California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : $500 Million Sought for BART Repairs

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system will need $500 million in long-overdue rehabilitation work if the system is going to stay on track, General Manager Frank Wilson said. “My favorite expression here is that BART’s people think the rapid transit system is eternally young,” Wilson said. “That is not true.” The 18-year-old system will start to look like the New York and Philadelphia systems unless BART can raise $500 million over 15 years and completely change its management approach, he said. BART is plagued by electrical breakdowns, lack of parts for fare collection machines, and obsolete emergency radios and loudspeakers, Wilson said.