Your BART story: Transit agency solicits literary works to boost ridership

By Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

In an attempt to regain attention after a pandemic ridership drop, BART is willing to try anything — including commissioning new literary works.

The transit agency has started soliciting entries for a short fiction contest, the finalists of which will available via story dispensers on BART platforms to be printed and read during a train ride home.

"(People) don't think about BART and art. We're trying to change that," said BART Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost. "So many transit systems across the world have beautiful art, and we're trying to find ways we can afford right now to bring art in the stations. This is a very inexpensive way to do that."

The new "BART Lines" program is looking for very short stories — 7,500 characters or less — on the theme of "motion." Entrants must live in the five counties where BART operates. Local literary titans including Daniel Handler, Annalee Newitz and Ishmael Reed will select 30 finalists, who will receive $200, with their work available for printout in the system's four short story dispensers in the Balboa Park (San Francisco), Richmond, Pleasant Hill and Fruitvale stations.

At the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020, BART dropped to just 7% of its year-over-year ridership. Despite strong gains in early 2022, the transit agency is still below its pre-pandemic numbers and looking for ways to re-introduce riders to the system.

The agency has a long history of creative ideas to boost ridership, including installing a video game arcade on the Powell Street platform for a few weeks in the 1970s.

Trost said the short story dispenser idea came before the March 2020 shelter-in-place, when there was a spike in cell phone thefts in the system. The stories are printed out in single long strips that look like a large receipt. Since BART launched the program in March 2021, more than 16,300 stories have been printed. (Richmond station riders used the dispensers the most.)

BART works with Short Édition, a French company that builds the podium-shaped dispensers, which are already installed and dispensing mostly non-local content. The program is a sensation in Paris and other parts of Europe. Trost said the agency can tailor its content, such as LGBTQ+ content for San Francisco Pride week.

More subliminally, BART officials want to remind people that the transit system has utility beyond the weekday commute, and can be used to travel to art events, hikes and fun neighborhoods.

"We're trying to get people to think about BART as so much more than taking a train to work," Trost said.

The contest is part of BART's 50th anniversary, which arrives in September. Entries will be accepted through the month of June, but the submissions page will close after 400 entries are received. Entrants must be 18 and older, with a youth short fiction contest planned for next year.

BART officials are planning a transit platform reading as part of the Litquake literary festival in October. More information is available on the BART news site.

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle culture critic. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @PeterHartlaub

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