BART Customer Satisfaction Hits an All-Time Low

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA -- Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) directors on Thursday are scheduled to discuss a survey that shows that customer satisfaction has plummeted to an all-time low of only 56 percent.

That level is well below the 86 percent satisfaction level in 2004, the highest mark in the past 22 years, and 13 percent lower than the 69 percent level in 2016.

Only 73 percent of customers who were questioned in the survey said they would recommend BART to a friend or an out-of-town guest and only 54 percent said BART is a good value for the money.

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost on Tuesday attributed the results to quality of life issues that she said are partly out of the transit district's control and are "pushed into our system," such as homelessness and people with mental health problems.

Trost said the survey shows that "riders don't feel comfortable and safe."

She also noted that the survey was conducted in September and October of last year, shortly after widespread publicity about three homicides on the BART system in a five-day period last July, including the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Nia Wilson at the MacArthur station in Oakland
on July 22, 2018.

Trost said BART riders did show appreciation for improvements in some areas, such as on-time performance, reduced noise levels on trains, longer hours of operation, the availability of standing rooms on cars and more reliable fare machines.

Trost said BART has invested a significant amount of money in bringing in new train cars and making other improvements and she believes those will result in better customer survey results in the future.

BART directors will discuss the customer satisfaction survey, quality of life issues, including cleanliness and fare evasion, the pathway to world class transit, the transit system's financial outlook and other issues at a public workshop meeting Thursday at the Ferry Building in San
Francisco.

BART connects San Francisco and Oakland with urban and suburban areas in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Mateo counties. It serves 48 stations along six routes on 112 miles of rapid transit lines.

Bay City News contributed to this report/Image via Shutterstock