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The ABCs of BART

In coverage of BART’s power problems this week, some articles have referred to the problem as effecting the C cars.

You may have worked out that “C” likely means this is BART’s third set of cars, but there aren’t any giant letters on the side to make it obvious which ones are the “C” cars. So here’s how it breaks down.

The “A” and “B” cars are the original fleet which was built in the 1960s and have been in service since BART opened in 1972. Of BART’s 669 vehicle fleet:

• 59 are “A” cars are the slanted nose cab cars at each end of the train where the operator sits.
• 389 are “B” cars are the passenger cars in the middle.
• 230 are “C” cars are the flat-faced cab cars. They where built in two batches, but nearly identical. The 150 “C1” cars built in the mid-1980s, and second batch of 80 “C2” cars in the early 1990s.

When the trains were designed half a century ago, BART didn’t anticipate they would be coupling and decoupling trains during the day and outside of a rail yard, so the “A” cars don’t have the couplers or equipment needed to connect them to each other head on. The flat-fronted “C” cars can be joined facing each other, allowing those 4 and 5 car trains during the day to be quickly turned into 8-10 cars

The new BART fleet will be made up of 775 rail cars. The 310 cars with an operator cab at the end are the “D” cars and the remaining 465 are the non-cab “E” cars. Ultimately though, BART wants to up the order to 1081 if it can find the funding.