BART to hold telephone town hall meeting about plans for improvements in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO -- A telephone town hall meeting is scheduled Thursday for San Franciscan's who want to learn, comment and ask questions about BART's plans for improvements in the city, BART officials said.

The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at (877) 353-4701. Residents who speak Chinese can participate at (855) 312-2107.

Residents will hear from BART'S general manager Grace Crunican and the board of directors as well as BART riders about why reinvesting in BART is so important.

The meetings come before voters decide in November whether to approve a $3.5 billion bond measure that would give BART officials money to rebuild BART infrastructure that is more than 40 years old.

BART is holding a similar meeting for Contra Costa County residents in October and already held one last month for Alameda County residents.

Some of the improvements that may be made consist of covering escalators with canopies such as the one at the 19th Street station in Oakland, adding high-speed escalators and elevators and installing platform doors that would prevent people from jumping onto the tracks.

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said priorities for BART officials are safety and capacity improvements.

Ridership in many areas is already at capacity.

Residents can register for the meeting at https://tthm.wufoo.com/forms/better-bart-teletownhall-signup. To see the live webcast go to http://cast.teletownhall.us/web-client/?idBART.