I wonder if we couldn't have a "business class" option. When I took Muni in SF every day I'd have happily paid a little extra for some more comfort and less likelihood of a homeless person who smells like urine nearby. That money could even be used to subsidize the economy tickets. Maybe it might even work out that we could have a freemium model.
There’s little that irritates me more about my local trains than the fact every one of them has ~20% of carriages dedicated to first class at a huge markup. If they had capacity I’d be fine, but what happens is that you have people standing for a 2 hour journey while there’s empty seats that they’re not allowed to go and sit on.
I don't think my suggestion is appropriate everywhere. I do think it would work well in a place like San Francisco. I also think it would need to be physically secured so that you can only get in with a valid ticket otherwise you are going to keep pleasant, but poor people out and crazy people who she'll like urine would ignore the restrictions.
JR does this with many of their trains. There are green cars that you can get a special pass for at the station platform. I would only buy it for long trips by train, for general commuting I think it's a little unnecessary. That said JR is cheaper than the BART and MUNI but doesn't seem to have many undesirable carriage companions.
