Do you ever get to the train station and realize you forgot to bring something to read? Yes, we all have our phones, but many of us still like to go old school and read something printed.

Well, there's a kioskfor that. In the San Francisco Bay Area, at least.

"You enter the fare gatesand you'll see a kiosk that is lit up and it tells you can get a one-minute, a three-minute, or a five-minute story," says Alicia Trost, the chief communications officer for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit - known as BART. "You choose which length you want and it gives you a receipt-like short story."

It's that simple. Riders have printed nearly 20,000 short stories and poems since the program was launched last March. Some are classic short stories, and some are new original works.

Trost also wants to introduce local writers to local riders. "We wanted to do something where we do a call to artists in the Bay Area to submit stories for a contest," Trost says. "And as of right now, we've received about 120 submissions. The winning stories would go into our kiosk and then you would be a published artist."

Ridership on transitsystems across the country has been down the past half century, so could short stories save transit?

Trost thinks so.

"At the end of the day all transit agencies right now are doing everything they can to improve the rider experience. So I absolutely think we will get more riders just because of short stories," she says.

And you'll never be without something to read.

Questions:
question_stem: Why did BART start the kiosk program?
choices: tag: A
text: To promote the local culture.

tag: B
text: To discourage phone use.

tag: C
text: To meet passengers' needs.

tag: D
text: To reduce its running costs.
answer_key: C

question_stem: How are the stories categorized in the kiosk?
choices: tag: A
text: By popularity.

tag: B
text: By length.

tag: C
text: By theme.

tag: D
text: By language.
answer_key: B

question_stem: What has Trost been doing recently?
choices: tag: A
text: Organizing a story contest.

tag: B
text: Doing a survey of customers.

tag: C
text: Choosing a print publisher.

tag: D
text: Conducting interviews with artists.
answer_key: A

question_stem: What is Trost's opinion about BART's future?
choices: tag: A
text: It will close down.

tag: B
text: Its profits will decline.

tag: C
text: It will expand nationwide.

tag: D
text: Its ridership will increase.
answer_key: D