BART transit strike in San Francisco challenges commuters

Talks between BART management and two of its unions broke down Sunday night, causing the 104-mile system to grind to a halt and leaving 400,000 weekday riders scrambling.

More buses were added around the region, more ferries scooted across the bay, more casual carpoolers opened their vehicle doors to strangers and more telecommuters worked from home. But traffic reports still described the Bay Bridge as “worse than a parking lot” during the morning commute.

To Fernando Leal, who does electronics work for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the strike was an eye-opener about how badly coordinated the region’s transit system is. The 61-year-old usually takes BART from Oakland to San Francisco, but on Monday he was searching for a bus instead.

“I can’t get a bus at the [Rockridge] BART station,” he said, speaking as a frustrated commuter who had to get up an hour earlier and pay a dollar more. “I have to get a bus somewhere else and find a place to park my car … and then walk to MUNI. We’re very dependent on BART.”

At a news conference Monday afternoon, Gov. Jerry Brown declined to elaborate on the brief written statement by his spokesman the night before as talks between the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and BART management broke down.

“BART and its labor unions owe the public a swift resolution of their differences,” spokesman Evan Westrup had said. “All parties should be at the table doing their best to find common ground.”

But areas of agreement were in short supply as union members and management blamed each other for the strike, the difficulties endured by Bay Area commuters and lack of a timetable for negotiations to resume.

The biggest sticking point is money. The unions initially had asked for a 5% raise per year for three years, with inflation protection. BART’s most recent counteroffer, proposed Saturday, was for 2% in raises each year over the four years of the contract.

“We are sorry people’s lives have been disrupted by the union strike,” BART spokesman Rick Rice said after the snarled morning commute. “This strike is not necessary, and we call on union leaders to end it and join us at the table so the Bay Area can get moving again.”

Antonette Bryant, president of ATU 1555, which represents train operators and station agents, said: “Our members aren’t interested in disrupting the Bay Area, but management has put us in a position where we have no choice.”

Beyond the inconvenience felt by commuters — according to census data, San Francisco’s population swells by 21% each weekday — the strike’s overall effect on the region was unclear. Much depends on how long the work stoppage lasts.

Bob Linscheid, president and chief executive of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, met with Mayor Edwin Lee and other business leaders Monday. The strike, Linscheid said, is “a disruption beyond what anybody imagined.”

The Bay Area Council, a public policy organization that advocates for business in the nine-county region, estimated the economic cost of the strike at $73 million each day in lost worker productivity. That figure does not include the cost of consumers staying away, workers not buying lunches or other effects.

But John Goodwin, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said that although Monday was certainly “a tough day … it could have been much worse.”

The Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District also had been poised to go out on strike at midnight after a contract with bus operators and mechanics expired. Instead, the agency added more buses to help carry Bay Area commuters to work.

Spokesman Clarence Johnson said he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a strike Tuesday, but he added that “there has been some progress reported, so that’s an encouraging sign.”

BART also found 58 buses and offered free round-trip, chartered rides to an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 passengers, depending upon traffic. Those buses left Monday morning from stations in El Cerrito, Walnut Creek, Dublin/Pleasanton and Fremont.

The San Francisco Bay Ferry increased its fleet to 11 vessels from the usual eight and added runs — more than tripling its normal passenger load for the morning commute. In many areas there were anecdotal reports that more casual carpoolers were offering lifts than there were takers.

Still, Goodwin said, such backstops do not even begin to make up for the lost BART trains.

“Extra buses and ferries together might contribute at most one-quarter of the lost capacity,” Goodwin said. “Where will the rest of that capacity come from? Empty seats in people’s cars? … I’m not surprised there was a supply-demand imbalance at casual carpool locations. I am surprised, though, that there was more supply than demand.”

Under the system, drivers with room in their cars show up at designated locations in the East Bay each workday morning and take on enough riders to travel more quickly to San Francisco in the carpool lanes. The process reverses in the evening. Contributions for gas and bridge tolls can be part of the informal equation.

The parking lot near Oakland’s Lake Merritt, one of the East Bay’s casual carpool hubs, saw just a small uptick in interest Monday morning.

Bernard Ayanruoh, 59, arrived in a crisp gray suit to wait for riders. Although he was expecting a mob, he said, he had to wait for takers. Once he found two passengers and could qualify for the carpool lane across the busy Bay Bridge, he figured the drive would take about an hour and 15 minutes.

“I’m ready for it,” the CPA said.

Waiting in a line of idling cars, Don Park, 44, figured that the Fourth of July holiday was keeping traffic down. The Oakland “computer guy” was among those who had little sympathy for the striking BART workers, who he figures make a decent salary for the region.

“If BART said show up and you’ll be hired today,” he said before driving away, “I’d be there.”

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