BART FY12 improvements to include cleaner seats, noise abatement

Cleaner seats, quieter trains and more reliable escalators are some of the benefits in store for Bay Area Rapid Transit riders in the proposed Fiscal Year 2012 budget, which the Board of Directors will consider Thursday, June 9. The Board will vote on the 2012 budget resolution, a step in the legal process toward making the budget official. The total proposed FY12 budget (operating and capital) is $1.36 billion. The new budget gives BART "an opportunity to fund core system capital infrastructure needs and key service attributes that were negatively impacted during the recession," a staff memo on the budget explained. A large portion of the budget, $24.2 million, is being put on hold until BART knows the outcome of State Transit Assistance funding. The amount of STA funding won't be known until the state budget is final. Regardless of STA funding, $10.9 million of the highest-priority initiatives have been identified to proceed: those include, elevator rehabilitation, seat replacement, Title VI compliance, an attendance management program, elevator/escalator maintenance, rail noise abatement and Business Advancement Program transition support. "The economic outlook for FY12 remains somewhat cautious, with moderate growth of approximately two percent over FY11 estimates for both ridership and sales tax," the staff budget memo stated.