MOVING FORWARD WITH THE FUTURE
Bay Area Rapid Transit
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Bay Area Rapid Transit
Moving Forward with the Future Written by: Robert Spence Produced by: Seth Lull
Customer technology, green initiatives, and its fleet of the future is putting Bay Area Rapid Transit on track for the next 40 years
OCTOBER | 2013 |
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Bay Area Rapid Transit Moving Forward with the Future
T
he concept of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) dates back to 1920; however, it wasn’t until September of 1972 when the rail car service officially opened its fare gates to the public. Since then the agency has been the backbone of Bay Area transit providing fast, reliable transportation to residents throughout the Bay Area, connecting the San Francisco Peninsula with Oakland, Berkeley and other East Bay cities. Through 104 miles of track and service in four counties, BART is able to carry 400,000 passengers a day with 95 percent on-time performance. Additionally, the transit agency has applied a variety of long-term initiatives to improve its carbon footprint and infrastructure, as well as upgrade its customer service ability. The agency has projects in place to keep BART on track for the next 40 years. “Our aging system is at a critical point,” says BART General Manager Grace Crunican. “BART has a plan to renew and rebuild. It’s time for reinvestment. We’re putting the strategies in place now to make sure BART can serve the Bay Area well into the future.”
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Green Initiatives In a major overhaul to go green and curb its carbon footprint, BART has been in the forefront to implement sustainability, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reducing projects across its organization. BART uses fuel efficient hybrid vehicles for station parking enforcement and maintenance. “In 2002 the agency adopted a renewable policy promoting the use of environmentally friendly access modes; such as bikes, walking and buses,” BART Access Manager Robert Franklin said. BART provides a total of 5,403 bike parking spaces by installing lockers and racks, and creating bike stations for passengers. In 2009 BART started the first of many energy projects aimed at sustainability with its Richmond maintenance shop. The upgrade included installing 912 photovoltaic energy panels estimated to avoid more than 4.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over a 20 year period, and to generate enough power to lift a 25-ton rail car. The installation of another major solar energy system on the roof of the Hayward maintenance shop followed soon after. The agency adopted Environmental Design standards
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for all of its stations and facilities. The strict guidelines focus on water conservation, energy efficiency, sustainable construction materials and indoor environmental quality. BART uses fuel efficient hybrid vehicles for station parking enforcement and maintenance. “California has long been in the forefront of environmental protection, which involves implementing measures to improve air and water quality, promote sustainability and reduce greenhouse emissions,” says BART Communications Officer Luna Salaver. Over the next 20 years, BART’s green initiatives will be able to shave approximately $3.4 million off its energy costs. “Many people know when they ride BART they help to protect our environment,” says Salaver. “These projects underscore our mission to provide an energy efficient way to travel around the Bay Area.”
and spaces hundreds of transit cars daily. Decades later, BART was recognized as a leader in customer service technology when in 1998 it became one of the first transit agencies in the nation to establish open data sharing. Since then, BART has enabled various applications for passengers to view departure times, service advisories, and directions in real-time with third-party apps. Passengers can receive email and text message updates, as well as utilize BART’s own mobile web app. “Now sharing open data is common practice for public entities, but doing this early on launched our ability to provide customer service at our riders’ finger tips,” says BART Website
Customer Service at your finger tips Technology has been the cornerstone of BART’s service model. In 1972 it was one of the first major rapid transit systems to have an automated system that safely starts, stops, runs OCTOBER | 2013 |
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Manager Timothy Moore. According to a recent analysis, BART has more apps per rider than any agency in the country. Not only does this empower customers with choice, but it creates competition among developers to see who can serve BART customers best while spurring innovation in the app and mobile industry. Fleet of the Future What was once celebrated as a “state-of-the-art” fleet, BART’s trains have declined with four decades of use. According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the Bay Area Rapid Transit has the oldest fleet of rail cars among large domestic transit agencies.
