Bay Area Rapid Transit rolling stock
The rolling stock of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system's heavy rail component consists of 782 self-propelled electric multiple units, built from four separate orders. To run a typical peak morning commute, BART requires 579 cars. Of those, 535 are scheduled to be in active service; the others are used to build up four spare trains. At any one time, the remaining 90 cars are in for repair, maintenance, or some type of planned modification work. All trains on the separate automated guideway transit line are in regular use without spares. Bombardier Transportation is manufacturing a complete replacement of the mainline fleet, due to be delivered in batches by Fall 2021. The first ten cars of this replacement fleet entered service in 2018, with all expected to enter service by 2022. With the withdrawal and retirement of the older fleet, there will be 775 vehicles in total, with long-term goals of eventually increasing this to 1,200 cars. Eight light rail diesel multiple units are being used on a recent spur line.
The mainline track gauge is, significantly wider than the near-universal used on freight railroads and most rapid transit systems. It also uses flat-edge rail, rather than typical rail that angles slightly inward. These factors have complicated maintenance of the system, as it requires custom wheelsets, brake systems, and track maintenance vehicles. Stations have a platform height of. A full consist, which will fill the system's platforms, is limited to ten units, equaling . The automated guideway transit line utilizes off-the-shelf cable car technology developed by DCC Doppelmayr Cable Car: the Cable Liner. The eBART extension was constructed to more traditional specifications and uses Stadler GTW articulated multiple units previously utilized in other systems.
Original fleet
A and B series
The A and B cars were built from 1968 to 1975 by Rohr Industries, an aerospace manufacturing company that had recently started mass-transit equipment manufacturing. The A cars were designed as leading or trailing cars only, with an aerodynamic fiberglass operator's cab housing train control equipment and BART's two-way communication system, and extending longer than the B- and C-cars. A and B cars can seat 60 passengers comfortably, and under crush load, carry over 200 passengers. B cars have no operator's cab and are used in the middle of trains to carry passengers only. In the 1998-2002 timeframe, the fleet was rebuilt by Adtranz/Bombardier, with certain cars being rebuilt into B cars. Currently, BART operates 59 A cars and 380 B cars. The BART A cars have a larger cab window than the C cars, allowing riders to look out of the front or the back of the train.C series
The C cars feature a fiberglass operator's cab and control and communications equipment like the A cars, but do not have the aerodynamic nose, allowing them to be used as middle cars as well. This allows faster train-size changes without having to move the train to a switching yard. C cars can seat 56 passengers and under crush load accommodate over 200 passengers. The first C cars, referred to as C1 cars, were built by Alstom between 1987 and 1989. The second order of C cars, built by Morrison-Knudsen, are known as C2 cars. The C2 cars were identical to the C1 cars but featured an interior with a blue/gray motif. At the time of their construction, the C2 cars also featured flip-up seats which could be folded to accommodate wheelchair users; these seats were later removed during refurbishment. Currently, BART operates 150 C1 cars and 80 C2 cars. The "C" cars have a bright white segment as the final approximately of the car at their cab end. The first legacy fleet car to be scrapped was car 2528 in November 2019; it had operated more than of service.Refurbishments
Prior to the introduction of the C2 cars, the seats and carpeted flooring in all the cars were brown. In 1995, BART contracted with Pittsburg-based ADtranz to refurbish and overhaul the 439 original Rohr A- and B-cars, updating the old brown fabric seats to less-toxic and easier-to-clean, light-blue polyurethane seats and bringing the older cars to the same level of interior amenities as the C2 fleet. The project was completed in 2002. The A, B, and C cars were all given 3-digit numbers originally, but when refurbished 1000 was added to the number of each individual A/B car. The C2 cars are numbered in the 2500 series; the C/C1 cars still have 3-digit numbers.Because one of the original design goals was for all BART riders to be seated, the older cars had fewer provisions such as grab bars for standing passengers. In the late 2000s BART began modifying some of the C2 cars to test features such as hand-straps and additional areas for luggage, wheelchairs and bicycles. These new features were later added to the A, B, and C1 cars.
Prior to 2012, all BART cars featured upholstered seats. It was reported in 2011 that several strains of molds and bacteria were found on fabric seats on BART trains, even after wiping with antiseptic. These included bacteria from fecal contamination. In April, BART announced it would spend $2 million in the next year to replace the dirty seats. The new seats would feature vinyl-covered upholstery which would be easier to clean. The transition to the new seats was completed in December 2014.
Originally all the cars had carpeted flooring. Due to similar concerns regarding cleanliness, the carpeting in all of the cars has been removed. The A and B, and C2 cars now feature vinyl flooring in either grey or blue coloring, while the C1 cars feature a spray-on composite flooring.
Traction motors
Prior to rebuilding, the Direct Current traction motors used on the 439 Rohr BART cars were Model 1463B with chopper controls from Westinghouse, who also built the automatic train control system for BART. The Rohr cars were rebuilt with ADtranz model 1507C 3-phase alternating current traction motors with insulated-gate bipolar transistor inverters. The Westinghouse motors are still in use on the Alstom C and Morrison-Knudsen C2 cars and the motors that were removed from the Rohr cars were retained as spare motors for use on them. Cars have a starting accelerating of and are capable of holding that acceleration up to. Residual acceleration at is. Braking rates range from up to .The HVAC system on the Rohr BART cars before rehabilitation were built by Thermo King, when it was a subsidiary of Westinghouse; in 1997 it became a subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand. The current HVAC systems on the rebuilt Rohr-built Gen 1 cars were built by Westcode and possibly also ADtranz who had subcontracted the HVAC system to Westcode.
