is, however, difficult to deny how much the Connector had improved access to OAK. The system provides direct access to the rest of the BART system, which opens up the possibilities of where passengers can get to from the airport. The argument can be made that AirBART provided direct access to BART as well, but passengers taking AirBART needed to physically exit the BART station in order to board the buses. Because the Oakland Airport Connector has direct transfer access to BART at Coliseum, without the need to exit the system, the overall access to OAK has been significantly improved since the Connector's opening. The issue regarding pedestrian access from the airport to OAK station can have little done to be improved. As of now, passengers have to cross OAK's main thoroughfare, which takes cars to both terminals, to get to and from the station. It would cost millions of dollars to build a pedestrian-exclusive bridge between the station and the entrance to the airport, and current available space to construct a bridge is very limited. However, the Oakland Airport Connector's overall accessibility from BART to OAK massively outshines the issue over pedestrian access. In a region with three major airports (SFO, OAK and SJC), accessibility is a major integral part of what makes an airport appealing to passengers. With a modern people mover in operation, OAK's image in the public eye is undoubtedly improved. Economic Boost One of the main arguments proponents of the Connector stated was that the system would bring economic prosperity to Oakland International Airport, both through passenger numbers and through the appeal of taking a modern people mover to the airport. But has the Connector really done this? One guarantee is that the average daily ridership on the Connector, while not being financially efficient, is much higher than the daily AirBART bus system ridership, which the Connector replaced upon opening. The Oakland Airport Connector's ridership is 36% higher than that of the former AirBART system, a significant increase of additional riders taking public transit to OAK. In addition, the $6 the Connector costs is much higher than AirBART's $2 fare, meaning the Connector generates more revenue than AirBART ever could, even if that revenue is not enough for BART to sustain the system financially. The trouble BART seems to be having with enticing people to ride the system is convincing out-of-towners, as well as locals, that it is better to ride the Connector as opposed to ride-share companies such as Uber and Lyft. Many would rather pay more to use these ride-share transit options and get to their destination faster, than pay less for public transit and have their journey last longer. While the argument can be made that technically more people are using Oakland International Airport than before the Connector entered service, it's difficult to prove the system has significantly improved OAK's passenger numbers. It is important to keep in mind that the daily ridership of the Connector does not reflect the total number of people using it to go to the airport, as many also use it upon exiting OAK. Thus, it is challenging to know how many people are using the Connector to get to the airport every day, which is why it's so difficult to tell if the system has made a dent in OAK's passenger numbers. According to the SF Chronicle, around 11%, or about 3,600 people, use ride-share options to get to Oakland International Airport. Considering this figure is much higher than the current number of people using the Connector to get to the airport, this shows other transit options are being more effective in growing OAK's passenger numbers. Does this mean the Connector does not significantly change or benefit OAK's daily number of passengers? Compared to other transit options, it hasn't. In of itself, it has overall increased the number of people using BART to get to the airport, which could be used to argue that it has helped Oakland International's economic performance. This goes back to the question asked in the first place: "Was the Connector worth building?" In terms of economic standards and its benefit to Oakland International Airport, the system has not significantly improved the number of passengers using OAK to the point of it being worth its existence. It's still debatable whether or not the Connector will benefit the airport economically in the future, but for now, the figures show it doesn't represent notable changes to Oakland International Airport in terms of economic standards. Alternative Transit Solutions Years before the Connector's completion, debates over what type of new transit solution to Oakland International would be best from a financial, economic and convenience standpoint were constant. We've ended up with what we have today, but could BART have chosen another method of transportation to OAK that would have cost less to build, would be able to succeed financially, and be a convenience to its riders? The simple answer: It's hard to tell. Generally public transit systems compromise economic stability for less passenger satisfaction, and vice versa; it's quite rare to find a system that excels in both categories. That said, there were many ideas tossed around as alternatives to the Connector, so let's look at one of these. A solution for service to OAK that gained support in the Oakland community was known as RapidBART. This system would have consisted of several modern, technologically advanced BRT (bus rapid transit) buses transporting people from Coliseum to Oakland International on a very similar route the Connector takes today. According to Oakland Living, RapidBART would have included transit-signal priority traffic lights, as well as lights pertaining exclusively to RapidBART buses, meaning buses would have the right-of-way on cars their entire route. Oakland Living claims the system would have been just as quick at transporting people to the airport, but it's difficult to prove or disprove this claim. A major reason RapidBART gained support from thousands was the promise that it would be free for everyone as long as funds from the Oakland Airport Connector were diverted to sustaining RapidBART for years to come. There are two fundamental problems with this thinking. First, if you're going to use money planned for building the Connector as sustaining a system, you might as well build the more expensive solution that's more convenient for riders. Second, $484 million is not an infinite amount of money, and after several years, it's very likely the operators of RapidBART would be forced to charge fares for riders to sustain the system and pay for operative costs. However, some of the advantages of RapidBART would have been its ability to stop along its route, better serving the East Oakland community. Assuming RapidBART would eventually cost some amount of money, it would most likely be quite cheaper than the current $6 Connector. Had RapidBART been built, it's very hard to tell if it would have financially performed better than the Oakland Airport Connector. It would have almost certainly cost less to build, and the operating costs could have been potentially lower, but you end up sacrificing comfort and convenience for the riders by setting up a bus system, rather than rail. It's difficult to examine if the Oakland Airport Connector's financial woes would've been a non-issue had it never been built in favor of other methods of transport. This, no doubt, is a main issue on why there is so much debate over whether this costly system was worth it. Combining all these issues together and proceeding to ask the question "Has the Oakland Airport Connector failed?" won't give you an answer. It all depends on which perspective you look at it from. The system has most certainly improved access to Oakland International Airport, is extremely reliable and performs well. It has also generally improved the image of OAK the general public shares. But the system's financial trouble and insignificant economic boost to OAK puts it on a strain for BART. The system was costly to build and is even more costly to maintain, and it doesn't appear it's about to begin generating more revenue for BART or OAK anytime soon. This is why it's hard to call the system a "failure." Different issues at hand with the system are looked at differently, and some have a more positive outcome than others. Calling the entire Connector a failure is not really justified, because there are parts of the system that have genuinely benefited the public, BART, and OAK as a whole. The system is, however causing a financial headache for BART, and perhaps that is the most important reason many consider the Connector to be failing. It's not wrong to reason like this, but there are many other factors that go into determining the success of a system. This article has examined several of them, and has come up with no definitive answer. It's up to the reader to determine one.
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