Bart Removes Some Seats To Give Passengers More Room

With an average weekday ridership of 430,000 people, passengers have constantly asked if BART can do anything about its crowded cars, said Taylor Huckaby, a BART spokesman. A new “Fleet of the Future” with about 10 percent more standing room is expected to arrive in segments starting in 2017, but until then, transportation officials are removing seven seats along the side of a few cars to open up space. Eventually, 60 cars with seat reductions will be on the tracks — 12 for each of the major lines, he said. “When the door opened, I’m like, ‘what is that?’” said Gina Price, a 54-year-old San Francisco resident boarding a Fremont bound train at the Daly City Station. Price sat in one of the new single seats. “That’s what people pay for, to have a seat,” her father, Robert Lee, chimed in. Lee, 61, said cars with removed seats should have a designation outside so passengers getting on know there is less sitting room. Other passengers, like San Francisco resident Laura Hassett, haven’t spotted the altered cars. BART has an online survey open so passengers can weigh in on the new layout. There could be plans to scale up seat removal depending on the end results of the survey, he said.