A and B series • Colma Yard • Concord Yard • Hayward Complex • Richmond Yard }} •
Westinghouse chopper control (original) •
Adtranz IGBT−
VVVF (refurbish) }} • WH 1463B DC (original) • Adtranz 1507C asynchronous 3-phase AC (refurbish) }} •
Thermo King (original) •
Westcode (refurbish) }} }} }} The
A and
B cars were built from 1968 to 1975 by
Rohr Industries, an aerospace manufacturing company that had recently started mass-transit equipment manufacturing. The first of these cars were delivered in 1970. The A cars were designed as leading or trailing cars only, with an aerodynamic fiberglass operator's cab housing train control equipment and BART's two-way communication system, and extending longer than the B-cars. A and B cars can seat 60 passengers comfortably, and under
crush load, carry over 200 passengers. B cars have no operator's cab and are used in the middle of trains to carry passengers only. However, since each car is self-propelled, the B cars do have
hostler controls allowing manual control as single units at low speeds inside a yard. As early as 1978, BART realized that it had ordered too many A cars, which were unable to operate in the middle of train, and too few B cars. Over time, about 113 A cars (about of the A car fleet) were converted into B cars by removing their fiberglass cabs and installing the inter-car connection equipment. BART previously operated 56 A cars and 341 B cars, and following their retirement on April 20, 2024, regular service will be of new cars only. To be able to maintain the vehicles until they are taken out of service, the workshop regularly procures computers on the second-hand market that can still address the old systems. Since the first series were newly designed, they had very few standard components, making them difficult to maintain.
C series }} Just as BART had realized in the mid-1970s that it had ordered too many A cars, it also learned that it took more time than desired to change the length of a train. BART had originally planned to bring trains into yards after the morning rush and remove B cars to shorten the trains for midday service, before returning them to yards again to add cars for the evening rush. Ultimately this procedure resulted in long downtimes and increased the number of operators needed. BART's solution to both issues was a new design, the
C car. A C car has an operator’s cab like an A car but can also be used as an intermediate car like a B car. When placed in the middle of a train consist, the operator's cab is closed off and a door in the nose opens, allowing passengers to pass through to the next car (always another C car). This allowed BART to make one long train that could quickly
break into two trains outside of a yard. Crews could also do the reverse and
make one long train from two shorter consists. To add the operator’s cab while maintaining the same length as a B car, the C cars could only seat 56 passengers (a loss of four seats). The second order of C cars, built by
Morrison–Knudsen, are known as
C2 cars. At the time of their construction, the C2 cars also featured
flip-up seats which could be folded to accommodate wheelchair users; these seats were later removed during refurbishment. The C cars had a bright white segment as the final approximately of the car at their cab end.
Refurbishments After about 25 years in service, the A and B car fleet was rebuilt, using lessons learned when building the C cars, and the advances in technology since then. Among the changes were a conversion from DC to AC propulsion (detailed below), rebuilt trucks and suspension, and a complete cleaning and repair to the exterior and interior of the cars. The work was done between 1998 and 2002 at first by
Pittsburg, California-based
ADtranz and later by
Bombardier which acquired the company in 2001. A cars, (fleet numbers 101–276) were either rebuilt while retaining their cab (and renamed
A2 cars, fleet numbers 1164–1276), or rebuilt without a cab (converted into
B2 cars, fleet numbers 1838–1913). B cars (fleet numbers 501–774, 801–837) were rebuilt into B2 cars (fleet numbers 1501–1774, 1801–1837). Because one of the original design goals was for all BART riders to be seated, the older cars had fewer provisions such as grab bars for
standing passengers. In the late 2000s BART began modifying some of the C2 cars to test features such as hand-straps and additional areas for luggage, wheelchairs and bicycles. These new features were later added to the A, B, and C1 cars. Prior to 2012, all BART cars featured upholstered seats. It was reported in 2011 that several strains of
molds and bacteria were found on fabric seats on BART trains, even after wiping with antiseptic. These included bacteria from
fecal contamination. In April, BART announced it would spend $2 million in the next year to replace the dirty seats. The new seats would feature vinyl-covered upholstery which would be easier to clean. The transition to the new seats was completed in December 2014. Originally all the cars had carpeted flooring. Due to similar concerns regarding cleanliness, the carpeting in all of the cars was removed. The A and B, and C2 cars featured vinyl flooring in either grey or blue coloring, while the C1 cars featured a spray-on composite flooring.
