BART hits snag with ‘Fleet of the Future’
BART’s $2.6 billion effort to swap out its decades- old f leet of trains with gleaming new cars has hit another snag.
T he “F leet of the Future” has been suffering f rom sof t wa re glitches a n d o t h e r p r o b l ems , BART officials said this week , to the point the agency will stop accepting new cars until their manufacturer, the Canad ia n f irm Bomba rdier, fixes the issues.
The temporary halt of deliveries will start Jan. 8, and is expected to last for at least 12 weeks. BART officials said the delay will allow Bombardier “time to take steps to improve the cars’ reliability and availability.”
BART has already accepted close to 300 of a planned 775 new cars. The fleet is a key part of efforts to expand the BART system’s capacity — a top
priority for the agency in the pre-pandemic era when commuters would cram into packed trains to cross the bay at rush hour.
Bombardier’s new cars have have fewer seats, so there is more room for standing riders. And there are three doors, which makes it easier to enter and exit crowded trains. They also offer a quieter ride, with touches like digital system maps, and are supposed to be more reliable than the aging “legacy” fleet.
But BART officials say the new trains “routinely” suffer a problem with the software in their on-board automatic train control system while in service. The glitch keeps the train stopped until the operator reboots the system, which can cause delays of 5 to 10 minutes.
The trains also have trouble in the rain: Their metal wheels “can develop flat spots” when they come to a stop amid wet conditions, BART says, requir
ing maintenance workers to take the train out of service and resurface the wheels.
While they are popular with riders, the new fleet has had a rocky entrance. Their 2018 debut was delayed after a failed safety inspection, and in 2016 one of the new trains crashed during a training run on the system’s Hayward test track.
A statement provided by Bombardier spokesman Maryanne Roberts did not directly address the problems BART officials reported, but said, “Bombardier Transpor tation is committed to working closely with BART to address any issues with the Fleet of the Future rail cars as quickly as possible and to make sure that these state- of-the-art cars provide the highest levels of performance expected by BART and the traveling public.”