Later today, BART is doing its first-ever speed dating event, on a moving train. Jasmine Ascencio has this story for KALW.
The event starts at 6:45 p.m. at the Downtown Berkeley BART, stops at 24th and Mission, and returns. The roundtrip ride itself is about 90 minutes. And, during that time, participants, ages 18-35 - will hopefully find their “ride or die.”
It’s called the Valentraine…
”Hey, remember that young lady that said we should do Traindr?”
Alicia Trost is BART’s Chief Communications Officer. She’s referencing an idea from a BART rider inspired by dating apps. In this case Tinder… but on a train.
“‘Let's see when Valentine's Day is,’ and it was a Friday. So, it was like it was meant to be. I'm like, ‘We have to do this.’”
Alicia told me BART is in a financial emergency -- fewer people are using it and she blames remote work. She’s hoping to rebrand BART to appeal to people who aren’t just commuting to their jobs.
“ I think I read the email when it was only 15 minutes old, so, I figured I should just immediately sign up.”
Aidan Kelly is a 24-year-old PhD student at UC Berkeley, originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He was right to sign up quickly. 200 tickets to Valentraine sold out in 12 hours.