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Rising costs for fuel and insurance are forcing the North County Transit District to freeze hiring and slow expansion, officials said in a preview of the fiscal 2026-27 budget.
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The district will not fill 22 full-time positions, all of which are vacant, in the year ahead and plans no service expansions in the next five years, district Chief Financial Officer Eun Park-Lynch said in a presentation to the NCTD board Thursday.
“The revenue is not sufficient to cover the escalating costs we are encountering,” Park-Lynch said.
Diesel prices went from $2.66 a gallon in April 2025 to $4.63 a gallon in April of this year, she said. While many of the district’s buses run on compressed natural gas, some of the buses and all of the trains still use diesel.
The district recently acquired 35 new buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells, but the buses are not in service yet because of hydrogen supply station problems being resolved. NCTD also has six battery-powered electric buses on routes in and around Escondido. California requires the district to transition its entire bus fleet to zero-emission vehicles by 2040.
The higher cost of diesel will add $2.3 million to the operating budget in the year ahead, according to the staff report.
The district’s total proposed operating budget of $180.9 million for the year that starts July 1 is a 1.17% increase from the $178.8 million budget of fiscal 2025-26. The increase is well below the San Diego region’s consumer price index of 3.8% for 2025.
Tariffs are expected to boost budget woes by increasing the cost of replacement parts and vehicles. District officials have said they need to replace the 12 rail cars in their Sprinter fleet, some of which have been retired early because of maintenance problems.
Also, sales tax revenue from the regional, voter-approved TransNet measure is expected to decline in the next few years, and federal and state grants are becoming more uncertain.
One bright spot mentioned Thursday was that the increased fuel costs could motivate more people to stop driving and use public transit. However, fares are only a small fraction of revenue, about $12.8 million in the year ahead.
NCTD’s board is expected to approve the final 2026-27 budget at a meeting June 18.
Five to 10 of the jobs to be frozen are bus drivers, said Chief Executive Officer Shawn Donaghy. Others are spread across various departments.
“We always have open rail and bus jobs,” Donaghy said, and some of them will not be filled. Also, more employees will be taking “dual roles” to cover the work needed.
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Liability insurance for the district’s Coaster and Sprinter trains also has shot up. The coverage that cost $5.5 million this year will cost $7 million in the year ahead, Park-Lynch said.
Board member Mike Sannella, a San Marcos City Council member, said the budget situation “is very serious” and shows “the headwinds that we face as an agency.”
“These numbers are daunting,” Sannella said, and the board “needs to do something now to avoid multimillion-dollar deficits.”
Board member Corrina Contreras, a Vista City Council member, also said the district needs to prepare for costs to continue going up.
She asked for the district staff to prepare a list of primary bus routes that must be kept and others that could be suspended if reductions are needed.
“We need to have a plan ready to go as soon as possible … especially if things get worse,” Contreras said. “That is incredibly important.”
Board member Jewel Edson, a Solana Beach City Council member, suggested the district try to collect more revenue from other rail users, primarily Amtrak and BNSF freight.
Also, the Defense Department could be tapped to cover more of the costs for its requirement that the railroad be maintained as transportation for military services as part of the nation’s Strategic Rail Corridor Network (STRACNET).
Donaghy said those ideas have been considered.
“We do have a really good agreement with BNSF,” Donaghy said. “We definitely need to go back and re-evaluate all of those contracts we have with those agencies.”
The district also may re-evaluate its use of NCTD+, an on-demand service that provides shared rides within certain zones.
Donaghy said the district could ask the cities involved to cover a share of the higher cost of on-demand transportation services.
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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 5:24 AM.