BART’s new railcars win praise from riders
Significant changes inside a stark contrast to familiar exterior
BART rolled out its long-awaited new railcars Friday, surprising unsuspecting riders accustomed to the tired old ones, which the transit system now refers to as its “legacy cars.”
The passengers pronounced the new cars a big improvement.
They liked the new features: video information screens, electronic signs displaying the name of the next station, the automated announcements, the third door and the quieter ride.
But what they noticed most was that the cars were squeaky clean.
“It’s nice and clean — and I hope it stays that way,” said Teresa Johnson, a contracts and grants analyst who lives in Hayward and has ridden BART to
Oakland daily for the past 20 years. “I like the look of it. It’s very cool.”
BART’s new railcars, strung into a 10-car train, made their public debut following a brief ribbon-cutting at Oakland’s MacArthur Station. BART officials, politicians, the media, longtime BART employees and anyone who happened to be heading toward Richmond climbed aboard.
It made all stops, picking up anyone who was waiting. Then the train reversed directions and picked up more riders as it headed to Warm Springs/ South Fremont Station.
Most of the passengers were pleasantly surprised by the experience. Luwam Michael, a 30-year-old customer-service worker from Oakland, smiled broadly as she stepped aboard in downtown Berkeley and looked around before taking a seat.
“Wow,” she said. “Everything is so nice. I took an old train to work this morning, and now I’m on this new train. Wow.”
From the outside, the trains still have that BART look with the silvery aluminum skin broken up by panels of blue and white. Inside, though, they have a whole new look — colorful blue and green seats that some have mocked as being in Seattle Seahawks colors, wider aisles, bike racks, poles in the center of the cars for hanging onto, and video screens.
“I love the way it looks,” said Leonard Dugan, 34, of Oakland, an event manager who climbed aboard in El Cerrito. “It looks like the old cars but futurized.”
Dugan was particularly impressed with the technology — the mellow automated female voice that announces the next station over a public address system that’s actually understandable, the video maps with a moving dot showing the train’s location and provideing BART information, and the electronic displays at the end of each car that tell riders which station is coming up.
“It’s impressive,” Dugan said.
He also liked the plastic molded seats that provide lumbar support and are covered with an inch-thick squishy plastic cushion.
“The seats are so comfortable, I might fall asleep,” he said.
There are fewer seats — four or five per car — than on the older cars, however, and several first-train riders said that could be a problem on crowded trains.
BART sacrificed seats in the new cars to make room for the third door to speed passenger loading and unloading, for the poles in the center, and bike racks in some cars. The seats also take up less room, making for wider aisles, and sit higher off the floor, creating room for people to stash their stuff.
“It’s going to feel roomier and more comfortable, and that will make all the difference for riders,” said Grace Crunican, BART’s general manager.
Although the new cars have three doors, trains will continue to pull up to the existing black markings on the yellow platform edge strips. BART will add a third black marking for the middle door as soon as the majority of its cars have three doors, something that will take years.
For now, the new cars will be kept together in a 10-car train traveling on the Richmond-Warm Springs/South Fremont line during less-busy hours — 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and 8 p.m.-midnight Monday through Friday, and on weekends. After they’re broken in, they’ll run during commute hours and on all lines.
The 10 cars pressed into service Friday had been tested for months without passengers and were certified for use by state safety regulators Wednesday night. Another 10 have been delivered and will be brought into service after they are tested with a ride through the system with state Public Utilities Commission inspectors. Future cars will undergo simpler testing.
BART expects delivery of a new batch of cars — quantity not announced — in February. Over the next several years, manufacturer Bombardier is expected to start producing and delivering 16 to 20 cars per month to BART.