Dozens of peo­ple held a mock funer­al for Bay Area pub­lic tran­sit to draw atten­tion to the dire sit­u­a­tion fac­ing San Fran­cis­co and Oak­land-area tran­sit agen­cies after Gov­er­nor New­som failed to ade­quate­ly fund tran­sit in this year’s bud­get, reports Sam Mauhay-Moore for SF Gate.

The pro­ces­sion, which made its way from Oak­land to San Fran­cis­co City Hall, was orga­nized by a coali­tion called Save Cal­i­for­nia Tran­sit. “The crowd was led by peo­ple dressed in funer­al attire car­ry­ing card­board repli­cas of BART, Muni, AC Tran­sit and Cal­train bus­es and trains. The repli­cas were adorned with flow­ers and rest­ed on ply­wood coffins, and were being close­ly fol­lowed by a brass quar­tet play­ing funer­al dirges.”

Mauhay-Moore explains, “The fund­ing need­ed to keep many of Cal­i­for­ni­a’s tran­sit agen­cies afloat was not includ­ed in this year’s state bud­get, accord­ing to a let­ter sent to Gov. Gavin New­som’s office from the Cal­i­for­nia Leg­is­la­ture. This has cre­at­ed a fund­ing short­fall which may force many agen­cies to con­duct major ser­vice cuts.”

Mauhay-Moore details the ser­vice cuts pre­dict­ed by Bay Area Rapid Tran­sit (BART) and Muni, the region’s largest tran­sit providers, which would have sig­nif­i­cant impacts on mobil­i­ty for tran­sit-depen­dent res­i­dents. Accord­ing to one ‘mourn­er’ address­ing the crowd, “The cause of death is neglect. Pub­lic tran­sit is being starved to death by your rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som is pre­pared to pull the plug.”