Reading a book on the train is a tale-old tradition many BART riders partake in.
To encourage reading for those even without a book, BART is piloting touchless @ShortEdition_EN Short Story Dispensers, which print out short stories, at 4 BART stations.
The Short Story Dispensers print 1-, 3-, or 5-minute reads on recyclable receipt paper.
The dispensers are located inside paid areas at Montgomery (coming soon), Fruitvale, Richmond and Pleasant Hill — where we tried out and printed out Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias”!
Unlike us, you can simply print out stories by hovering your finger over the button! No need to touch!
The one-year pilot is being sponsored by BART Communications and its Art Program, as installation begins on National Reading Month. @RIFWEB
A big fan of the dispensers and BART’s pilot: legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.
Coppola’s North Beach restaurant Café Zoetrope was first in US to install these dispensers.
“Anything that brings people together..which art can do, is clearly desirable,” Coppola told BART.
Once the pilot is running on all four stations, BART staff hopes to expand and create opportunities for Bay Area writers to be featured with their unique short stories and welcome back riders.
Attention @Athletics fans! For Opening Day and future home games at the Oakland Coliseum, BART will be providing extra trains after BART closes service to take fans departing night games back home.
For Opening Day, April 1, BART will offer a one-time-only special service plan: One train per BART route will be standing by once the game ends (Berryessa, Dublin, Millbrae, Richmond-Antioch riders should board Richmond train and transfer to an Antioch train at MacArthur)
Reason for Opening Day's unique service plan is because @Athletics Opening Day game begins at 7:07 pm, later than future 2021 season home games at 6:40 pm.
For Opening Day: There will be no other trains that run between the last scheduled trains and the extra event trains.
Starting Tuesday, February 16, BART will offer a free ticket back home to those who have been vaccinated at the Oakland Coliseum vaccination site.
The site, which opens on Feb 16, is jointly led by @fema and @Cal_OES. BART is ready to support their efforts to vaccinate Bay Area.
Starting February 16, extra BART staff will be deployed to Coliseum Station to provide anyone who received a vaccine a free $7 BART ticket on-site after showing their vaccination card with a matching date.
$7 is enough fare to get back home to any BART station, except SFO.
We know it can be a long walk from Coliseum Station to the Coliseum.
BART staff is working to secure ensure riders with mobility challenges or disabilities will receive accommodations getting between Coliseum Station and the vaccination site for their vaccination.
In the past year, BART Ambassadors have tallied the following statistics:
▪️12,000 educational contacts (most frequent type of contact)
▪️~10,000 rider checks on platforms
▪️1,000+ free face masks handed to riders
▪️132 cases where police officers was called for assistance
In the past year, 10 ambassadors -- working in teams of 2 -- walk trains and stations, report to safety and security concerns or biohazards, and respond to customers’ questions or service requests. Ambassadors are uniformed and trained in de-escalation techniques.
BART continues to provide weekly train car loading charts on bart.gov/crowding & social media. The charts provide a snapshot of what riders can expect on-board trains this week.
Yellow & Blue lines for 2/8/21-2/12/21
Since June, the charts have been posted on bart.gov/crowding every week.
How to use it: Look up your line, station and then departure time. The # in the box is the expected average # of riders on each car at departure of station.
Red and Green lines, 2/8/21-2/12/21
Important notes about the data in these charts:
-Reflects average # of riders on each car as the train departs each station
-Assumes passengers are evenly spread through all cars on a train
-Is not real-time information
The BART Board meets at 9am: bart.gov/about/bod/mult…
Topics:
▪️New Customer Satisfaction Survey results (72%, up from 56% in 2018)
▪️COVID-19 update including employee testing and contract tracing
▪️Automatic License Plate Readers for parking enforcement and to simplify payment
2020 Customer Satisfaction Survey:
▪️72% satisfied (up from 56%)
▪️81% would recommend to a friend (up from 74%)
▪️79% say they can socially distance their entire trip, 16% say they can for part of their ride and 4% say they can't
▪️Riders rated our COVID response above average
The results are encouraging and serve as an incentive for us to work even harder.
The results give us guidance on where we need to focus more attention and resources: enhancing cleaning efforts, increasing the presence of safety staff, and keeping trains running as frequently.