BART to hold budget telephone townhall on Thursday night, May 7th
East County residents are asked to participate and give their input
BART officials will hold the first ever telephone town hall meeting and webcast on Thursday, May 7, 2015 from 6:30 pm-7:30 pm to offer the public the opportunity to ask questions about BART’s budget which is currently being developed for adoption before July 2015.
BART’s proposed Fiscal Year 2016 Budget prioritizes efforts to increase passenger capacity, improve on-time performance and station cleanliness, and to address concerns raised by customers in the latest customer satisfaction survey.
BART officials will take questions from participants who call in live. There is also an online webcast feature that allows you to submit a question in writing during the event and watch along live from a computer. You can also simply listen in if you would rather not ask a question.
The telephone town hall will include a few quick polls to gauge the public’s priorities and an overview of the planned January 1, 2016, 3.4% inflation based fare increase to help fund new train cars, a new train control system, and a new maintenance facility.
“BART will still hold its official public meeting on the budget at the May 28th Board of Directors meeting at 5pm, but this is an opportunity for our riders to easily reach out to us with questions about the budget,” said BART Spokeswoman Alicia Trost. “Earlier this year we held a Twitter Townhall and it proved to be a great medium to quickly provide answers to some of our most frequently asked questions. A telephone townhall is another way to provide easy and convenient access to BART staff.”
BART has a combined operating and capital budget of almost $1.6 billion. The operating budget pays for things like running the trains, buying electricity and making routine repairs. The capital budget goes towards things like buying new rail cars, replacing escalators and earthquake safety retrofits.
Here’s what you need to know to participate:
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Sign up in advance to get an invitation to join (we will ask for your name, phone number and zip code).
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We will call the phone number you provide on May 7th at 6:30pm. Just answer our call to be automatically connected to the live Telephone Town Hall Meeting.
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A Spanish Simulcast is also available by dialing 888-400-9342 at 6:30pm on May 7th.
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If you would rather call into the townhall yourself without signing up in advance you can call 855-269-4484 at 6:30pm on May 7th.
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Finally, you can join our webcast to watch the event at 6:30pm on May 7th.
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Want more details about what is proposed in the budget before the event? Check out this article.