Alicia Trost
@AliciaTrost
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Chief Communications Officer at BART/ Leadership APTA ‘22/ Mom and Wife/Commutes by train
Nor Cal
Joined June 2009
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I can’t fix everything but small wins like this make me feel so good. And it didn’t take weeks or months. Shout out to BART staff for being so responsive to my request.
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👀
@Kantrowitz
It was only a matter of time....but luckily he didn’t go into the track. We’re gonna try and send staff to recover and reunite the AirPod with
@cdkeil
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I’ve been riding BART 5+ days a week for 11 years because it is an important part of my job and because I hate driving. The left side of my face is made up of titanium plates from a car crash 20 yrs ago.
Here are my top BART safety tips as an insider.
Someone asked us to share safety tips. Here are 12 you may have never considered.
We’re doing our part by increasing safety staff patrols on trains, hiring more police officers, maintaining 4,000 security cameras, and our recent purchase of taller fare gates to be installed.
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This man right here is Fred Edwards. He is one of the most dedicated BART employees I have ever met. He is a high level manager (he has worked his way up) and he spent the entire day yesterday on the downtown SF platforms helping people get on the right train. We need more Freds.
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Do not use our logo for your poll.
Poll: Submit your vote for San Jose’s BART tunneling machine name contest
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I got my 10 year BART pin today!
I love it and I love BART.
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A BART employee today said BART should have its own flag.
I need to make this happen.
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BART critic: “They didn't cut back trains, it didn't cut back staff.”
Reality: We closed at 9pm and reduced service to every 30 minutes. Even now we are running shorter trains and reduced weekday frequency.
And the federal relief money required that no worker be laid off. 1/2
Once celebrated for its financial independence, BART is now facing a financial crisis. In large part because of just that, its dependence on riders.
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How are transit leaders suppose to know what their service is like during a major weather event without riding it?
I’m heading into headquarters and my train departed right on schedule. Now I’ll see if it arrives on time.
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Regional transit coordination in the Bay Area is happening!
The transit operators and
@MTCBATA
are working on a regional mapping and wayfinding project that will finally fix all the disjointed signage. We are lucky to be led by
@AppliedStudio
Today I got to build a bus stop!
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A former boss: “What are you doing on Twitter all day?”
Me: “Making BART better.”
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A permanent and sustainable source of transit investment is needed to stabilize funding for both BART and WMATA.
Transit is a public service that shouldn’t rely on unstable sources of money to operate.
NEW: Metro’s GM says for the first time that a regional tax should be discussed to permanently fund the transit agency. The comments come as Metro faces a massive $750 million budget shortfall. His full interview from
@nbcwashington
here:
#wmata
@wmataGM
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This project to unify transit maps and signs in the Bay Area shows our efforts to work together as one network.
It is a perfect example of improvements that can be made if funding is given to transit agencies for coordination.
We can’t wait to show you more.
We are excited to show you the beginnings of what will be a unified look to transit maps and signs in the Bay Area.
The Bay Area transit agencies are working with
@MTCBATA
on new designs with better information.
Language independent icons are prioritized before system logos.🧵
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BART ridership yesterday was 93k exits.
That is just shy of the top 10 ridership days for a Saturday post pandemic.
We’ve increased cleaning and patrols and now run all 5 lines seven days a week so there is less waiting. September will bring even better service on weekends.
Been taking
@SFBART
a lot lately and it’s been great. Clean station, clean trains, no mayhem. Even the Mission plazas have been better, though still a lot to be done there, esp at night.
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Today BART held an event to showcase our Merv 14 air filters and how transit is the best way to travel this holiday season (complete with BART holiday sweater).
Meanwhile, SF announced free parking.
Today, we invited local media to learn why BART is the best way to get around the Bay during holiday season and showed what we're doing to prevent spread of COVID-19.
Watch General Manager Bob Powers and Principle Vehicle Systems Engineer Charles Franz discuss what and why 👇
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I’ve been working very hard to change this at
@sfbart
.
We have been doing more events on trains and in stations. Examples: mobile board meetings, book club with train read ins, anime mascots with events, CEO Ridealong and happy hour, merch, and more!
Time and again, I’m reminded that public transit agencies are uniquely benefitted by having a large group of the population that just inherently like them (fans advocates etc) and they do not do enough to mobilize this force
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Big props to BART Communications for managing this film shoot.
