The only catch is that you’ll have to wait until 2015 to try them out. SFGate reports:
The cars will sport a sleek modern look, cleaner seats, digital information displays, even air conditioning that works on hot days.
Each car will have three doors to speed boarding, but will still have 60 seats, all made of an easier-to-clean material. Seats will be reconfigured with standard seating in rows at each end of the car, and seats situated more informally around standing areas and places for wheelchairs, bikes and luggage in the center.
Looks like those cranial liminal survey scans conducted on BART passengers have finally paid off! But will they allow bikes on board during rush hour?
Previously:
Cool — that’ll be weird and futuristic when I come back to visit San Francisco after my retirement. Looking forward to the Chinatown subway for the same reason. Oh, and the San Jose BART extension.
Speaking of which, it sounds like the funding is on track for the downtown SJ extension.
Better yet — before construction on that even starts VTA light rail will finally be connected to Bart!
F^@$ yeah ! chinatown underground.. ! +1
There’s bikes on every rush hour car I’m on now. Why would that change?
Bikes are not allowed on BART trains during rush hours – but only on the downtown section, and in the busy direction – into town in the morning, out of town in the evening. Perhaps that’s just not thoroughly enforced!
Don’t trust BART to do anything.
I trust them to shut off my cell phone service during emergencies.
I do, because I don’t have a fucking cell fucking phone, and I think that anyone who can’t live without one for an hour is fucking stupid.
Sometimes you need to call 911; shutting down any phone service is potentially life-threatening.
There was no underground cell service until Bart provided it.
I think you dropped these http://blog.compete.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Hipster-Glasses.jpg
I prefer the seats as they are. They’re unlike any other transit car in the world and the bacteria builds up the immune system.
Too funny! I always thought they were dirty when I was a kid in the 70s going on school trip.
Your germs are still there
If you like that, I can give you an even more direct exposure to a substance that will alter your immune system. Bend over and grab your ankles.
I hope we don’t give up the comfort…
So somehow reducing the amount of places people have to sit down is making things better? Does not compute.
more people fit on a train standing than sitting. /compute
And you could fit even more people by replacing BART cars with cattle cars.
Doesn’t the article say that the cars will “still have 60 seats”? It’s the same amount of places for people to sit, but configured in a way (against the sides) that creates more space for people to stand.
I like those little slots they appear to have for sticking bike wheels in.
Overall though, I prefer the fabric seats. Otherwise, it’s a glorified Muni car. Those hard plastic seats blow.
do you have any idea how much filth lives on those nasty seat cushions ? I saw a homeless dude wacking off on my way to Oakland one morning. You probably sat in the stain last week.
Long haul public transit like BART needs more seats than these cars offer.
Nooooo! Please BART, please, no plastic! Keep the carpet and those sofa-like seats! I really like that.
Begone, stinking cloth!
Heres hoping they engineered the wheels to not scrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaape the rails this time.
The wheels are not a problem as much as rails-on-concrete are. I’m guessing they’ll have a new design to try and keep the cars from ruining the rails over time.
Currently BART has to continually grind rails during nonservice hours to take out the ‘wavyness’ that the current cars introduce over time.
…and I thought BART was in the red ?