BART in Sacramento and Planning for the Future

Dear reader, 

February is a short month, but it was full of work across the Bay Area and in Sacramento. 

On February 5th and 6th, I visited our legislators in Sacramento with the other Board Directors and our Labor partners. Both days were full of meetings with legislative staff and our Bay Area Caucus members, who were excited to hear about the progress BART is making and to give us feedback they’ve heard from their constituents. We also discussed the importance of SB 63 to get a regional funding measure on the ballot in 2026, a crucial step toward our future plans.

Our commitment to safety and cleanliness is unwavering. We have doubled police presence and train car deep cleaning and will continue to enhance these measures. Our riders’ comfort and safety are our top priority, and riders should always have a clean and safe experience on BART. Another key theme in our conversations in Sacramento was the need for more innovation and solutions to the structural deficit BART is facing. These discussions set the stage for Thursday’s board workshop on Director priorities.

On February 27th, the BART Board of Directors met and appointed an interim Independent Police Auditor. Our long-time auditor, Russel Bloom, is retiring after years of working to hold BART accountable and improve police oversight. I’m thankful for his years of service and the insight he provided before his retirement.

We also had an all-day workshop to review our priorities and ideas for the following year. Staff presented the four priorities they are working on: addressing the fiscal cliff, improving customer experience, public engagement, and our capital program. You can watch the entire workshop on YouTube. Among my priorities, I reiterated my support for making BART safer, cleaner, and financially sustainable by hiring more staff to address customer concerns, activating our stations, and piloting programs like SEPTA’s Hub of Hope and Rail Plus Property. BART has also set aside money to study the implementation of platform screen doors, which I strongly support to improve rider safety. I also brought up integrating art and culture as infrastructure because the billions of dollars we invest in our system should deliver an aesthetically beautiful and functional system we can all take pride in. 

Looking Forward

I’m preparing to return to Sacramento in March to meet with more legislators. At the end of the month, I’ll also join BART for an advocacy trip to Washington, D.C. While there is much chaos and uncertainty at the federal level, it remains crucial for us to continue building relationships and making the case for BART’s vital role in the regional and state economies.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll work on introducing policy proposals based on my priorities to begin the work on making changes. I hope you will join me in sharing your ideas to make BART the best possible system.