This may or may not become a regular item, depending on the outcome of negotiations with Governor Schwarzenegger. You can probably put your money on "regular item."
Every morning I get on BART, go to work, then get back on BART. This in itself is an issue: BART disallows food and drink on its trains. Compared to Boston, where they populate T stations with Dunkin' Donuts, this is positively barbaric. As a result, I have to pay San Francisco prices for coffee, which is an absolute outrage.
Today, the BART schedules changed. Not particularly significantly, just a few minutes in each direction. This creates one small problem. Until today, trains left my home station for my work station and my work station for my home station every fifteen minutes, on exactly the same schedule starting at five minutes past the hour. This made my life easier than you can possibly imagine. Starting today, one schedule starts at four minutes and the other at seven minutes past the hour. A trial, I tell you.
The major gripe is in execution. My train this morning was a few minutes late, and I had to rush my bagel to make it to my Monday morning meeting. Coming home was worse. The Richmond trains were nonexistent. I stood and watched as several trains to all points passed me by, some nearly empty. How BART deals with delays baffles me. Through San Francisco all of the trains on every line run on the same tracks. While I'm sure it isn't trivial, I have to believe it's possible to divert a train from one line to another when it turns around at the terminus. Instead, most commuters are spoiled with an embarrassment of transit, while a few are forced to wait for a train that may never come.
When it came, the driver was clearly drunk. The train heaved and lurched its way under the San Francisco Bay like it had legs. To make matters worse, the only available seat was next to a Deaniac (I could tell by his hat); the feedback loop of bitter malaise was out of control. To pass the time I played an absolutely miserable game of cell phone golf, finishing two over. Every manner of wind played havoc with my game, and the greens were far too fast.
All this after they raised my fare by a dollar a day last month. At least they're considering raising tolls on Bay Area bridges. While three dollars for a round trip on the Bay Bridge might be an unbearable hardship, we've got to make touch choices to keep this state afloat.
Posted by withers at February 9, 2004 11:47 PMWhile I'm as disgusted by both the rate increase and the additional schedule change as you are, I will point out one thing that may make your evening commute a bit quicker, if not easier. If a Pittsburgh/ Bay Point train comes before a Richmond one does (as it inevitably will), take it and transfer at 12th St station. Yes, you have to get up and cross the platform, but it's nearly always quicker than waiting for a direct SF to Richmond train and, at least the times I've done it, they seem to have recently solved the problem of overcrowded Fremont to Richmond trains around rush hour. I get a seat nearly every time these days, even after transferring.
Just my $0.02.
Posted by: Heather Shaw at February 11, 2004 08:13 PMGenerally true. On this particular day, though, they were kind enough to announce that there were delays on the Fremont-Richmond line too. Incompetent, I tell you.
Posted by: Matt at February 11, 2004 08:17 PMGah, I think I remember that day. Horrible, absolutely horrible.
One little "rule of BART" I always follow is that if there are ANY delays at all mentioned over the PA, I take the first train over to the East Bay, whether or not it's going my way once there. I figure, if the delays get worse (which they did that night), at least I'll be on the right side of the Bay. That night, I took a Pittsburgh/ Bay Point train, even though I usually take Fremont or Dublin/ Pleasanton trains, and got off at 12th St. While waiting for a RIchmond/ Fremont train, I heard over the PA that the delays had gone up to 45 minutes! Ack! I left the station and took a cab to Lake Merritt, where Tim was waiting to pick me up. It was a $5 cab ride, but I got home more or less on time. If I'd waited in SF, it would have probably taken over an hour, and if I'd wanted to take a cab from SF, it would have been closer to $30.
Yeah, BART is pretty incompetent, you're right.
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