Start dusting off the old paper BART tickets stuffed into the depths of your wallet, because the transit agency will stop accepting these blue-and-white magstripe passes at station fare gates on Nov. 30.
The switch will finally usher in the full transition to all-in-one Clipper cards, which are more durable, reloadable and accepted by every transit system in the Bay Area.
Bay Area Rapid Transit officials are now advising riders to use up any remaining balances — stamped directly onto the passes — before the slots accepting paper tickets are officially covered on fare gates.
As BART riders reminisce about struggling to resurrect crumpled tickets and consider ways to preserve the latest lost symbol of a bygone transit era — joining cloth seats and carpeted trains — many will be looking for ways to redeem their unused funds. They cannot be transferred onto Clipper cards, which are administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, but old tickets with balances higher than $1 can be refunded or donated to a local nonprofit on BART’s website.
Plans to phase out the paper tickets were first unveiled in 2019, and BART officially stopped selling the paper tickets in Dec. 2020, with a brief resurgence in 2022 to counter a shortage of plastic cards.
Physical, plastic Clipper cards can still be purchased for $3 at vending machines installed at all stations, while digital Clipper cards can also be registered and loaded onto virtual wallets and smartwatches using apps like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
For the biggest fans bemoaning the demise of paper tickets, at least one Bay Area-based designer sells stickers that can transform plastic Clipper cards into the formerly beloved magstripe tickets.
Starting in 2024, riders will be allowed to pay by directly swiping credit and debit cards at new “fare-evasion-proof” gates that will be installed across all BART stations by 2025 — following similar contactless options already used by transit systems in London and New York City.
Transit officials confirmed that a waiver for the $3 fee for new plastic Clipper cards will remain available, alongside other discounts for youth, seniors, people with disabilities and low-income riders.