BART’s Transbay Project Gets $1.2 Billion Boost

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
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BART is expected to increase the number of Transbay Tube trains it operates during its busiest period from 23 per hour in each direction (before shelter-in-place orders took effect in March) to 30. Photo: San Francisco Chronicle

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has issued a $1.2 billion grant for Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program between Oakland and downtown San Francisco. It is the largest grant ever awarded to BART. The funding comes from FTA’s Capital Investment Grants (CIG) Program. The total project will cost $2.7 billion.

To increase capacity through the Transbay Tube, the project will include 252 additional new railcars and a CBTC (communications-based train control) system that will enable closer headways. BART will also build a new storage yard at the Hayward Maintenance Complex to accommodate the new cars, and add five substations in San Francisco and the East Bay to handle more frequent, longer trains.

BART is expected to increase the number of Transbay Tube trains it operates during its busiest period from 23 per hour in each direction (before shelter-in-place orders took effect in March) to 30.

In June 2019, FTA advanced the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program to the engineering phase of the CIG Program, and allocated $300 million toward it.

Moving this project forward doesn’t eliminate BART’s need for emergency funding to continue running trains and to fill budget shortfalls brought on by COVID-19. Click here for Railway Track & Structures Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson’s Rail Group On Air Podcast interview with BART’s Alicia Trost on how the agency is dealing with the pandemic.

FTA has advanced funding for 40 new CIG projects nationwide since early 2017, totaling some $10.7 billion in commitments. Click HERE for the list.

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