WHERE DO BART CARS GO WHEN THEY RETIRE?
With a new fleet on the way, the tracks need to be cleared. Ideas for what to do with the decommissioned trains range from practical (housing) to outrageous (drag show prop)
OAKLAND >> A Bay Area-themed bar? Props for a Hollywood movie? A gondola to the Greek Theater in Berkeley? Or, how about train-cars-turned-box-seats for baseball fans at a new A’s stadium?
Maybe all of the above?
Those were some of the ideas stirring in a Twitterstorm BART set off when it floated the idea of what to do with its old, dysfunctional cars as it makes way for a brand-new fleet. Already, about 45 new train cars have arrived, with about half carrying passengers.
As new cars arrive, they’ll help grow BART’s fleet so that the agency can run longer trains to carry more passengers, BART staffer Melissa Jordan said in a blog post on the agency’s website. Within the span of three years, BART expects to have 775 new cars on hand, replacing all 669 of its cars that were built in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, some of which have been rehabbed, and some not.
At some point, though, BART will have to begin retiring its old cars to make room for the new ones. It will target its worstperforming cars first by analyzing data on how long each car goes without needing repairs, its condition, how many hours it has operated in service, and time remaining on key
components in the car, among other factors. But then what? There’s a lot of interest in the old cars, including from train museums and trade schools, businesses and artists, Jordan said. The agency can’t resell them to other transit agencies because BART uses a different gauge of tracks than standard rail. And, it can’t just give them away, either.
When the Federal Transit Administration provides grants to agencies to build new train cars, or in BART’s case, rehab its old ones, it requires a return of its share of investment if that property is sold or donated, as long as the items are valued over $5,000.
The FTA provided BART more than 70 percent of the funds it needed to rehab its oldest cars, comprising 439 of its 669 cars, and gave the agency nearly 55 percent of its funds to rehab the cars it got in the mid1980s, representing 150 cars. It didn’t, however, fund BART’s newest cars built in the 1990s, called the C2 cars, which also tend to be the most problematic when it comes to breaking down. There are 80 of those on hand.
So, if a single train car were valued at, say, $10,000 and originally funded with a 70 percent match by the FTA, the FTA would be entitled to $7,000 — whether the cars were sold or donated.
There’s no estimate for how much BART cars are worth, Philip Kamhi, a project manager for BART, said Thursday, and they could range anywhere from zero to $15,000. The agency plans to dispose of a few cars in a limited pilot to determine their value, he said.
Among BART’s governing board, there was interest in donating the cars to museums that focus on trains, California or Bay Area history, using them to help teach firefighters how to battle a blaze in a BART car or using some as either temporary or permanent shelters for homeless residents.
But it’s clear, Kamhi said, the cars have “captured the imagination of the Bay” and ideas for their creative reuse abound. He’s actively collecting those ideas, he said, and making a list with the most popular among them.
So, what would you do with a decommissioned BART car? You can send your ideas to BART by filling out the contact form on the agency’s website at www.BART. Gov/Contact/Comments.