On the eve of officially unveiling a "precarious" 2020-21 budget, BART unveiled a 15-step "welcome back" plan Wednesday that aims to reassure customers it will be safe to ride trains as the agency continues to contend with fiscal fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
The plan includes both measures that BART adopted before the pandemic, such as frequent cleaning of stations and train cars each day, and new ones, such as UV disinfection of the whole fleet.
It also highlights a requirement adopted across the Bay Area for all transit riders to use masks and promotes Clipper cards as a "contactless" payment system that can help patrons avoid lines at ticket machines. The list promises other steps to reduce crowding, such as beginning to increase frequency of trains from the current drastically reduced service, and reconfiguring the seating arrangement on the system's new generation of cars to help riders spread out.
Because BART gets more than half of its operating cash from passenger fares, persuading riders that they're not taking their lives in their hands when they get on the train is crucial to its financial future.
BART ridership is down more than 90% since the onset of the pandemic. The district's proposed budget assumes a 70% plunge in fare revenue for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1, compared to the sum originally budgeted for the current year.