On September 11, 2023, BART began to run only new cars for the base schedule, marking a historic moment for the new fleet. All 55 trains in service are made up of new cars.
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Since 1972, BART's train cars have been safely and reliably carrying riders around the Bay Area.
In 2012 BART chose Bombardier Transit Corporation to build BART's Fleet of the Future—a complex design, engineering, supply chain, and assembly process. In January 2018, the first ten train cars began service following safety and reliability testing, and regulatory approval.
Testing has shown a drop of as many as 20 decibels in sound intensity. One way to think about the difference is if the decibel level of riding on a BART train with the old wheel profile and rail sounded like standing near a lawnmower the new system is more like being next to a dishwasher.
On September 11, 2023, BART began to run only new cars for the base schedule, marking a historic moment for the new fleet. All 55 trains in service are made up of new cars.
The majority of the old cars will be recycled. The Fleet Disposition Team will manage the process, including selecting which parts should be harvested from retired vehicles and choosing which cars with the highest failure rates get retired first.
Q9: Will the new cars be faster? A: No.The new cars have a maximum speed of 80 miles per hour. To go faster than that, changes would need to be made, not only to the rail car propulsion systems, but also to other BART infrastructure.
A controlled multi-step clean that requires cleaners scrub every surface of a train car, from ceiling to baseboards. Thorough cleans take two cleaners about two hours to complete. They occur every 450 hours a car is in service.
The BART Board of Directors passed the proof of payment requirement on October 26, 2017, to deter fare evasion. The new ordinance took effect January 1, 2018. Any person inside the paid area of BART must be prepared to show a magnetic stripe ticket or Clipper card with valid fare.
Factoring in these new state budget funds, assuming MTC commissioners adopt the staff recommendation in mid-November 2023, BART must now solve a $326M deficit before FY28. It was previously $678M. BART would then face and annual operating deficit of $264M starting in FY28.
BART actually has a big machine that grinds down the bumps on corrugated track, eliminating some of the noise. This explains why sometimes a portion of the BART system makes loud uuunnnhhh sounds one day and doesn't make a peep the next. You aren't crazy -- they just smoothed out the track at night.
BART plans to launch the Fleet of the Future trains using eight-car and six-car trains but will adjust as ridership grows. Running trains with fewer cars will allow the BART Police Department (PD) to increase its visibility on trains and platforms while using the same number of staff.
In celebration of BART's upcoming 50th anniversary on September 11, BART is offering a 50% discount for the entire month of September 2022. The reduced fare will be automatically deducted when using Clipper at the fare gates.
Seats are scrubbed with hot water and disinfectant soap during a thorough clean. BART recently increased the frequency of thorough cleans from every 900 hours of train car service to every 450 hours, meaning we've doubled the number of times the cars in our system undergo a deep clean.
This is the deep clean -- BART's all-out, every-nook-and-cranny effort to fight back against whatever the Bay Area throws at or into these trains. Every 400 hours we come in, Burditt explained. From top to bottom. Each car takes two people and about two to three hours to complete.
Like most trains, BART wheels are tied together with rigid axels and no differentials. This means the wheels always rotate at the same speed, even around corners. Because the inner radius is smaller, there is less distance to travel, which can cause a slippage between the wheels and track, which is noisy.