Bay Area Rapid Transit
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Moving Forward with the Future Supplier Profile
pot by allocating $140 million from Proposition 1A, California’s the high-speed rail bond, to purchase West Bay Builders 46 new rail cars that will provide Employees: 175 new service from the BART/Caltrain Established: 1989 Millbrae Station directly to San Francisco International Airport. Management: The new rail cars will be quieter Paul Thompson, President and will have more doors for Joe Hass, Vice President easier boarding, thus improving Website: customers’ travel experience. www.westbaybuilders.com BART is requiring the builders to meet the highest standards in the United States regarding train car interior noise and noise absorption. BART prioritized additional Visit us online: features requested specifically by passengers. The new cars will feature more designated areas for “The technology in these bikes, wheelchairs, strollers and old cars has become outdated travelers with luggage as well as as significant improvements in more open seating. According to propulsion, communications and BART’s Chief Marketing Officer failure monitoring have developed,” Aaron Weinstein, “The Fleet of the BART Board President Tom Future will include digital screens to Radulovich said. “Many of the older enhance passenger information and systems are no longer produced, state-of-the-art security cameras making it difficult and costly to find to assist BART police in monitoring parts for repair and maintenance.” the safety of our passengers.” To overcome these issues and BART has also approved the BART’s growing capacity needs, final assembly of the cars to take the BART Board of Directors voted place in the United States with unanimously to reinvest $46 million at least 2/3 of the manufactured in its “Fleet of the Future.” The components being made in the state offered support towards the U.S.A. The innovative new rail cars Fleet of the Future procurement will arrive in 2015 for testing, with OCTOBER | 2013 |
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Bay Area Rapid Transit Moving Forward with the Future
the first passenger service train rolling out in 2017. One of the added benefits of BART’s Fleet of the Future is how environmentally sustainable it is. The new fleet is designed to be the lightest mass transit rail cars in the world. Not only does design reduce energy consumption, the trains actually convert their kinetic energy of motion into electrical energy as the train slows down. The energy regenerates during the process and is returned to the power distribution system where it is then reused by other trains. BART is also focusing on the need to modernize its aging infrastructure. “New cars are on the way, and that’s just the beginning.” Crunican said. “We’re going to have to replace the communications system, the wayside power system, the destination signs, onboard equipment—the list of our capital needs goes on and on. Extensions to San Jose, the Oakland Airport, and E-BART to Antioch will be in operation by the end of this decade. That means more capacity is already headed our way. With that, we are looking to overhaul our Operations Control Center.” 8
The transit agency has identified $16 billion worth of essential capital needs in the next 30 years. These costs include upgrading its entire train control system, modernizing its 44 stations and maintaining its 104 miles of track. One critical endeavor to accommodate growth is its Hayward Maintenance Complex (HMC) project. The $369 million renovation consists of major improvements to three properties on the west side of the existing Hayward Yard. The deal would also provide additional storage tracks for up to 250 additional BART cars as well as fulfilling objectives centered on upgrading its maintenance program. Plans for the Future Since 1972 BART has grown significantly both geographically and in ridership. According to the latest projections from the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the ninecounty Bay Area must find a way to accommodate another 2 million residents by 2040. The region also expects to add another million jobs over that period. If BART cannot evolve to meet this need,
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STATISTICS
travel commutes will grow longer, congestion will grow worse, open space will be lost and we will suffer from declining air quality. BART is pioneering other ways to address capacity with efforts to find answers to these questions. Under the BART Metro concept, the agency would offer two distinct categories of service: “Metro Core” service between dense urban centers, and “Metro Commute” service throughout the BART system. But BART can’t do it alone. It needs help from the federal government as well as support from taxpayers, riders and BART employees. “Right now the federal government is not offering much assistance to transit agencies,” Crunican said. “We need a financial partnership to modernize BART so we can continue to serve the Bay Area in the next 40 years and beyond. To accommodate a growing population we need about $16 billion. So far, we have identified sources for nearly $7 billion, but we need riders, taxpayers and employees to contribute about $3 billion to reinvest into the system.”
The BART story began in 1946. It began not by governmental fiat, but as a concept gradually evolving at informal gatherings of business and civic leaders on both sides of the San Francisco Bay. Facing a heavy post-war migration to the area and its consequent automobile boom, these people discussed ways of easing the mounting congestion that was clogging the bridges spanning the Bay. In 1947, a joint Army-Navy review Board concluded that another connecting link between San Francisco and Oakland would be needed in the years ahead to prevent intolerable congestion on the Bay Bridge. The link? An underwater tube devoted exclusively to high-speed electric trains. Website:
www.bart.gov
Visit us online:
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Bay Area Rapid Transit P.O. Box 12688 Oakland CA 94604-2688 T: 510 465-2278 www.bart.gov
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