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Re: Standard gauge diesel powered BART trains??
Author: Retired BART Design Engineer
Date: 06-01-2018 - 18:27
> The cost was quite a bit lower.
No it was not!
They may tell the public that. But after cost overruns pushing several hundred millions, for a lousy 9 miles, and being more than half a decade late besides - it is a big fat lie! But even without the cost overruns, It would still cost just as much as extending regular BART tracks would have cost.
Of course it did - they had to pay for all the same site prep costs that regular BART would have paid, and the cost of rail and ballast is the essentially the same no matter what the gauge. The only avoided cost with diesel trains is the cost of the third rail. Which costs are a relatively small fraction of the total, compared with the overall big picture. And besides, the cost overruns ate all those savings up several times over.
And too bad for the public, every single passenger will have to transfer to/from real BART trains at the Pittburg Transfer Station. And with only one platform available at the transfer station for each type of train, service intervals will be forever limited. All this will permanently and sharply limit ridership.
Brilliant Planning Indeed!
Of course this is all to be expected, considering that ignorant politicians run the place.
No it was not!
They may tell the public that. But after cost overruns pushing several hundred millions, for a lousy 9 miles, and being more than half a decade late besides - it is a big fat lie! But even without the cost overruns, It would still cost just as much as extending regular BART tracks would have cost.
Of course it did - they had to pay for all the same site prep costs that regular BART would have paid, and the cost of rail and ballast is the essentially the same no matter what the gauge. The only avoided cost with diesel trains is the cost of the third rail. Which costs are a relatively small fraction of the total, compared with the overall big picture. And besides, the cost overruns ate all those savings up several times over.
And too bad for the public, every single passenger will have to transfer to/from real BART trains at the Pittburg Transfer Station. And with only one platform available at the transfer station for each type of train, service intervals will be forever limited. All this will permanently and sharply limit ridership.
Brilliant Planning Indeed!
Of course this is all to be expected, considering that ignorant politicians run the place.
