Drama over the BART intercom

BART operator Kelly Beardsley lets us in on one little secret about driving BART: passengers love pressing the intercom button to chat with him about annoyances big and small, or even to just shoot the shit with him for no reason at all. Our live storytelling show, Muni Diaries Live, is where you can hear stories that are at once both true and unbelievable. Here’s Kelly recounting the shenanigans over the intercom on one eventful BART ride.

I love intercom calls, they always crack me up. You know on BART at the end there’s that little box that says, In Case of Emergency, Call the Operator?” Sometimes people just push it and just chat me up. Like, “Hey, I noticed you just made another transfer announcement at Lake Merritt Station. I don’t usually hear transfer announcements at Lake Merritt Station for the Dublin-Pleasanton bound passengers. Are you going to make a transfer announcement at Bay Fair?” And i’m just like, “Oh I like to mix it up! I like to make sure people get to where they need to go!” And the guy’s like, “Oh that’s really cool, man, so what other places do you make transfer announcements?”

We get stupid calls, we get fun calls, and we get complaint calls like, “Hey! Hey! There’s this girl and she’s got a bike and she’s eating a burrito and she’s in the handicapped seat!”

If you want to hear stories like this and other true and hilarious tales, come to the next Muni Diaries Live show on Nov. 5!

Muni Diaries Live
Tickets
Saturday, Nov 5, 2016
Doors: 6 p.m., show: 7 p.m.
Elbo Room
647 Valencia Street, San Francisco
Take Muni there: J-Church, 12, 14, 22, 33, 49, or BART: 16th or 24th St. stations

Photo by Kevin Wong/Right Angle Images