BART Renovation Program Nearing Completion.

Business/News Editors

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 26, 2002

BART officials reported today that the $1.2 billion 10-year system-wide renovation, begun in 1995, is 90 percent complete in the seventh year of the program.

The renovation program was designed to ensure that as the system aged it will continue to provide optimum customer service now, and in the years ahead, through the modernization of its plant, and critical components.

Last week BART celebrated the acceptance of the last transit car to be renovated from its original fleet. A major component of the overall renovation program, 439 original A & B cars, each having logged over one million miles of service, were completely rebuilt, top to bottom. The renovated cars include new top of the line operating equipment, new motors, new suspension and braking systems, air conditioning units and completely new interiors.

BART General Manager Tom Margro said the rebuilt cars not only have 20 years of added life at about half the cost to purchase the same number of new cars, but are about 35 percent more reliable than before they were renovated.

The car renovation was completed by Bombardier Transportation in Pittsburg, Calif., under a $330 million contract.

Margro said another major element of BART's modernization program is the replacement of all of its fare vending equipment. This includes new fare gates which are now being installed in stations, and new state of the art ticket vending machines which will begin to appear next month, and change machines.

"The new ticket machines have been designed to be very user friendly and will accept major credit-debit cards as well as cash or coin," Margro said. "They will also accommodate disabled persons in wheel chairs, meeting Americans With Disability Act requirements."

He said the new ticket machines will also issue BART's new plastic tickets which will replace the current paper tickets and will be a great deal more durable.

Since beginning the program BART has completed the replacement or overhaul of all 60 elevators in the original core system, 111 escalators with nine remaining, renovation of 20 stations, expansion of its transit car maintenance shops which has translated into more transit cars available for service each morning, upgrading wayside train control and track switching mechanisms.

Another major component of BART's long range plans to enhance service and meet future ridership demand is the work that is underway to complete the system's new Advanced Automatic Train Control (AATC). The new train control system will help to increase train frequency and thus increase passenger capacity, particularly for transbay travel.

BART Board President Joel Keller said that in the final analysis the transit system's renovation program has not only been an investment in the future, but an investment in customer service.

"Our goal is to provide the customer with the most reliable, comfortable and economic ride possible," Keller said. "And I think we're achieving that day in and day out."

Keller thanked BART's riders for their patience over the last few years as the transit system carried out its renovation program.

He noted that a byproduct of the renovation investment is the generation of thousands of jobs producing the products and providing the services needed to carry out the program.

BART's overall renovation program is expected to be substantially completed by mid-2004.