Foreign metro systems are putting BART to shame
QI read your column,
“It’s vomit or crazy naked guys on BART,” and wanted to add my two cents.
We recently visited Russia, and their metro puts BART to shame.
The stations are clean! There is artwork, including paintings, statues and marble columns. It’s very welcoming and very inviting. The trains came through about every two minutes — not every 20 minutes. On BART, we get vomit and naked guys. We have spent millions on BART, yet ridership is dropping. Time to upgrade the board of directors! — Jim Cauble, Hayward
AMillions? Try billions.
QIn January, we returned from a trip to Copenhagen. Arriving at SFO, we needed to purchase one BART ticket, and this is where the trouble began. Several tourists unfamiliar with BART were attempting to buy tickets. There were two station agents, and one came out to help (a very pleasant man) as did we and other regular riders, but with several machines out of order, it was a mess. All this in contrast to the Copenhagen airport, where several agents in red vests, easy to recognize, were ready to help riders buy tickets from one of at least 15 machines.
With the number of riders from SFO to the city, it would be helpful to have more station agents, goodwill ambassadors and ticket machines that work.
OK, I’m done ranting and feel much better. — Lis Mitchell, Antioch
ANearly 40% of wouldbe riders cite fears of crime, unclean stations and the homeless as reasons to avoid taking BART trains. BART is adding more cops, and ambassadors dressed in blue help. Can’t come soon enough.
QOne of the advantages of BART is being able to relax or work while you ride. While the advice to keep awake and not use phones or laptops is practical, having to do so negates these advantages. To increase ridership, reduce crime. — Scott Turner, Palo Alto
AA glimmer of good news. Crime was down nearly 20% in January from a year ago.
QThe reason those of us on the east side of the Caldecott Tunnel cannot ride BART is due to the increasing lack of parking.
It is not BART’S mandate to build housing. Its mandate is to provide safe, reliable, affordable transportation. Taking away parking at the Walnut Creek station for apartments and replacing half of it with a private parking garage that charges six times the cost to park as BART does is a rip-off. — Valerie Jo Remley, Alamo
ABART is swapping some sprawling surface lots for new apartment buildings under a push to build 20,000 units of housing on its property. Expect to see parking jump from $3 to $6 a day, which may ease the parking crunch.