Congressional delegation urges funding for BART’s Fleet of the Future train car replacement project
Written by jrood
Members of the San Francisco Bay Area Congressional Delegation are urging their colleagues on the Senate and House Transportation Committees to provide funding for Bay Area Rapid Transit's Fleet of the Future train car replacement project. In a letter to the Committee leadership, the Bay Area lawmakers called replacing BART's aging train car fleet a "critical goal." "In these difficult economic times, with contentious congressional debate, it is good to know our Bay Area Congressional delegation supports BART's request for federal assistance to help finance the replacement of our train car fleet," BART Board President Bob Franklin said. "In addition to this federal support, in order to pay for our Fleet of the Future, we will also need strong local and state support to replace our cars after 40 years of service to this region." The letter requests that any surface transportation legislation authorization provide $300 million in funding for the purchase of new train cars. The letter is signed by all nine members of the Bay Area Congressional delegation. According to the American Public Transportation Association, BART's existing fleet is the oldest fleet among large domestic transit agencies. Over the next decade, BART train cars will continue to degrade and become more and more obsolete technologically so BART is working to replace the entire fleet of train cars at a total cost of $3.4 billion.
