BART Mulls Over New Revenue Proposals
A proposal to step up advertising revenue by using a variety of methods on trains, in stations and right-of-ways on BART property met with mixed reviews at the transit system's board meeting Thursday morning, as the system looks for ways to ease a projected budget deficit next year.
The ideas included selling station names, wrapping cars in advertising, putting up billboards on the right-of-way, and installing video screens in stations to show ads between announcements. Some of the directors liked some of the proposals, with one disliking them all, saying that BART was diluting its own brand.
KCBS Bob Melrose Reporting:
BART Director James Fang, who asked the staff to look at possibilities for more ad revenue, says the district has to think outside the box.
"Obviously, revenue that we can generate from additional sources will go towards not laying off people, and making the stations even cleaner," said Fang. "Those are always core issues that we're looking for, and we have to make sacrifices sometimes."
Selling the name of a station would require a change in policy, but the directors did vote to add the name Contra Costa Center after the Pleasant Hill Station's name.
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