BART lengthens trains during Try BART Week, Giants playoff games
Starting Monday and through the end of the week, BART will keep trains as long as possible to accommodate the thousands of additional riders the agency expects will be riding the system to cheer on the Giants during the playoffs or to win one of the $60,000 worth of valuable prizes during "Try BART Week."
"Try BART Week" An Effort to Regain Riders As Bay Area Jobs Recover
Between Monday, October 18 and Friday, October 22, BART will be giving way 1,300 hundred prizes – including the coveted year's worth of free BART tickets – during "Try BART Week." This is the agency's most intense and largest ridership growth campaign in its nearly 40 year history.
"With jobs coming back, so is traffic congestion," BART Chief Marketing Officer Aaron Weinstein said. "'Try BART Week' is a great chance to beat the backup and win some exceptional prizes."
"You must text the 'word of the day' to BART in order to be eligible to win," BART Chief Communications Officer Linton Johnson said. "The best way to find out what the 'word of the day' is will be to get on BART and look up at our digital destination signs that hang from our platform ceiling. They will show the 'word of the day' as well as the real-time arrival information about our trains. Once you know it, text it to 44144 and we might text you back letting you know you've won anything from hundreds of dollars in BART tickets, to airline tickets to passes to see the Cal Bears or the Raiders play."
Try BART Week is sponsored by Green and Black's, Ben and Jerry's, Jamba Juice, Alter Eco and myBART.org.
"Try BART Week" Kick Off Event Expected to Draw Big Crowds
The kick off to "Try BART Week" will take place Monday at Center City Plaza just upstairs from BART's 12th Street/Oakland City Center Station between 12 pm and 1 pm. That's where Johnson and ABC7 morning traffic reporter Frances Dinglasan will co-host the event and award many of the 1,300 prizes BART will give away this week, including the year of free BART tickets worth $2,500.
"Personally, I'm expecting the plaza to be jammed with people on Monday," Johnson said. "None of the first 5,000 people who show up will walk away empty handed - everyone will get a bar of Green and Black's chocolate. We'll have Southwest Airline tickets to give away too and lots of other prizes."
In order to win the prizes during the lunchtime kick off event, people will need to text BART the 'word of the day,' which BART will only reveal in the Center City Plaza. BART will end text message entries at 12:25 pm. Participants must be present to win any of the kick off event prizes.
"The most exciting give-away will be the year of free BART tickets," Johnson said. "I'm going to call for silence in the crowd after a computer randomly selects a phone number that texted in the secret word. I will call that number and all ears will be listening for their phone to ring. Think of the drama: kind of like 'American Idol' meets the 'Price is Right.'"
WHAT: Try BART Kick Off Event
WHEN: 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. on Monday, October 18, 2010
WHERE: City Center Plaza upstairs from 12th St./City Center BART Station, 1245 Broadway in Oakland