BART slows rollout of new trains as it contends with more repairs than expected

Post by jplayer01 » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 1:40 PM UTC

pilif wrote: post #4

The Swiss national train company has their own share of issues with trains built by Bombardier. After years of delays, what was finally delivered is horribly unreliable and passengers also don't like the shaking feeling when they do run. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBB_RABe_502 Two examples doesn't make a trend, but seeing how similar the issues are, maybe there is some systemic issue plaguing them.

Post by wbl » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 2:14 PM UTC

hyperbovine wrote: post #25

pmoriarty wrote: post #13

About 20 to 25 years ago, I took a trip from the US (where I'd lived most of my life) to travel around Europe by train, and I was immensely impressed by its far superior train system. The best trains of all the countries I visited were in Sweden, which had trains which were so modern that they seemed like something out of the future, even compared to the best trains I'd seen in the US by that time, Amtrak trains. The…

It’s not really a fair comparison. In terms of where people actually live (the upper two thirds of Sweden is almost empty) its roughly comparable to Ohio: about ten million people clustered in 4 or 5 major cities within a few hours drive distance from each other. Of course it will be easier to provide superior rail service there. This is not so say that Ohio has its act together as far as public transit is concerned…

Post by inferiorhuman » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 2:36 PM UTC

bradleybuda wrote: post #35

> “I don’t know everything these new trains can do — they probably have artificial intelligence or something — but I know they’re better than these buckets of steel we’re sitting in,” said Board President Bevan Dufty. Maybe this guy shouldn’t be president of the BART board? I mean, lots of other people quoted in the article seem to know what they do.

Post by bluejekyll » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 2:50 PM UTC

travisoneill1 wrote: post #20

Why are they buying new trains instead of fixing the tracks? There are many places on the BART system where the track have not been replaced in so long that trains have to slow to a crawl for safety reasons. New trains don't solve that.

Post by richk449 » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

yardie wrote: post #19

hamandcheese wrote: post #2

> BART gets to withhold the last 5 percent payment for the $2.5 billion fleet until both sets of cars hit their maintenance targets Is it just me or does 5% not seem like nearly a large enough percent? If I only had to hit 20% of my expected performance in exchange for 95% of my pay... I would have a lot more hobbies.

Most of these large capital contracts leave very little money for profit upfront. That comes from long term maintenance. If they are the lowest bidder they are probably losing money even at 95% payout.