Manoj Simha reads a short story distributed by a newly established kiosk at SEPTA’s Tasker-Morris station. Jack Tomczuk

Underground, at the Broad Street Line’s Tasker-Morris station in South Philadelphia, there’s now a mini-library. Riders, by placing their hand over touchless buttons, can now get free short stories, printed on store receipt-like paper. Many of the tales were written by local students.

The kiosks, which are also at the BSL’s Erie station, are part of a campaign unveiled Wednesday to engage kids and families taking SEPTA — and, ultimately, to boost literacy levels among the city’s children.

Many of us have whiled away the minutes on a bus or a train with a book. Now the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, the public transportation authority of San Francisco, is looking to attract riders back to public transportation by distributing short stories at select stations. 

Short Story Dispenser at Pleasant Hill BART Station. Photographer: Maria Avila/BART

In unassuming corners of metro and train stations in cities all over the world, beyond the ticket machines and behind the throngs of people, there are vending machines that spit out stories. Even though I’ve apparently walked past one of the short story dispensers installed in four Bay Area Rapid Transit stations several times, I never knew they existed – until last week. 

Image courtesy of the Bay Area Rapid Transit.

Rapid transit riders with a literary bent in San Francisco can compete for a $200 honorarium and the chance to have their stories dispensed in the system's kiosks, according to a press release.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit, which offers riders short stories dispensed from dispensers at certain transit stations, has called for entries for its first short story fiction contest, called "BART Lines," in celebration of the transit system's 50th anniversary.

The Short Édition fiction dispensers print out stories that take one, three or five minutes to read. Courtesy BART / BART

In an attempt to regain attention after a pandemic ridership drop, BART is willing to try anything — including commissioning new literary works.

The transit agency has started soliciting entries for a short fiction contest, the finalists of which will be available via story dispensers on BART platforms to be printed and read during a train ride home.

“(People) don’t think about BART and art. We’re trying to change that,” said BART Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost. “So many transit systems across the world have beautiful art, and we’re trying to find ways we can afford right now to bring art in the stations.

The library can change the dispenser's categories and the story content over time. City Of Eugene

The Eugene Airport worked with another city entity recently to install a dispenser at the top of the escalator. No, it’s not for hand sanitizer. It’s for stories. The Eugene Public Library Foundation funded the dispenser, which prints short stories on wide, recycled receipt paper. Will O’Hearn is Director of Library Services.
He told KLCC, “It’s touch-less buttons, so you just wave your hand over one of the three areas, one says ‘local’ and that’s purple, and then there’s a red one that says ‘world-wide,’ and then there’s one for kids that’s kind of a bluish green.”

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- While kids are commuting with their parents, SEPTA hopes families will use that time to discover the joy of reading. They kicked off the colorful, story-filled literacy campaign Wednesday in South Philadelphia called "Come Aboard the Reading Promise."

California’s rail stations now have dispensers that print short stories for free.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has teamed up with a French publisher to boost literacy and encourage reading.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/BCN) — Looking for something to read on BART? The transit agency has installed dispensers at the Richmond, Fruitvale and Pleasant Hill stations that spit out short stories for free. It’s part of a partnership with Short Edition, the company that makes the dispensers and puts together the short stories, which are suitable for all ages.

The Pleasant Hill BART station is one of three stations with a new short-story dispenser offering free printed reading material to passengers. (Dan Brekke/KQED)

These days, most BART riders spend their travel time staring at their phones—and understandably so. In an increasingly digitized world accelerated by the isolation of the pandemic, our lives have migrated almost entirely online.

BART installed a short story dispenser at four stations. This image shows the one installed at Pleasanton Station. (Photo courtesy of BART).

BART has installed Short Story Dispensers at some of its stations, including the Richmond station. The touchless dispensers print out short stories for riders to read — for free.

Siobhan Reardon and Chellie Cameron give the dispenser a spinPhiladelphia International Airport

Being stranded at the airport usually means scrolling through social media, or picking up a newspaper or magazine. But those doesn't need to be your only options at Philadelphia International Airport, where a free, no-WiFi-required alternative was unveiled Friday: a Short Story Dispenser, put in place by the Free Library of Philadelphia.