BART short $53 million

Deputy General Manager for Operations Paul Oversier said BART staff is proposing shorter trains during commute hours, which means more passengers would need to stand. Shorter trains would result in reduced energy and maintenance costs, he said.

And because of personnel cutbacks, trains and stations would be slightly dirtier than usual.

On the positive side, Oversier said the 24 least reliable BART cars would be removed from service, resulting in improved service reliability. There also would be an improved train schedule, he said.

Although BART staff is proposing some cuts, deeper personnel and service cuts would be counterproductive, Oversier said.

Further cuts would result in "a more pronounced degradation of the customer experience and corresponding decline in customer satisfaction," he said.

BART staff are proposing to cut 115 jobs and raise fares in order to reduce the budget deficit from $53 million to about $30 million.

But board President Joel Keller said it will be difficult to reduce the deficit any further than that.

"I don't know how to get from $30 million to zero," he said. "I'm baffled."

One area BART can't look for additional revenue is its ridership, as its ridership has declined in the last three years.

In a memo to BART directors, General Manager Thomas Margro said average weekday ridership is nearly 3 percent less this year than had been budgeted for and passenger revenue in the three months from January through

March was off by 6.5 percent.

Keller said, "We still have a huge way to go to make this district whole" and said BART's budget woes are the worst he's seen in the 10 years he's been on the board.

BART's management and labor unions face a June 30 deadline for trying to reach a new four-year labor agreement.

BART needs to rein in growing medical and pension benefit costs, citing the collapse of United Airlines' pension plan as an example, Keller said yesterday.

"I never want to see that happen at BART," he said.

Keller warned, "If we don't do anything, BART could be linked with Enron and United" in terms of letting employee retirement plans fail.

He said, "We could kick this can down the road for a few years so we could deal with it later, but it's a ticking time bomb, not a can, and it will explode in our faces."

But Alan Derman, vice president of Amalgamaged Transit Local 1555, which represents BART train operators, station agents and clerks, said, "The ticking time bomb is safety," alleging that budget and personnel cuts the

last three years have made the transit system less safe.

Derman said, "BART is not like Enron and United" because it has $115 million in reserves.

Derman said the issues with BART's pension and health care costs aren't as bad as management claims and can be resolved at the bargaining table.

The BART board is scheduled to adopt a budget for fiscal 2006 in June.