BART’s new fleet sees the light of day
New train in town. pic.twitter.com/uBaUxQLPli
— SFBART (@SFBART) October 16, 2016
If you blinked, you might’ve missed it—last weekend BART slowly rolled out (get it?) a test model of its new fleet of trains for some of us to “oooh” and “ahhhh” over. SFGate has details on upcoming tests if you didn’t catch this one:
Overnight testing for the train should start in the next two weeks, said Paul Oversier, assistant general manager for BART, with daytime runs starting in December and tests with passengers starting in early 2017.
According to that same SFGate post, some people who did get to ride lodged some complaints:
Regular BART commuters from Pleasant Hill and elsewhere into the East Bay bemoaned the lack of seats available on the new cars. Already, the current cars with four more seats are overcrowded, they said, and standing for an hour commute isn’t exactly comfortable.
Changes from the current fleet include: more standing room, higher ceilings, a more-efficient AC system, three boarding doors per car (versus the current two), and better ways to secure bicycles. BART’s plan is to have 775 new cars by 2021 to try to keep up with an ever-expanding ridership.
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