One of the things that strikes you as a visitor to the Bay Area is that there are no refreshment kiosks on BART. Every other commuter railway system that I am familiar with has stations festooned with take-away coffee and fast food stalls. It brings in money for the railway (because they rent space to the retailers) and it is good for the commuters because they can get breakfast on the go.

But not on BART. Not only are there no refreshment stalls at stations, it is illegal to eat or drink on a BART. You can be fined $250 for doing it. One of BART’s directors, Lynette Sweet, thinks this is silly, and has been trying to get them to change their minds. At a meeting yesterday BART managers explained why this was a bad idea. Terrorists might use coffee cups to sneak liquid explosives onto trains.

Now it isn’t illegal to take drinks into the BART system. You don’t get screened when you go through the turnstiles. The only thing that is against the rules is consuming the drink whilst on BART property. So there is absolutely no logic to this argument. It is, however, a sign of the times. If someone in a management position wants to force people to do something, their first recourse is now to say that the regulation is necessary because of the threat from terrorists. Kudos therefore to BART director Tom Radulovich who told managers:

You know, it’s just fearmongering and you should be ashamed.

If only people said that in Washington.

The Chronicle has more on the story, including a heap more lame excuses from BART managers. None of them hold water, for the very simple reason that the Bay Area has another commuter rail system – CalTrain. That does allow food and drink to be consumed on stations and on trains, and the world hasn’t ended because of it.