BART board signs off on train-patrolling ambassadors. Here’s when you could start seeing them

OAKLAND — BART riders will start seeing new uniformed “ambassadors” aboard late-night trains next month after the agency’s board approved a six-month trial run meant to reassure passengers anxious about the system’s safety after dark.

The unanimous vote Thursday to approve the new program — in which pairs of unarmed ambassadors will patrol some trains from 2 p.m. until midnight each night — came after nearly two years of debate within BART over how to improve the rider experience during night-time trips.

Riders have complained that riding trains at night can be harrowing. Many have said they feel more vulnerable to crime or just uncomfortable once the evening rush hour’s crowds die down. BART’s ridership on nights and weekends has been slipping, with some riders saying they try to avoid the system after hours if they can.

“It gets lonely sometimes on those trains at night,” said BART Director Lateefah Simon, who has long pushed for the ambassador program. “We need more folks committed to a holistic and equitable safety vision.”

Under the $690,000 pilot program that begins Feb. 10, the ambassadors would ride trains for 10 hours each day.

During the evening commute, from 2 to 7 p.m., teams would patrol along the suburban stretches of two BART lines, with some riding back and forth from Walnut Creek to Pittsburg/Bay Point and others from Oakland’s Coliseum station to Union City.

Then, from 7 p.m. until the system winds down at midnight, the teams would switch to the core of the BART system in downtown San Francisco and Oakland, circulating between the Civic Center and 12th Street stations.

The 10 new ambassadors would be there to respond to riders’ complaints, answer their questions and report hazards that need cleaning, such as blood, urine, feces and other fluids on trains. They would receive BART police training in how to de-escalate confrontations and to recognize unconscious racial bias.

Unlike police officers, though, the ambassadors would not have the authority to issue citations or make arrests if they witness a crime or violation of BART’s rules. They would instead be expected to call in the problem on their police radios, leaving any arrests or citations to BART police officers.

The goal of the program is to provide an official presence patrolling trains at hours when it can often seem like anything goes and passengers are on their own. But the BART board’s more progressive members did not want to go so far as to use traditional BART police officers for the role, concerned that such a presence could lead to more heavy-handed tactics.

Earlier iterations of the ambassadors proposal called for staffing the program with workers from local community-based organizations, but the union representing BART police officers opposed that idea.

In a compromise that appears to have sealed the program’s approval, the ambassadors will instead be community service officers from the BART Police Department, meaning they receive background checks and training from the department.

“That absolved all reservations I had associated with this,” Director John McPartland said.

The ambassadors program was one of two items in a $1.5 million package the board approved to address quality of life complaints. The other is an $810,000 plan to build a new fare gate around the elevator at the Coliseum station, using a prototype of the new swinging fare gate design directors approved last year. The agency hopes to eventually use those gates throughout the system.