Local Briefs

On Tuesday, just a day before a major earthquake near Japan prompted tsunami alerts as far distant as the shores of Northern California, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of the county’s first public emergency alert system.

Though the tsunami advisory was later dropped and waves reaching California caused extensive damage only far north in Crescent City, San Mateo County’s emergency alert system is designed to be used for just such an event, Supervisor Rich Gordon said.

The system will have two components. The first part will be an automated telephone service that during an emergency such as a natural disaster, a hazardous-materials spill, or even a neighborhood burglary, Quinlan said, will call residents' homes throughout the county or in the area of a local emergency to warn them.

The second part of the system will feature six large, pole-mounted speakers, stationed on the Coastside area of the county, which can deliver either a voice message or a siren noise. The latter, which are likely to be placed in the Pacifica’s Linda Mar neighborhood, Half Moon Bay and El Granada areas, Quinlan said, are envisioned primarily as a tsunami warning system.

BART ridership up

Weekday ridership in the three-month period from July through September was up 5.5 percent over the same period last year, BART officials said yesterday.

BART had an average weekday ridership of 338,897 during its fiscal first quarter, an increase of more than 17,000 riders from the 321,360 average at the same time last year.

The average weekday ridership was an increase of 9,528 riders, or nearly 3 percent, over the 329,369 average in the previous quarter, which was April through June.

Weekday ridership to the San Francisco International Airport increased by 1.9 percent over the same period last year.

Average Saturday ridership increased by 4.5 percent and average Sunday ridership jumped 6 percent. BART spokesman Linton Johnson said the transit agency had expected a ridership increase this year, but the latest total ridership figures are still 1.8 percent over what had been projected.

In a financial report to board members, BART General Manager Thomas Margro said the increased ridership boosted revenues, as net passenger revenue was $2.3 million over budget for the quarter.