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I love transit twitter because I get so many new ideas.
Someone I follow (I can’t remember who!) shared this Grand Paris Express poster. I really liked the use of month at a glance to show impacted dates over several months.
I used the idea for our upcoming weekend track work.
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Relief is on the way! The gates roll up at 11am today to reopen the Powell Street Station restrooms.
BART reopens bathroom shuttered for 20 years bringing much-needed rider relief
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I love the
@seattledot
wayfinding.
It is beautiful and really helpful.
It is also co-branded with the transit agencies.
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Thankful to be on a train, safely getting home to my family along with these fellow riders. The
@SFBART
trains are running!
Lots of riders still rely on and opt for BART. Imagine if BART wasn’t an option today.
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So sweet! I helped a girl traveling without an adult on my flight home.
On my way off the plane she stopped me and gave me this sketch.
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I commute by
@SFBART
. It helps me understand the rider experience and what needs fixing. I can also see what is working.
Social media listening helps me understand why people are not riding. Then I evaluate if there is a disconnect and if I can help through communication.
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Heading to the Richmond line to observe platforms and see if people take an Orange line train instead of waiting longer for a Red line train.
I also want to see how people are adjusting to 6 car trains. Tomorrow we will add cars for Dreamforce.
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Tell your job you want free transit with Clipper BayPass.
BART and MTC are recruiting employers for this exciting opportunity to offer all you can ride transit to employees.
We negotiate a flat rate with the employer and then you get free transit!
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We plan to add connections to BART’s digital monitors on our new fleet. Starting with heavy and light rail connections (
@Caltrain
@SFMTA_Muni
@VTA
@CapitolCorridor
) then expanding to bus connections.
Our printed maps in the legacy fleet showed rail connections.
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Bikes are now allowed on BART escalators! We are updating and signage and next week we will launch our full communication campaign including a great video showing specific safety tips for bringing bikes on escalators.
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One of my most favorite (and scary) parts of my job is owning the BART system map.
It is thrilling to work on it with the team.
In September, BART is making a big service change to provide better service on late nights and weekends, among other improvements.
A big service change means a new system map. And there are many changes we want to share with you! Take a look at the (nearly final) new BART map!
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Stop saying transit cuts are due to low ridership.
Transit is FORCED to cut service because it is woefully underfunded despite advocacy.
The messaging that cuts are made because people aren’t riding is detrimental to survival and dismisses essential workers.
#savetransit
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This piece says BART should scale back because of reduced demand due to remote work.
BART did scale back weekday service to pay for increased weekend +evening service to gain trips not related to a work commute.
30 min frequencies wasn’t going to attract trips.
Borenstein: Can Bay Area leaders meet the moment before it’s too late?
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Don’t drive in the rain, take BART!
Another uneventful ride on the yellow line. Airport riders, office workers and students. Love to see it.
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A frequent Bay Area transit rider wants to be a Station Agent but doesn’t have 4 yrs of customer service experience. But they know everything about our service.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if
@BayAreaClipper
offered a badge for expert riders that made candidates eligible for CX jobs.
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This coming week marks 8 years that I’ve worked at
@SFBART
. What a ride! We are now about to open our 49th and 50th stations.
The system has grown by 6 stations since I started. Equally important, the commitment to rebuild infrastructure and focus on our core with Measure RR
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Thank you
@sfbart
and
@APTA_info
for investing in me as a leader in transit.
The Leadership APTA Class of 2022 will not disappoint.
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Can’t help but notice on my train ride into BART HQs this morning that also riding in my car is a uniformed
@rideact
worker, a
@sfmta_muni
worker and a
@united
airlines worker.
Transportation workers getting it done.
Thanks for keep us all moving.
🚍🚉✈️
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I am so excited about this. Third party apps use line color but our customer information only displayed train destination.
Our new trains include line color and now we are expanding the use of line color so everything is consistent.
The legend of our new maps leads with color.
We’ve updated the platform signs to show the line color abbreviation!
The automated overhead announcements also call out the color of the line and destination.
With every train being a new train, we no longer need to note if it is a 2 door or 3 door train, freeing space up.
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Standby as I get digital ads ready.
JUST IN: Uber and Lyft say they may shut down California rides at 12:01 a.m. on Friday. If so, they plan to keep cars off the road until at least November, when voters weigh in on Proposition 22.
