BART announces $300M grant to make trains less crowded. Here's how it might affect you.

BART unveils the first of the transit agency's new fleet of 775 cars at the testing facility in Hayward, Calif. on Wednesday, April 6, 2016. BART is targeting revenue service to begin with a complete train of new cars by December 2016, once a rigorous testing phase is completed. less BART unveils the first of the transit agency's new fleet of 775 cars at the testing facility in Hayward, Calif. on Wednesday, April 6, 2016. BART is targeting revenue service to begin with a complete train of ... more Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close BART announces $300M grant to make trains less crowded. Here's how it might affect you. 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

BART announced on Twitter Thursday it'd be receiving a big chunk of change — $300 million to be exact — from the federal government to make you feel less like a sardine on your ride home from work. (If you've ever tried to squeeze on an East Bay-bound train at Embarcadero around 5:15 p.m., you know what we're talking about.)

The $300 million grant is the first payment of an anticipated $1.25 billion BART is anticipating from the Federal Transit Administration, said Alicia Trost, an agency spokesperson.

The transit agency answered riders' questions about overcrowding, and how the new influx of money might change things, during a Twitter town hall from noon to 1 p.m. Here's how things might — if we're lucky — get better in coming years:

— The funding will mostly be focused on increasing capacity between Oakland and downtown San Francisco, which means running more trains through the transbay tube. Right now, BART runs 23 trains through the tube during peak commute hours. BART plans to up that number to 28 trains per hour in 2026, then 30 trains per hour in 2028. Read more about the planned work from The Chronicle.

— The vision is to have a lot more trains moving through the system, so you won't have to wait as long for a ride. During peak hours, BART said there would be a train every two minutes in San Francisco and even during off-hours, the agency wants to move the baseline wait time to 12 minutes maximum (instead of 15 minutes).

— How will they get there? The plan involves adding 306 new cars to the fleet, building five new power substations to meet the additional power requirements, installing a new train control system, and expanding storage in Hayward so we have a place to put all the new cars.

— Other exciting news about the new trains: they will (hopefully!) have wifi. BART said it's seeking a contract to equip new train cars with wifi.

— So with all these new trains going into service, what will happen with the old ones? Will they be turned into housing, like this design shows? What about turning them into a bar or just a huge Burning Man art installation?

"This summer we will decommission 10 legacy cars to establish the market value. And then game on with the fun projects that come out of it," tweeted the agency.

We vote BART bar.

Alix Martichoux is an SFGate supervising producer. Read her latest stories and send her news tips at alix.martichoux@sfgate.com.