April 27--BART may test out later Friday night train service to serve people out for a night on the town or working late at night.
There's a catch though. To test later Friday service, the train system would need to begin service an hour later at 7 a.m. Saturday mornings so crews have enough time for maintenance when the system is closed, officials say.
BART administrators on Thursday morning will brief the transit board on a proposed six-month demonstration project to stay open on Fridays an hour past the usual midnight closing time. The trial period could begin in the fall.
"Many of our riders are telling us they want later weekend service," said BART Board President Bob Franklin of Oakland. "I think we need to look into it, but there are many things we need to consider."
Franklin said the interests of early morning weekend riders need to be considered along with those late night riders.
While BART may gain 2,600 extra riders because of the extra hour at night, it could lose 2,925 riders because of the hour later service on Saturday morning, according to a report to the BART board.
Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267. Read the Capricious Commuter at www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/. Follow him at Twitter.com/deniscuff.
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