21 Mar BART Aims to Increase Safety, Cleanliness as It Suffers From Low Ridership

Bay Area Rapid Transit police aboard a train in an undated photo. BART doubled the presence of officers in trains beginning March 20 to address riders’ safety concerns and quality of life issues during operating hours. (BART via Bay City News)

By Keith Burbank
Bay City News

BART police are more than doubling the number of officers patrolling trains starting March 20 to address safety and quality of life issues, BART officials said.

BART police are deploying eight to 18 more officers on trains per shift in San Francisco and in BART’s core service area. That’s up from 10.

The increase is the largest deployment in 25 years if not the history of BART, BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez said at a press conference on March 20. The deployment will include K-9s.

BART officials said they are suspending fare enforcement at Embarcadero Station on weekday mornings so that fare inspectors and officers can patrol elsewhere. Patrols will occur all day.

BART ridership is down compared with pre-pandemic levels, and safety may be the reason, said John Grubb, chief operating officer for the Bay Area Council, which represents the area’s largest employers.

>>>Read: Lawmaker Introduces Effort to Make Public Transit Safer

Those employers “rely on BART more than any other transit system to get their employees to and from work,” Grubb added.

The drop in ridership threatens the financial well-being of BART, and doesn’t appear to be due to the desire for remote work, he added. People are driving to work and using the ferry where ridership has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“BART has become very unsafe,” Grubb said.

Grubb maintains that safety is the number one reason workers are not riding BART. He thinks the first step to making BART safer is deploying officers and security personnel.

Grubb said BART police need BART board members to back officers who enforce payment and the system’s code of conduct, which includes not eating or smoking on BART and in the paid area of the system.

Riders also may see cleaner trains and stations, following the March 20 announcement.

BART officials are having trains cleaned more frequently and increasing the number crews cleaning stations.

Recently, crews began cleaning train interiors twice as often as in the past. Cleaners are scrubbing cars when trains reach the end of a line and each night.

To make stations cleaner, BART is adding four more cleaning teams in the coming weeks. Station cleaning includes pressure washing stairwells and the busy areas of stations.

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