A wet weather-related braking glitch on BART’s new “Fleet of the Future” accounts for many of the delays plaguing the system this rainy winter, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has learned.
The delays have hit as BART is introducing more of its new “Fleet of the Future” train cars, which it has long touted as far superior to its “legacy” fleet.
Allison says the new cars are equipped with sensors that detect when train wheels slide or spin too fast on rain slickened rails. The idea is to make sure the train can safely stop at the next station. When the sensors kick on, the train’s emergency “fail-safe” brakes activate to assure safety. That solves the safety problem, he says, but creates a reliability problem.
The uneven wear on the wheels caused by that braking forces entire trains into the shop, like BART’s maintenance yard in Hayward. BART officials say it can take as many as three work shifts to resurface the wheels on one car, far longer an entire eight to ten car trains. But in February of 2022, BART started accepting new train cars despite the continued braking problem. BART’s Allison says that was because the transit agency still believed the new cars superior over its legacy fleet.
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