In the 19th century some street railway systems were laid in the US to broad gauge. Early on when the gauge issue remained unsettled. New Orleans, Philadelphia and others. The PCC truck was designed to accommodate different gauges.

In the case of BART there was no excuse and of course you see that this serious error was not repeated subsequently elsewhere. But I would draw a corollary from Leibniz' remark the we live in the best of all possible worlds that you get what you deserve. The Bay Area deserves the tas de merde that is BART.

Still it must somehow importune the trendy spendy effete startichects of SPUR, MTC et al that their pet has as a mongrel gauge that does not exist in divine Manhattan. So stix hix, not the right kind of kinky.