Noise
Many BART passengers have noted that the system is noisy, with a 2010 survey by the San Francisco Chronicle measuring up to 100 decibels in the Transbay Tube between San Francisco and Oakland, and still more than 90 decibels in 23 other locations. According to BART, the noise in the tunnel used to be "compared to banshees, screech owls, or Doctor Who's TARDIS run amok".However, then-chief BART spokesperson Linton Johnson stated that BART averages 70–80 dB, below the danger zone, and according to a 1997 study by the National Academy of Sciences, BART ranks as among the quietest transit systems in the nation. Critics have countered that this study analyzed straight, above-ground portions of different systems throughout the country at, which is not representative of actual operating conditions. Much of BART is under ground and curvy, even in the Transbay Tube, and has much higher peak operating speeds than many other systems in the country.
Train noise on curves is caused by the wheels slipping along the rails. This slippage also causes noise and surface damage called corrugation. The process by which the noise and corrugation occur is:
- Pairs of wheels are attached to one another with an axle such that they must have the same rotational speed, but on a curve the distances the outer and inner wheels travel are different. As a result, the wheels must slip along the rails.
- This slippage causes the wheel and track to wear and become uneven.
- This corrugation causes more noise and corrugation, not only in the original location but elsewhere in the system.
Decommissioning
If Federal Transit Administration funds were used in the purchase of a vehicle and that vehicle is determined to have a value over $5,000 at the time of sale, the FTA is entitled to a reimbursement proportional to their contribution to that vehicle when it was initially bought. This applies even if the car is donated free of charge.The older cars began retirement in November 2019 as Car 2528 was the first released from BART ownership. The car was removed from service in 2014 by which time it had run and was held in reserve for spare parts. Four additional C2 cars, three B2 cars, and two C1 cars were additionally sent to the Schnitzer Steel facility in Oakland to be evaluated and recycled.
Fleet of the Future (D and E series)
In a 2010 APTA study, the average age of BART's mainline fleet was reported to be 30 years, longer than the usual lifespan of 25 years. Despite the purchase of newer cars over the years, the majority of the active fleet in 2016 was over 40 years old and had traveled over a million miles. Because of this, they have been increasing prone to frequent breakdowns and repairs, decreasing the number of available cars and in turn increasing congestion, especially with the need to increase the fleet size for extensions to the network. Consequently, in 2009, BART began the process of expanding and replacing its railcar fleet. By 2010, it had received proposals from five suppliers, and on May 10, 2012, it awarded a $896.3 million contract to Canadian railcar manufacturer Bombardier Transportation with an order for 410 new cars, split into a base order of 260 cars and a first option order of 150 additional cars. The car was designed by Morelli Designers, an industrial design firm based in Montréal, Canada. On November 21, 2013, BART purchased 365 more cars, for a total fleet size of 775 new railcars, while also accelerating the delivery schedule by 21 months and lowering procurement costs by approximately $135 million. According to the contract, at least ⅔ of the contract's amount must be spent on U.S.-built parts.There are two different types of car configurations for the new fleet; a cab car, which will make up 40% of the fleet, or, 310 cars, and a non-cab car, which will make up the remainder of the fleet, or, 465 cars. All cars are to be equipped with bike racks, new vinyl seats, and a brand new passenger information system which will display next stop information.
A major difference from the older cars is the presence of an extra set of doorways on each side of the new cars to speed up boarding and alighting. They also include redesigned seating, bike racks, digital displays that display travel information, and automatic announcements. Due to potential access issues for people with disabilities, the pilot car layout was modified by the BART board in February 2015 to include two wheelchair spaces in the center of the car, as well as alternative layouts for bike and flexible open spaces.
The first test car was unveiled in April 2016; upon approval, the first 10 cars were expected to be in service in December 2016, and at least 20 by December 2017. This was delayed several times until the production cars were expected to be delivered in October 2017. Delivery of all 775 cars was initially expected to be completed by Fall 2022, with all cars in service by 2023. Bombardier initially agreed to speed production to have all cars available by the end of 2021 and in service by 2022.
In early November 2017, a test train failed a CPUC regulatory inspection due to door issues, leaving the planned late November revenue service in doubt. The first ten-car train received CPUC certification on January 17, 2018, and began revenue service two days later on January 19. Plans to have 198 new cars by July 2018 did not materialize, and the agency had put only 20 in service at that time. After only running on the Richmond–Warm Springs/South Fremont line since January, a set of D and E cars began transbay service in October 2018.
By the end of March 2019, 65 cars were in use; four 10-car trains for revenue service and the remainder for training. In June 2019, with 84 total cars delivered, Bombardier announced it would be moving production from their New York-based plant to a new facility split with Hitachi Rail in Pittsburg, California in the East Bay.
In November 2018, BART announced they had negotiated to extend their purchase options to a total of 1,200 cars, though reports in 2019 stated that this deal was still not final.
BART had taken delivery of 218 cars, with 203 certified and 129 in service.