Workers fear BART cuts

Trains nearly empty in pandemic, but many riders have no alternative

Without BART, Kamyah Moses takes three buses and 45 minutes longer to get from her home in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood to her job as a froster at Nothing Bundt

Cakes in Emeryville. One day, five buses passed because they were already too full under COVID19 restrictions, she said.

If BART, losing a majority of riders and revenue under the pandemic, has to cut back service, it would affect “everything,” said the 17yearold, who doesn’t have a car.

“I just really hope they don’t do it,” she said as she shook her head on the Fruitvale Station platform Friday afternoon.

BART has already reduced its hours and increased wait times between trains. Now the agency, which doesn’t have enough money to cover its budget, is considering more service cuts for February. The worstcase scenarios, which the agency’s leadership is trying to avoid, could include closing select stations and ending weekend trains.

The pandemic nearly emptied BART, leaving only 13% of riders, and exposing who truly depends on public transportation. Those left are largely essential workers and people without cars, who most often are lowincome. They continue to be hurt by schedule cuts, although trains are less crowded.

Even as the system has been drained of whitecollar commuters under shelterinplace, some stations still busEssential

tle. Fruitvale is now the fifth busiest after San Francisco’s Powell, Montgomery, Civic Center and 16th Street Mission. The East Bay station recorded 47,577 total entries and 47,485 total exits in September. While downtown San Francisco stations run only 5% of prepandemic ridership, Fruitvale has kept up to 25%.

“Essential workers are streaming through those fare gates every day,” said BART Director Robert Raburn, who represents the station. “We’re doing everything we can to protect them and provide good service.”

BART leaders have opposed any scenario that would strand transitdependent riders over the weekend or at a certain station, instead proposing reducing frequency of weekend trains or expanding wait times to 45 minutes to avoid hard cuts.

Two dozen riders, including a woman sitting on a suitcase, a mom with her young daughter and workers dressed in branded shirts, waited on the Fruitvale Station platform Friday afternoon. Some people said they go every day to work, while others use BART only to visit a friend when Uber is too expensive or their car is in the shop. Riders had mixed reviews of service and safety during the pandemic. Some said it was better because there were fewer riders, while others complained wait times between trains had doubled from 15 to 30 minutes and service started later and ended earlier.

Jacky Huynh, 20, takes the train to work at Starbucks in San Francisco four days a week, even though he has a car, to avoid traffic and parking. If he opens the coffee shop in the morning, he now has to drive and then take an Uber, because BART doesn’t start until later.

“I rely on the BART to get to and from work,” he said.

Odalys Nunez, 24, said she’s been taking BART to work in Walnut Creek since May when her car was struck and has planned her work schedule around the train.

“Cutting the trains would put a really big stamp on the riders being able to get to work on time,” she said. “There are a lot of people who don’t have cars or any other means of transportation, and BART is their only transportation.”

Temporary closures for stations with fewer than 500 daily riders or within walking distance of another station are one possible scenario. Ethan Ellis, who works as a community planting coordinator in urban forestry, doesn’t own a car and commutes from Pleasant Hill to the Berryessa district of San Jose three days a week. He already gets to work late on Saturdays because BART starts later during the pandemic. If lesstraveled stations were closed, he fears Berryessa would go, and he would either have to buy a car, which he can’t afford, or quit his job.

“I would have no way to get to work,” Ellis said. “I need the service, or I could be out of this job.”

Transit advocates say the current situation is a wakeup call for BART to reprioritize for the transitdependent.

“When we build expansions around choice riders, we see what happens when the economy changes,” said Bob Allen, policy and advocacy campaign director for the nonprofit organization Urban Habitat. “We need to invest in the systems for people who are the most loyal, reliable riders.”

Faithful riders dealing with pandemic service changes also need to navigate health and safety concerns, including less riders who fail to wear masks. In the last staff survey count on Oct. 5, mask compliance was 91%. Compliance peaked to 95% during rush hours, but dropped in the middle of the day. BART directors said the numbers aren’t good enough.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said. “We look at mask compliance very holistically. We’re all in this together. A BART component is making sure everyone knows masks are required and making sure everyone has access to free masks if needed.”

BART has public service announcements, posters and train decals to educate riders. Station agents, ambassadors and police officers give masks to riders who don’t have ones and engage in enforcement. Mostly that’s just a reminder to wear a mask properly, but if people belligerently refuse, they’re removed from the train, Trost said. Police issued four citations to riders not wearing masks since March.

On Friday at Fruitvale, BART police officers on board stopped a woman from getting on without a mask. She buried her mouth and nose in her sweatshirt, and they let her on. Some riders said pretty much everyone wears masks, while others said it’s sometimes a problem.

“A lot of people come in wearing a mask and then take it off,” Nunez said. “I know it’s hard, but if this is the only way that’s going to protect us when we have to go to work, it has to be done and enforced.”

El Cantey, 61, who rides the train every day, said he doesn’t feel like everyone respects mask rules, but carries extra ones in his backpack to give to homeless people who might not have them.

Anthony Towner, on his way to work in San Francisco, said riders “definitely follow the rules,” although there’s “still some crazy people.”

“Everything’s been fine,” he said as he pulled a surgical mask over his face and hopped aboard the train.