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Traffic is heavy.
BART is running.
Plenty of others on my train heading to work, school, and appointments.
Catch a train, read a book.
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I’m thrilled to be presenting to the BART Board of Directors today about some new communication initiatives I am working on this year. Big shout out to
@bsquikle
@seungylee14
@stargazermellu
for their help!
Check out the deck:
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To be clear, we were forced to end the mask mandate when the feds and state terminated their order. In response, our board will vote on a BART specific mandate. We can’t have a mandate without the board voting to creating the legal authority to implement one.
BART ditches mask requirement, but support grows for temporary mask mandate
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Fine if your position is BART should cut more, but say that. Don’t say nothing was done.
Also worth noting we brought back midnight service in response to the region reopening and intense pressure from the Bay Area Council.
2/2
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Clean train, lots of people.
Some groups of friends traveling together.
This is my ride.
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I’m hiring!
This is an influential role serving as lead for BART social media and content for .
Big shoes to fill as we have a well established comms strategy and I’m looking to take it to the next level.
🧵for more details.
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September is Transit Month.
@SFTRU
@seamlessbayarea
@TransitRidersEB
are organizing events. BART will be 50% off for our 50th bday.
I want to offer a special BART tour or prize.
Tell me what you want.
OCC tour is likely off the table because of COVID. But I’m open to ideas!
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BART and Caltrain Comms staff walked the station together and came up with these low cost and quick to implement posters to help the customer experience. This while we look for grant money to make more expensive improvements.
New, clear signs at Millbrae show directions and instructions for people transferring between BART and Caltrain! We have one regional rail system with different color trains.
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Memorable BART lines from this year:
-The line for BART Anime merch at Fanime
-The line at BART SweaterFest
-The line to ride the final legacy cars one last time
People love BART and if we offer them a way to celebrate it, they show up.
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I am out riding trains with our District Architect!
We are greeting riders and checking for things that need maintenance. We are riding Pleasant Hill to Antioch and back.
He is in charge of wayfinding so we are also looking at areas that need signage improvement.
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You all know I ride the train five days each week into BART headquarters (and lots with my family on the weekend too!).
But on Tuesdays, managers at BART put on our bright blue jackets and ride the train, walk the platforms and talk to riders and report problems.
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Transit Twitter,
If you are coming to BART’s 50th anniversary event and you see me, please tap me on the shoulder and introduce yourself.
I’ve met many of you while out and about but still stop me and say hello. Even if I look crazy busy.
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@sanbrunamo
We listed how we are doing our part. More work to do and we need regional solutions to the drug crisis and the violence that is occurring on streets and neighborhood.
BART is hands down the safest way to travel around the Bay Area.
Someone asked us to share safety tips. Here are 12 you may have never considered.
We’re doing our part by increasing safety staff patrols on trains, hiring more police officers, maintaining 4,000 security cameras, and our recent purchase of taller fare gates to be installed.
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We will be sizing trains for safety and savings. Trains will be cleaner.
There is no reason to have empty
@SFBART
cars that make people feel unsafe. Active spaces are safer spaces.
We’ll monitor crowding data hourly and will add cars immediately if it is needed.🧵
SCOOP:
@SFBART
will operate shorter trains using solely its new Fleet of the Future trains cars when it switches to 20-minute frequencies on weekdays/weekends starting Sept. 11
The days of older legacy fleet trains are numbered.
Details: via
@sfchronicle
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This is a pro-transit administration!
@SecretaryPete
took
@wmata
silver line to the
@APTA_info
conference this morning.
The way people move around is changing. We need to be flexible and innovative. We need to make data informed decisions to meet people’s needs.
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I wasn’t kidding when I said I was rolling out new strategies for youth engagement.
The BART (yes, the public transportation BART) is doing a call for artists to create anime style art to promote public transit. It's paid work!
Super cool to see
@stargazermellu
modernize youth engagement programs for the BART - weebs are in 👉🚪
Link:
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That comment from
@jeffreytumlin
really hit me. Government work should be and can be the most rewarding experience because it feels so good to help others and improve systems so many rely on. It pains me to know we are losing talent because of a cruel culture. Let’s do better.
“I’ve lost some extremely talented women of color from the SFMTA in part because of the cruel culture in city government that goes overlooked.”
Strong
@hknightsf
reporting crafts an airtight indictment on the culture and fallout of bullying in City Hall.
