BART could start later and do away with timed transfers, if some officials at the transit agency have their way.
Changes in safety instituted after the fatal on-track accident last fall that claimed the lives of two workers might mean that BART will have to start service later than 4 a.m., officials said Thursday.
Add that to concerns over timed transfers -- the shuffle of passengers from one train to another across a crowded platform -- and BART service could change drastically sometime over the next few years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
No major changes are expected until 2017, when the agency's new collection of rail cars are scheduled to go into service.
However, agency brass said that the new safety rules -- BART trains are restricted when workers are on the tracks -- means that even more work could be shoved into the "three hours or so" a day when trains aren't running, the newspaper reported. That could require a later start-time, rather than 24-hour a day service like some people request.
Other BART directors have called for an end to the timed transfers like the ones at MacArthur station, calling the crowd of passengers on the platform "unsafe."
