Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in San Francisco, United States, has joined the Nova benchmarking consortium as part of the North American Sub-Group. The North American Sub-Group brings together metro operators in North America to collaborate on benchmarking and focus on challenges particularly affecting operators in the region.
BART is a network of approximately 180km and 46 stations, transporting 124 million passengers annually. It opened in phases between 1972-1974 and now operates across five lines, as well as an automated guideway transit line serving Oakland International Airport. It runs a 24 Trains per Hour (TPH) frequency with a fleet of over 650 cars. Given its unique design and geography in the region, BART also continues to participate in the International Suburban Rail Benchmarking Group (ISBeRG).
BART has some exciting programmes underway, including the delivery of new train cars and managing extension projects. In 2018, BART opened the East Contra Costa County extension and its trains run on renewable diesel fuel. This follows the 8.6km Warm Springs Extension project, which opened in 2017, and serves as the starting extension towards Silicon Valley. BART is currently delivering its “Better BART” project, which aims to improve the system’s safety and reliability. This involves extensive projects such as track replacement, power line and structure repairs, infrastructure and station renewal, and delivering increased capacity through implementing Communications-Based Train Control signalling (CBTC).