Traction motors Prior to rebuilding, the Direct Current (DC) traction motors used on the 439 Rohr BART cars were Model 1463B with
chopper from
Westinghouse, who also built the automatic train control system for BART. The Rohr cars were rebuilt with ADtranz model 1507C 3-phase alternating current (AC) traction motors with
insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) inverters. The Westinghouse motors were retained on the Alstom C (C1) and Morrison-Knudsen C2 cars and the motors that were removed from the Rohr cars were kept as spares. Cars have a starting acceleration of and are capable of holding that acceleration up to . Residual acceleration at is . Braking rates range from up to (full service rate). The
HVAC systems on the Rohr BART cars before rehabilitation were built by
Thermo King, when it was a subsidiary of Westinghouse. The current HVAC systems on the rebuilt Rohr-built Gen 1 cars were built by
Westcode and possibly also ADtranz who had subcontracted the HVAC system to Westcode.
Noise Many BART passengers have noted that the system is noisy, with a 2010 survey by the
San Francisco Chronicle measuring up to 100
decibels (comparable to the noise level of a jackhammer) in the
Transbay Tube between San Francisco and Oakland, and still more than 90 decibels in 23 other locations. According to BART, the noise in the tunnel used to be "compared to banshees, screech owls, or
Doctor Who's TARDIS run amok".
Train noise on curves is caused by the wheels slipping along the rails. This slippage also causes noise and surface damage called
corrugation. The process by which the noise and corrugation occur is: BART also announced that the new train cars expected to enter service in December 2016 (see below) will be quieter, thanks to "'micro-plug' doors [that] help seal out noise".
Decommissioning If
Federal Transit Administration funds were used in the purchase of a vehicle and that vehicle is deemed to have a value over $5,000 at the time of sale, the FTA is entitled to a reimbursement proportional to its contribution to that vehicle when it was initially bought. This applies even if the car is
donated free of charge. The older cars began retirement in November 2019 when car 2528a C2 carwas the first released from BART ownership. The car had been removed from service in 2014, by which time it had run and was held in reserve for spare parts. Four additional C2 cars, three B2 cars, and two C1 cars (totalling ten cars) were also sent to the
Schnitzer Steel facility in Oakland to be evaluated and recycled. BART strategically targeted the C2 cars to be the first in the legacy fleet to be completely decommissioned. The C2 cars had a multitude of issues including HVAC units that were the most likely in the fleet to break down, passenger doors that would often come off their tracks, and operator cabs with windows that would frequently fail and windshield wipers that would become stuck. By August 2021, all 80 of the C2 cars had been scrapped. The decommissioning of the legacy fleet was complete by September 11, 2023, by which point they no longer operated as part of regularly scheduled operations. However, the agency kept legacy cars on hand for occasional supplement service, such as on days with major events or during a service disruption. Due to reduced ridership in the wake of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, full-length trains did not typically fill up, so BART chose to retire the legacy fleet and operate shorter trains with the intention of cutting costs and improving user experience. BART hosted a retirement ceremony for the legacy fleet on April 20, 2024, with trains running on the MacArthur–Fremont segment (the first segment of BART to open). This was the final revenue operation of the A, B, and C cars.
Preservation In March 2022, BART announced eight finalists for receipt of decommissioned cars. Planned reuses include a short-term rental, bars, and a training facility for firefighters in Hayward. While systems such as the
Chicago Transit Authority and
New York City Transit Authority have retained some retired railcars as part of a "heritage fleet" that operates on charters and special occasions, BART has stated such a fleet would not be feasible due to the cars' incompatibility with the newer CBTC system, as well as limited yard space to store them and the obsolete components needed to maintain them. Thus, BART has instead opted to donate their historic cars to the
Western Railway Museum, giving them one each of the A, B, and C1 cars, as well as other historic components which are to eventually be featured in the museum's planned Rapid Transit History Center. The museum received the first legacy car, A2 car no. 1164 on August 9, 2024, followed by B2 car no. 1834 on September 11, and finally, C1 car no. 329 on October 4, 2024. == Fleet of the Future (D and E series) ==