By Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor, Railway Age Magazine; September 15, 2020
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.