BART Unveils Mascot-Covered Train Car

Bay Area Rapid Transit has put a bright blue train car covered in dancing BARTy mascots into service to test whether full-car wraps can become a new advertising product. (bart.gov) BART said the pilot began Monday, April 20, and the wrapped car will roam the system for the next few months while staff watch how riders respond and how the material holds up. Marketing director Dave Martindale said the goal is to explore “a new source of revenue.” (bart.gov) The car uses BART’s “Fleet of the Future” trains, and the agency said the trial is meant to answer practical questions about durability, appearance and maintenance on the newer exterior finish. Catherine Westphall, who manages BART’s advertising franchise program, said staff also need to know what it would take to scale wraps “without impacting service.” (bart.gov) BART already sells advertising in stations, tunnels, on tickets and on trains, and its business page pitches those placements to brands trying to reach Bay Area riders. The new test is about whether a full exterior wrap can be added to that menu on the current fleet. (bart.gov) The timing is tied to BART’s budget strain. The agency says it is still using federal and state emergency funds to run service and balance its operating budget, and that those relief funds are projected to run out in 2026. (bart.gov) BART has framed the mascot car as one piece of a broader search for non-fare income while ridership remains below pre-pandemic levels. The agency said it has also cut expenses by hundreds of millions of dollars as it confronts what it calls a significant fiscal cliff. (bart.gov; bart.gov) The characters on the wrap are not new. BART introduced its anime-style mascots in 2023 after a California-only artist call in 2022 that drew nearly 500 submissions, and the agency said the figures were designed to promote transit use among youth riders. (bart.gov) That mascot strategy has drawn mixed reactions before. When BART launched the characters in May 2023, riders interviewed by ABC7 called them fun, but some said safety and service mattered more than marketing, and Cal State East Bay marketing professor Ivan Fedorenko said promotion alone would not solve the system’s bigger problems. (abc7news.com) For now, BART is asking riders to spot the car, photograph it and post it online. If the wrap survives the test and attracts advertisers, the cartoon-covered train could become a regular part of how the agency tries to raise cash outside the farebox. (bart.gov)