Zusha Elinson/The Bay Citizen

BART board president Bob Franklin and spokesman Linton Johnson in happier times trying out new BART seats

Bob Franklin, the BART board member who has championed late-night train service, announced today that he is running for Oakland City Council. He said he would step down from the BART board when his term expires in November, 2012.

"I want to apply what I've learned at BART on a bigger stage to make Oakland a more welcoming place," said Franklin. 

Franklin — who was elected to two terms on the BART board — will be running to represent North Oakland, where he has lived for the past seven years. Oakland City Councilwoman Jane Brunner is vacating the seat to run for city attorney.

Franklin was the president of the BART board in 2011, a tumultuous year for the transit agency. Most notably, BART shut off cell phone service to foil a protest against a BART police shooting. The move was criticized around the world as silencing free speech; it spurred weekly protests organized by the hacker group Anonymous. 

Franklin continued to defend the decision Monday, saying the intent was to protect riders. He praised BART's reaction: a new policy that clearly delineates when the transit agency is allowed to shut down its underground wireless service. 

This year, Franklin pushed the agency to offer late-night train service from San Francisco to the East Bay, something long sought by theater-, concert-, and bar-goers. But a study showed that running trains run an hour later on Friday nights and Saturday mornings would adversely effect low-income riders who rely on the system to get to work on weekend mornings. The transit agency is now moving ahead with a plan for all-night bus service instead. 

"Even though it's not BART, it'll be a better service than the all-nighter right now," Franklin said. 

Under Franklin's watch, the board also ousted BART general manager Dorothy Dugger in February and hired Grace Crunican at the end of August. Crunican has received positive reviews from BART insiders for her no-nonsense attitude. The board also decided to replace some of BART's notoriously filthy cloth seats with easy-to-clean vinyl this year.