BART is increasing police presence and cleaning in response to customers’ concerns
BART will increase police patrols on trains and in stations, increase the frequency of deep cleaning of train cars and add more “scrub crew” cleaning at stations this spring.
Increased Police Presence
BART Police is more than doubling the presence of sworn officers in trains beginning March 20 to address riders’ safety concerns and quality of life issues during operating hours.
“This is the biggest train deployment we’ve had in the 25 years I’ve been here, if not the history of the BART Police Department,” said BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez. “We’re going to be doubling down on our presence in the system.”
BART police are removing seven traditional vehicle patrols per shift and putting those officers inside trains instead of patrol cars. Also, all officers currently on special assignment, such as the K9 unit, will also shift to train patrols as BART recruits more officers. An additional 8 to 18 officers will patrol trains per shift, joining the ten officers already out in the system dedicated to San Francisco and the core service area of BART.
The redeployment of sworn officers adds to the visible presence provided by BART’s unarmed safety staff including Ambassadors, Crisis Intervention Specialists and Fare Inspectors on trains. BART will suspend the Embarcadero Station focused fare enforcement on weekday mornings to free up the Fare Inspectors and officers used in the enforcement to walk trains elsewhere and all times of the day.
More Frequent Train Cleaning
BART is now thoroughly cleaning the interior of all cars twice as often as in the recent past. Eight teams of car cleaners scrub cars during overnight storage at sites throughout the system. This deep cleaning is in addition to the quick-clean crews that sweep through trains at the end of the line during passenger service hours.
BART has hired more car cleaners and is just about fully staffed.
BART has more Fleet of the Future cars in service than ever before, with more than 50 percent of cars in service the newer models. Meantime, BART is phasing out the legacy cars at an accelerated rate.
Station Cleaning
BART is now sending more deep clean teams through heavily used stations throughout the system. BART will add four more deep clean teams in the next few weeks, representing a 66 percent increase in the number of crews dedicated to scrubbing stations.
“The more deep cleaning we can do of stations, hopefully the less emergency cleaning situations we will have in the day shift or at the beginning of service.” said BART Assistant General Manager for Operations Shane Edwards.
A five-area strategy is being used to send the deep cleaners where they are needed most. This deep cleaning includes pressure washing stairwells and busy areas of stations.