BART GM Touts Increased Security, Sunday Schedule Changes On Listening Tour
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – BART riders can expect an increased police presence starting Monday, the transit agency's general manager announced over the weekend.
"Being in the trains, six teams of two. And we have a set pattern of where they're going to be. And that will be on nights and weekends," General Manager Bob Powers said in his visit to the 24th Street Mission Station on Sunday. "That will certainly improve the visibility of BART [police] presence in the system."
Powers stopped at the station as part of his ongoing "listening tour" of the BART system.
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The increased police presence comes a week after the fatal stabbing of a Good Samaritan aboard a BART train who intervened during an attempted robbery of another passenger.
The general manager also announced a big change to Sunday service, saying that trains would now be running every 24 minutes instead of every 20. Powers insisted that riders would not really lose any time despite the change.
"We didn't really meet the 20 minute headways to begin with, so in all candor, it really wasn't 20 minute headways," Powers said. "But by going to 24 minutes, it will be reliable, and you can set your schedule on BART being there."
BART is in the process of replacing power cables, which forces trains to use a single track on most Sundays through part of San Francisco. According to the transit agency, the power project will require single tracking between Embarcadero and 24th Street for about 28 Sundays per year through 2021.
A second phase of the project would replace power cables between 24th Street and Balboa Park starting in 2022, but the agency has not said if single tracking would take place.
