BART Debuts Mascot-Covered Train Car
- BART rolled out a mascot-covered train car to test new advertising and revenue opportunities. - One wrapped car will operate on regular service, aiming to boost non-fare revenue. - Officials say the novelty could boost rider engagement and ad income as BART explores new revenue streams (patch.com).
A bright blue Bay Area Rapid Transit car covered in dancing BARTy mascots entered regular service this week as a test of full-car advertising. (bart.gov) BART said the wrapped car began running Monday, April 20, and will roam the system for the next few months on ordinary trips. The agency is using one Fleet of the Future car for the pilot. (bart.gov) The mascot design is not the product being sold. BART said it is using BARTy artwork to test whether its newer train cars can be wrapped and later offered to paying advertisers. (bart.gov) The trial lands as BART looks for money beyond fares and parking. In its operating outlook, the agency said pandemic-era ridership losses and remote work left it with a structural budget problem after federal relief money began running out. (bart.gov) BART’s own budget documents say fares and parking covered nearly 70% of operating costs before COVID-19, but that ratio fell sharply after 2020. Staff have been pushing cost cuts and new commercial revenue to narrow future deficits. (bart.gov) Train wraps are a vinyl film applied to the outside of a car, turning the train into a moving billboard. BART has sold wraps before on its older fleet, including airport-marketing cars in 2006 and commercial wraps on legacy cars in later years. (bart.gov 1) (bart.gov 2) What changed is the equipment. BART retired its legacy fleet from reserve service in March 2024, and its base schedule has been all-new cars since September 2023, so the agency now has to learn how wraps behave on Fleet of the Future cars if it wants to revive that ad format. (bart.gov) Catherine Westphall, who manages BART’s advertising franchise program, said staff will use the pilot to measure how the material performs and how much labor and maintenance coordination a larger wrap program would require. (contracostaherald.com) BART already sells station posters, interior cards, digital screens and larger station takeovers through its advertising program. The BARTy car is a test of whether one more format can join that lineup without taking trains out of service. (bart.gov) (publicnow.com) For riders, the immediate change is visual: one blue mascot-covered car mixed into normal service. For BART, the next step is deciding after this pilot whether a wrapped train car can become a regular revenue product. (bart.gov)
