The following is reprinted from Speak Out Now’s workplace newsletter at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the San Francisco Bay area.
Clean stations are important to BART riders. Coming into a station that has stuff spilled on the platform or trash scattered in the station doesn’t create a very inviting environment. The level of System Service staffing doesn’t seem like it’s a priority for BART. Some stations in the city have two System Service workers—which makes sense given the amount of traffic going through the stations. Some stations, like 19th St. and 12th St., are three stories and have one worker. It’s amazing that those stations are as well maintained as they are. It’s humanly impossible to cover that much area! And some System Service workers are supposed to cover multiple stations! How are these decisions made? Do they just look at paid ridership and not the station size and other factors? It’s not such a complicated puzzle. Paid ridership numbers tell one thing. But the reality is quite different. Maybe they just don’t know BART!
