Published Wednesday, May 7, 2003,

Buy a brownie to keep your bus running. 

Bake sales to raise money to keep Bay Area mass transit running are planned for Thursday. 

Supporters say if they can sell 825,600,000 brownies and cookies at 25 cents each, they'd raise enough money to offset current operating deficits for the region's various mass transit agencies. 

"It's more of a statement than a bake sale," concedes Amber Crabbe, a spokeswoman for the sponsoring group, TransitWorks, a coalition of 15 area transit unions. 

Those buying a brownie or cookie at bus and train stops and ferry docks will also get a pitch from union members supporting other solutions to paying for mass transit. 

Virtually all Bay Area transit authorities have announced service cuts, fare hikes, layoffs or a combination of those actions in the face of declining ridership and plummeting sources of revenue, such as from local sales taxes.