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What a day. My heart is full.
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Spotted our new
@SFBART
map in the system! That was so fast. The maps on the trains will take longer but we are swapping them all out.
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It was important to put this statement in writing in a board presentation. It isn’t just about developing a new service plan it is about completely shifting our purpose.
Work from home isn't going away, so it was refreshing to see what I've been saying for many months written in a BART presentation:
"BART must evolve from a commute-driven service to one that spreads high-quality service across all 7-days of the week."
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Transit tweets are best tweets.
lol. lmao. I’m on the front page of the Chronicle for My Good Twetes
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It’s official! I was nominated by
@SFBART
and selected to participate in the Leadership APTA program. I’ve been at BART 9 years and have not been shy about advocating for myself and riders and fighting for change to improve transit. I am honored and thankful to be supported.
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Our new maps and station information posters are now up in the side by side cases!
The new posters offer helpful service information, QR codes to real time info, platform details and contact info.
They also list our Not One More Girl website!
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A
@nytimes
reporter reached out to me today with several questions.
It took everything in me to not bring up bagels in my response back.
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It’s time to say goodbye to hygiene theatre and instead focus on clean (grime, trash, and yuck free) seats, trains + bathrooms.
Also:
✔️more BART staff on trains + platforms keeping an eye out and responding to concerns
✔️increasing service
That’s what
@SFBART
will focus on.
"Hygiene theater" is hard to quit: Many Bay Area transit systems are sticking with extra sanitization, even though the CDC says the risk of catching COVID from surfaces is low, as they try to regain public trust
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How cute is my Mom!?
She is at the
#SanLeandroCherryFest
and visited the
@SFBART
booth. She sent me this photo with our new anime mascot.
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We are on a wayfinding field trip!
Our first stop was MacArthur….because it needs help. More to come on what we are working on.
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Elizabeth Deakin, professor emerita of city and regional planning and urban design at UC Berkeley says public transit operators need to:
Increase off peak service ✔️
Improve access ✔️
Coordinate w/ feeder services ✔️
Support TOD ✔️
This is literally our board workshop agenda 🙂
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I love my
@SFBART
train operator Malcom:
“you may have noticed we are running at reduced speed right now because of the rain. It’s for safety.. but you all made the right choice this morning taking the train and avoiding all the traffic. Happy Friday!”
❤️🌧🚆
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Great article!
@SFBART
is working to be more family friendly:
-elevator attendants added to ensure elevators are safe + clean
-reopened restrooms w/ attendants (though no diaper changing tables- which made me livid)
-flexible spaces on trains
-Not One More Girl initiative
“Many transit systems in the U.S. are run mostly by men. These agencies are slow to make changes to ensure women and families feel welcome on public transit, whether through policy, service or seating layout adjustments.” 👩🏾🦱🚍👵🏻
@h_pan3
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We are cutting the ribbon tomorrow (Saturday) at 11am at 19th St. Station to celebrate the completion of the station modernization.
Several of the folks I chat with here frequent the station. Come by and join us.
I’ve declared it the brightest station in the system!
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No one should pay extra just to switch agencies!
In that spirit, we are working on a policy where if you transfer to any local bus using Clipper, you will get a free transfer.
Or if you transfer onto BART you will get a discount roughly equal to the cost of a local bus trip.
Bay Area commuters could soon be getting something they've long been asking for: free or low-cost transfers between transit agencies.
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Notes. I take lots of notes on ideas and areas of improvements for
@SFBART
.
It is so important that we spend hours and hours in the system.
I always come back with a meaningful to-do list…not to mention respect for frontline workers.
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You know you put out good content when the replies and QTs are transit riders from across the world tagging the system they use.
We love big bikes and cannot lie. With Bike to Wherever Day this Friday, we have some bike news we can't deny.
BART has seen increasing number of cargo bikes and e-bikes in the system. Bicyclists have been playing a key part of our ridership recovery.
Here's a bike-friendly 🧵
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I spoke at
@Dreamforce
today about the importance of customer engagement and building trust.
And because sustainable development is a major theme of the conference this year, I was able to share BART’s ambitious clean energy and affordability housing near transit goals.
#DF19
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@sanpabloavenue
I didn’t forget about you today. A special gift is being sent.
We missed you dearly.
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Yep, we did it.
We put Oakland on the map.
