San Francisco Sightseeing Articles

SFO -- San Francisco International Airport representatives Wednesday asked for a BART-to-SFO surcharge that recently increased by $2.50 to be entirely waived for airport employees, an idea a BART spokesman shot down as "insane."

BART directors voted to raise fares in May, including by increasing the surcharge for trips to the airport from $1.50 to $4. The increase took effect July 1.

At a morning news conference, airport spokesman Mike McCarron said the change is unfair to airport workers because they're paying a surcharge of $8 a day to get to work and back, which is $5 more than they had been paying.

However, BART spokesman Linton Johnson said that with a combination of three types of discounts available to airport employees, they can pay less than if BART were to waive the $4 charge.

"The airport is being 100 percent disingenuous," he said. "It's stunning to me they're taking this position."

Johnson said BART offered to extend a 25 percent discount to all airport workers, a discount that previously applied only to airline employees. The offer remains on the table, he said.

He also said all employees who work in the county of San Francisco Tour have the option of paying for BART tickets with pre-tax dollars taken from their paychecks before they are taxed, an option that can save them an average of 25 percent.

Additionally, he said, employees can save by using high-value tickets, an easy-rider system similar to FasTrak that allows riders to buy tickets worth $48 for only $42.

"The bottom line is, you can get up to a 56.2 percent discount," Johnson said.

McCarron said in regard to the 56.2 percent, "That I'm not aware of, but the airport would still like to see the surcharge waived for all its employees."

The airport has been providing a free shuttle for its workers from the Millbrae station to the airport that runs about every 20 minutes. McCarron said about 700 of its 1,100 employees who ride BART to work have been using the shuttle.