As it turns out it doesn’t actually cost that much on regular transit, there’s an AIRPORT SURCHARGE because it’s an “airport train”.
No wonder Americans don’t use public transit, even when the system exists it’s ridiculously difficult and expensive to use.
Unifying the system might actually hurt it more then help. MUNI the bus and light rail system within the city is relatively cheap, $2.75 fare to ride any where. That’s because it’s funded mostly by the city because people in the city use and value it more. BART, the metro that’s posted in the picture is funded by all the suburban and urban municipalities that it serves in the metro area, and since the suburban cities don’t use/ value it as much it’s hard to get funding for it passed through taxes so they rely more on fares.
If they unified it then the minority of people in the city wouldn’t be able to pass taxes to improve, or at this point maintain, service and we’d get stuck with high fares and low service.
For example in the last election a majority of people voted to tax rideshares to pay for the bus in the city, it didn’t pass because another ballot measure that passed had some fine print nullified it, but that kind of measure would never have passed throughout the whole bay area.