WingsLOG March 4, 2020

The new BART trains in the San Francisco Bay Area which has been out for just over two years now are finally starting to make its way through the entire BART system.  Half of the time I get the new BART trains in my route now.  What are your thoughts on these new BART trains?  Anyone else like me say it’s a no go!?  There seems to be fewer seats and probably half the seats that are still there are side facing.  Aside from some of us having lower tolerance for motion sickness when sitting sideways, I hate sitting on a seat where you have to look directly at passengers across from you especially if there are no standing passengers between you and those passengers.  You can look away for awhile, close your eyes like you’re resting your eyes, or just glue your eyes to the same email on your phone for the entire 30+ minutes ride like you’re doing something but are really just making it look like you’re doing something to avoid the awkward eye to eye – but sooner or later, you will come to that awkward direct eye to eye stare with a stranger!  But the seats facing straight or backwards with the direction of travel that butts up against a side facing seat is even worse.  Your front/backward facing seat is crammed right up against that side seat, very uncomfortable and you can’t avoid looking directly at that side facing seat passenger, you’re pretty much in that person’s face!  Violation of personal space!  Awkward!  And then there is that extra entrance making 3 entrances on each side of a train.  Probably makes getting into and out of trains a bit easier, but also makes that entrance area a lot more crowded since more people are now able to stand at the entrances!  That extra entrance also takes away valuable commuter seats from passengers who are tired at the end of a long work day…..240+/- work days a year!  And when you are waiting at the platform on a 2-lines per train format and you specifically stand on one of those two lines because you prefer either a front facing or back facing seat, but a 3-entrance train comes along, your whole strategy is screwed! And then there’s that stupid post right at the center of the entrances where passengers are suppose to hold onto because there are so many passengers that can stand at the entrance areas now.  But that post also makes the entrance more crowded regardless of whether there are passengers there or not!  And finally for now, but probably not the end of this list, those bars at the top and running through the train where passengers can hold onto while they stand are now about a 6 inches higher, just enough for me to not be able to grasp it comfortably for a prolong period of time.  I know there are those loosely held fiber handles throughout to hold onto, but the problem is they are loose and doesn’t give true counter-support when you need it.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the fact these trains are new and clean, and the seats look like they can be washed easier so they will theoretically be cleaner and less prone to foreign objects.  But get real, BART!  As a passenger who’s used BART for about 15 years now, we need more front and back facing seats like we had in the old trains to make the sardine can ride just a tad more bearable.

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