For this update, we wanted to make clear Oakland is the heart of the Bay Area (and ours).
So we added "OAKLAND” to join “PENINSULA,” “SAN FRANCISCO,” “SAN JOSE,” and “EAST BAY" as major geographic markers for first time.
It was due time to pay Oakland its well-earned respect
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Took the family to SF today for a fun transit tour.
@SFBART
to Powell where we hopped on a
@sfmta_muni
shuttle to the cable car, ferry ride and then street car back to BART.
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At the new home of the Fleet of the Future factory in Pittsburg California. An assembly line with local workers will be up and running in September. The work currently takes place in New York. Now Bay Area workers will build cars for the Bay Area.
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Bravo! All transit agency should have a separate account dedicated to service alerts. It’s a win for the riders looking to cut through clutter for important service information and it is a win for the agency who can more effectively deliver news and branded content.
(Thread) Welcome to Caltrain Alerts! This account was created during the peak of the pandemic to separate notifications from our feed
@Caltrain
. Here you’ll find train notifications including delays, single tracking, emergencies, etc.
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Transit CEOs and the MTC are working on some important transit fare coordination projects.
One upcoming change- all agencies that take Clipper have agreed to offer 50% off for low income riders through the Clipper START program. BART is currently 20%.
The ability to pay for BART simply by tapping a credit or debit card is in the works.
The next generation of Clipper will be rolled out in 2024 and includes “open payment” and transfer discounts.
This also includes Google and Apple Pay without needing a digital Clipper card.
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More bike stairway channels are coming to 8
@SFBART
stations this year!
In the Bay Area, transit is built with bicycle connectivity in mind. The subway entrances have ramps for bikes, the stations all have secure bike parking, the busses have racks….
What can New York learn from this? Cc
#bikenyc
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Couldn’t be happier to be standing on my BART ride in. I gave up my seat to a young family with a toddler.
It’s great to see so many people back on trains. The diversity of our riders fills me with joy.
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We’ve been knocking down barriers at
@SFBART
as well. Our GM, AGM Operations, AGM Performance and Budget, AGM External Affairs, Emergency Manager, Manager of Security Programs, Chief Transit Systems Development Officer, Chief Engineering Officer (to name a few) are all women.
Women now hold three of the top leadership positions at Metrorail in DC, an encouraging development in an industry that still has to knock down barriers to employment and advancement for women.
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Taking
@sfbart
to
@clubfugazisf
for “Sunday’s a Drag” brunch with my daughter and mom.
Quick ride from West Oakland to Montgomery! No need to drive into the city on this busy Sunday.
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So many new trains! We typically have 54-56 trains in service. 29 are new trains.
Our current fleet make up (A-C are legacy and D&E are new):
A=56
B=341
C1=60
C2=0 (good riddance!)
D= 151
E=229
These numbers change frequently as we accept more new cars and recycle old ones.
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@bryanculbertson
@SFBART
👋Bryan, I have asked for several changes to the design that will address these issues.
I don’t yet have a timeline from that team on when they will go live but these monitors can be customized and changed.
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Second morning in a row I had a unarmed community service officer walking the length of the train I was on greeting people and saying good morning and checking for proper mask wearing. Increased staff presence is an important part of welcoming riders back.
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Excited to be back in Washington DC for Leadership APTA and to attend the
@APTA_info
Legislative Conference.
Looking forward to hearing from
@PeteButtigieg
tomorrow morning. Then on Tuesday, I’ll be speaking about communicating infrastructure successes.
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Updating
@SFBART
‘s daily ridership stats while on my
@CapitolCorridor
ride to Sacramento for the
@CalTransit
conference!
This is way better than driving I-80!
I’ll be speaking at a session about rebuilding trust to bring back riders.
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Our commitment to cleaning (and safety) has never been more important. Riders are returning and we need clean trains to keep them coming back.
And yes, I tweeted about ISO certification.
BART recently doubled the frequency of deep cleaning the inside of train cars because a clean ride is very important.
We are also ISO 9001-2015 certified and have surprise audits to make sure the cars are in tip-top shape after a thorough clean.
A big shout out to these crews!
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I just got the best call from
@RobbTrost
! Our daughter Tessa was voted class president of her elementary school. She ran on a platform of selecting new leadership, finding solutions to make kick ball more fair and less dividing during recess, and addressing long lunch lines.
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