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on Thursday Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) board is scheduled to meet to adopt a fiscal-year 2011 budget. Surprisingly — given most transit agencies' budget woes — board members are expected to discuss how to spend a $4.5 million surplus.

BART officials anticipate a surplus because of a court order requiring the state of California to return some of the voter-mandated transportation funding the governor and legislature had previously diverted to the state’s general fund, according to a prepared statement.

Suggestions on ways to spend the surplus include reducing fares and implementing programs to produce cleaner rail cars. However, some board members have expressed reluctance to apply the surplus to an ongoing expense because there is no guarantee that state transportation funding will continue in future years, BART officials said.