BART, the commuter rail line for the San Francisco Bay Area, will eliminate 74 jobs by July rather than raise fares. Among the jobs to be phased out are seven train car cleaners and 14 janitors, the San Jose Mercury News reports.  The BART board says it was faced with the choice of raising fares or cutting jobs, and opted to maintain fares at their current level.  The sliver of good news is there will be few or no layoffs because most of the 74 jobs are currently vacant and the rest can transfer into other vacant positions.

 The union representing BART workers was predictably opposed to the job eliminations. It says BART promised no layoffs in the last round of collective bargaining and that some of the lower paid workers are unqualifed to transfer into other jobs.  “There is no guarantee there won’t be layoffs,” said Damita Davis-Howard, president of Local 1021 of the Service Employees International Union.