BART is putting the “speed” in “speed dating,” as around 200 people will board a train in downtown Berkeley for a Valentine’s Day event that’s meant to help singles get acquainted with each other and the transit agency.
Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for BART, said that the speed-dating/speed-friending event is one of many events BART has held to increase ridership, which was slashed in half due to the Covid-19 pandemic popularizing remote work. Trost said that their past events were focused on bringing people to stations, but they wanted to take it a step further and try to hold an event on a moving train.
Trost said that a similar event was suggested by a BART rider, who wanted the last car on the train to be reserved for single people to meet each other. After seeing that Valentine’s Day was on a Friday this year, they thought that holding a speed dating event for the holiday would be a great idea, allowing shy people to come aboard and meet new friends or a new partner.
“This is 200 people who possibly are shy and don’t normally have something to do on Valentine’s Day, so we’re giving them something to do,” Trost said. “And it’s a way to bring people to BART, show them how clean and safe things are and to bring people together.”
The event was open for adults between the ages of 18 and 35. Unfortunately for people who may be interested in this event, BART capped reservations for the event at 200, and they ran out of spaces in 12 hours. For those attending, Trost said that the non-stop ride will pick up attendees at the Downtown Berkeley Station and circle around the 24th Street/Mission Station before returning to downtown Berkeley. Trost said they chose to hold the event at downtown Berkeley to allow people who made connections on the train to go out after the event was over.
Trost said there will be signs and staff directing people on where to meet at the Downtown Berkeley Station before everyone goes down to the platform to board the train. She said the train is timed between two regular in-service trains so it wouldn’t conflict with the trains commuters would normally take. She also said they might only open one door on the train to make sure no confused commuters accidentally enter the train meant for the speed-dating event.
The ride is expected to last 90 minutes, so Trost encouraged participants to use the restroom before embarking. There will be icebreaker questions BART staff to pair people together and help keep conversations going. People are allowed to move from car to car. A whistle will ring out every few minutes to encourage people to rotate partners. Trost said she was a little concerned about the audio levels and if people would be able to hear each other and how to get people to rotate and match with people in the same age range as them, but that she was still “excited” for the event and she thinks it will be “really fun.”
“I think it’ll be really fun. We’ve never done anything like this specifically,” Trost said.
Trost said she hoped that the event would create joyful moments for their riders and hopefully get them to come back and use BART again. She also hoped that the event would be successful and inspire other events like this to improve ridership, especially on nights and weekends when work commutes aren’t a factor into the reason why someone would ride BART.
BART has held several other events to improve ridership, including showing art at BART stations, an event inviting riders to wear ugly Christmas sweaters and do transit-themed crafts and a “paper ticket fashion show,” according to Trost. She said that these events have had hundreds and even more than a thousand people show up for the event. In fact, she said people were emailing and DM-ing the transit agency to allow for more people to participate in Friday’s speed dating event. However, they decided to keep it at 200 slots to make the event more manageable since it’s their first time hosting this kind of event. However, if the event is successful, Trost said they would hold more with different age ranges and different themes.
“Past events have been successful, that’s how we knew this event would be successful,” Trost said.
BART will be hosting another event to increase ridership on May 4, encouraging riders to board the trains in “Star Wars”-themed costumes and outfits.