5 ms·
To some degree, there is sharing of parts and carbodies. Most of the subway systems built around the era of the DC Metro have compatible specifications, most ne
by bobthepanda 4y ago
To some degree, there is sharing of parts and carbodies. Most of the subway systems built around the era of the DC Metro have compatible specifications, most new systems today (and soon Caltrain) use a lot of slightly modified Stadler European rolling stock, etc. And even if not the entire car can just be taken, a lot of the pieces are also modular, but BART doesn't really benefit from any of that.
The bigger issue is that they can't use existing railroad rights of way without expensively converting the gauge or building a whole new set of tracks. A bunch of proposed/new extensions are just regular standard gauge rail to deal with that issue.
- m0llusk 4y agoIf your goal is to make cars that are 38% lighter than other rolling stock then you are not going to want to make use of the parts from the heavier cars.
- gsnedders 4y agoOkay, but for example Stadler's Metro can be configured such that it's lighter than the original BART stock. (I don't believe there's currently any in operation in the US; most of what's in the US is FLIRT/KISS based, which are decidedly heavier stock designed for non-rapid-transit usage.)
- bobthepanda 4y agoAtlanta just ordered some.
- bobthepanda 4y agoThe issue is that the fleet is so custom that it took over 40 years to replace them, and the replacements had issues since a new company had to do it (the original exited the train business.)