San Francisco's BART receives $544 million loan for railcar upgrades

The U.S. Department of Transportation is loaning the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) $544.6 million for the purchase of 775 new passenger railcars.

The new railcars are part of a $2.2 billion upgrade and expansion of the entire BART system, which serves 48 million passengers each year.

BART’s new railcars feature numerous accessibility and safety improvements, including:

LED screens to provide improved information to passengers.

Digital cameras to enhance security and crime prevention.

Three doors for entry and exit compared to just two in previous railcars.

These new BART cars also feature lightweight aluminum exteriors that reduce energy usage, white roofs that help to deflect heat to lessen the load on the interior cooling system and improved regenerative braking that returns electricity to the power distribution system.

Additionally, 100% of BART’s electric traction power comes from clean hydropower and renewable sources.

By financing the cost of the cars, BART is able to use its other capital funds to invest in a new headquarters for the BART Police Department.

The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan is provided through DOT’s Build America Bureau.

“BART is thrilled to collaborate with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau for the first time,” says BART Board President Bevan Dufty. “Our new ‘Fleet of the Future’ rail cars are an important component of BART’s Safe and Clean plan and crucial to our efforts to grow ridership post-pandemic.”

In addition to this federal loan, BART recently received $25 million from California’s Cycle 7 Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) for the North Berkeley Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Mobility Enhancements Project.

This funding will be used to build two transit plazas and improve pedestrian and bicycle access to promote non-automotive transportation at the North Berkeley Station. The project will also see the station’s parking lot transformed into housing and open space with the goal of turning the station into a mixed-use, sustainable community.

Photo courtesy Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons