BART finally transitioned to 100 percent “Fleet of the Future” trains this week.
BART ran its last “legacy” train Sunday out of SFO and now will be using only its newer trains, which the agency describes as more reliable, cleaner and in need of less maintenance. The legacy trains go back over 50 years, when they emerged as sleek, futuristic examples of American ingenuity, so much so that then-president Richard Nixon said they were “just like NASA.”
Riders will also see new scheduling that the agency hopes will improve service. People who take BART nights and weekends will no longer have to wait up to 30 minutes between trains, and no one will wait more than 20 minutes for a scheduled train no matter what hour or day of the week, the agency said.
BART will also increase the frequency of trains on its busiest weekday route, the Yellow Line that runs from Pittsburg/Bay Point to Millbrae. Those trains will run every 10 minutes instead of every 15 minutes.
BART is also going to shorten the length of its least-crowded trains, from 10 cars to six, which the agency says will mean a better presence of police and safety staff, cleaner trains, and fewer delays because the new fleet has double the reliability of the so-called legacy line, and more standby trains will be available. Long trains will still be used for special events and the busy Yellow Line will still have eight cars.
Running fewer cars is meant to allow BART police to increase its visibility with the same amount of staff.
“There is safety in numbers and that’s especially true on BART,” said Interim BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin in an agency release. “This change will allow us to have more eyes on a train car as we continue to boost our visible safety presence with our officers and unarmed Transit Ambassadors and Crisis Intervention Specialists.”
The shorter cars are also supposed to save BART $12 million annually through reduced power consumption and less operating hours.
My early morning walk yesterday took me by the Concord station around 6 AM. Very few cars in the lots and maybe 10 passengers entered the station. Several trains in and out. I guess the new plan is to spend their entire annual budget in a few months to boost the chances of the increased toll proposal passing. More mismanagement from a union controlled public entity. They’ll bleed it dry to get their way. No one wept for the ice man when electric refrigeration came along. Office working is mostly a dead end. Adapt or perish.
I have many memories riding those legacy cars. Many of them gross and involving homeless people. The new cars are really nice. Until the homeless ruin them too.
I heard that one of the old cars was going to be an Air B@B.
Imagine the residual human waste on that undercarriage.
I can’t imagine staying in such a monstrosity.
Other old cars may be used for fire training. The BAAQ folks might have something to say about that, but torching those old cars, or melting them down is the best way to eliminate the filth of 50 years.
The homeless, passed out drug addicts will probably be much more comfortable on the Fleet of the Future. Good thing Bart didn’t waste funds on security, gates, or other dumb things like that.
An old story I just looked at says the program for new cars was 75% federally funded, so we even got suckers in North Dakota paying for this!
Maybe they can turn them into homeless shelters.
this is welcome news. There hasn’t been service to Concord every 10 minutes since the Dublin/Pleasanton extension opened in the 90’s!
wouldn’t it be appropriate to turn the old cars into tiny homes for the homeless? they seem to live in them already…. just say’n lol