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Re: TrainNews eBart: BART gauge origin?
Author: Fred
Date: 12-31-2013 - 19:30
eBART was to be standard gauge and use the SP track beyond Loveridge Road. Local communities placed so many demands for parking lots and grade separations, this was given up for a much shorter middle of the freeway route to Antioch. Originally there was going to be three rail track into Bay Point station. I do not know if the gauge was changed to BART gauge when the operation became a center of the freeway operation. I hope so.
When BART was originally supposed to go to Marin County, there was still a question as to if the Golden Gate Bridge could support a BART track. Several years later the concrete roadway deck in the Golden Gate Bridge was change from concrete to steel, taking several thousand tons of load off the bridge. With this change there is now no question that the bridge can support BART. The bridge district has become so concerned about the appearance of the bridge that a second deck will never be built.
As for the freight running on BART, this is a myth. As built BART had nearly one third of its track on the elevated structures. These structures have a weight capacity of 100,000 pounds for a 70 foot car. Later related to 110,000 pounds, but no where near what would be required to carry freight traffic.
As for the Bay Bridge, the way the Bay Bridge got rid of the trains on the lower deck was they agreed to fund construction of the trans bay tube, which, as I recall, cost them just under $100,000,000. Planing for BART goes back to the the 1930s and there was a lot of work done prior to the formation of the BART District.
When BART was originally supposed to go to Marin County, there was still a question as to if the Golden Gate Bridge could support a BART track. Several years later the concrete roadway deck in the Golden Gate Bridge was change from concrete to steel, taking several thousand tons of load off the bridge. With this change there is now no question that the bridge can support BART. The bridge district has become so concerned about the appearance of the bridge that a second deck will never be built.
As for the freight running on BART, this is a myth. As built BART had nearly one third of its track on the elevated structures. These structures have a weight capacity of 100,000 pounds for a 70 foot car. Later related to 110,000 pounds, but no where near what would be required to carry freight traffic.
As for the Bay Bridge, the way the Bay Bridge got rid of the trains on the lower deck was they agreed to fund construction of the trans bay tube, which, as I recall, cost them just under $100,000,000. Planing for BART goes back to the the 1930s and there was a lot of work done prior to the formation of the BART District.
