Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has announced that its Fleet of the Future project will be delivered millions of USD under budget.
The project has been able to save approximately 394 million USD due to a tight, revised schedule, as well as an accelerated monthly delivery rate of new rail units.
“There’s no question the Fleet of the Future project is a success story. Riders love the newer, cleaner modern feel of the cars and now we have great budget news for the project.”
Initially, the 775 car contract was expected to cost a total of 2.584 billion USD, but after a financial update in October 2023 the total projected cost was lowered by 15% to 2.190 billion USD. The contract also stipulated the delivery of 10 railcars per month, but with an increased production rate manufacturer Alstom has been able to provide up to 16 cars a month.
BART also made the decision to utilise its own, in-house engineering team throughout the project, resulting in a significant saving in overall costs.
Delivery of the railcars is now exceeding all previous results, with approximately 20 delivered to BART each month. To date, of the 775 new cars, 672 have been manufactured and delivered.
