BART’s Board of Directors faces major financial and administrative challenges.
According to the 2018-19 Alameda County Civil Grand Jury Report: “Violent crime on BART, including robberies and aggravated assaults, increased by 115% over the last five years…. Rider satisfaction with BART fell from a high of 84% in 2012 to a low of 56% in 2018…. Since at least 2012, cleanliness has been a top concern for riders who responded to the survey.”
The Grand Jury report continued: “Respondents … cite ‘personal security in BART system’ as the second largest service rating decline…, just after fare evasion. Lack of visible police presence on trains and in stations has long been a concern of riders … News reports of the three homicides in July 2018 and a video in October 2018 of a man swinging two chain saws while riding BART reinforced worries among Bay Area residents about their safety on BART.”
In large part, this increase in Caltrain popularity and usability was because of the Caltrain Peninsula Joint Powers Board’s popular Baby Bullet program which was introduced in 2004. By skipping some stops, the Baby Bullet trains provide both faster service for longer distance travelers, and good local service for shorter distance travelers. By 2019 Caltrain was operating 92 weekday trains with 22 of those being Baby Bullet trains.
Once in a while a project comes along that makes sense. A rebuilt rail bridge between Redwood City and Newark is such a project. It’s nice to hear that SamTrans, Facebook and some Peninsula cities are on board with the idea. Newark? Union City? Hayward? Fremont? San Lorenzo?, BART? ACTC?, MTC?