BART aims to improve rider experience at Civic Center Station with Safe and Clean plan

In a recent Passenger Experience Survey (PES), the Bay Area Rapid Transit's (BART) efforts to improve rider experience through an increased commitment to safety and cleanliness appears to be making a difference at the Civic Center/UN Plaza Station, as well as a jump in the percent of respondents who say they feel positively about station cleanliness and safety. 

Among the findings:

• Satisfaction with the overall BART experience for riders who boarded BART at Civic Center Station increased nine points from 68 percent to 77 percent in the latest quarter (October through December 2023) compared with the previous quarter (July through September 2023).
• Satisfaction with rider safety at Civic Center Station surged by 20 points from the previous quarter from 32 percent to 52 percent.
• Ratings of concourse cleanliness shot up 18 points from 32 percent to 50 percent.
• Ratings of platform cleanliness increased by 17 points from 31 percent to 48 percent.

The improvements at Civic Center come as part of BART's Safe and Clean plan, which focuses on boosting the BART Police Department’s visible safety presence and increasing station cleaning crews by nearly two thirds.

“Civic Center has been a challenging station but that hasn’t stopped us from tackling a difficult situation and bringing stakeholders along with us,” said BART Board of Directors President Bevan Dufty. “The investments being made at Civic Center make it clear that BART cares that people of all walks of life should be able to access a safe, clean and reliable system.”

“Maintaining a consistent safety presence has been critical to improving the overall rider experience at Civic Center Station,” said BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin. “Our presence involves traditional sworn officers, as well as unarmed Crisis Intervention Specialists and Transit Ambassadors. Not only are we deterring bad behavior, but we have a Tier 1 emergency response time of about four minutes, which is among the fastest for any Bay Area law enforcement agency.”

Cleaning crews are now stationed at Civic Center during all BART operating hours, on top of regular overnight power cleaning shifts. Every day, BART says there are two to three cleaners devoted specifically to the station.

BART has successfully boosted its cleaning staff but still has about 14 openings, which represents a vacancy rate of nearly eight percent. BART is drawing from a list of qualified candidates to fill those positions. 

More improvements are on the way for Civic Center. The station will be one of the next eight in line to receive Next Generation Fare Gates once field testing of prototype units at West Oakland Station is complete. The Market Street Escalators Renovation Program is replacing 41 escalators at BART’s four downtown San Francisco stations, including a new platform escalator.

Within the last year, BART reopened the Station Agent Booth at the UN Plaza entrance of the station which had been closed for more than a decade.