BART completes fleet-wide carpet replacement project

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has finished replacing carpeting with vinyl flooring in its fleet of train cars.

In June, the agency removed the last car in operation with carpet, replaced the flooring and put it back into service later that month, BART officials said in a blog post.

With the floor replacement project completed, more cars are now available for service, agency officials said.

BART crews replace the fleet's carpet flooring with vinyl.
Photo: Bay Area Rapid Transit

BART started replacing the carpet in 2008 with funding for only 200 cars. The latest project involved redoing the flooring in 389 cars.

Crews initially used a spray-on hard rubber surface, but then later switched to rolled-out vinyl. Both of these options can be found on BART's current fleet, officials noted.

"Now, whatever spills and debris that gets left behind during revenue service can effectively be cleaned and the overall car appearance can be brought back to standard each day," said BART's Assistant Maintenance Superintendent Jeff Baker. "Our cleaning crews can easily sweep debris out from under the seats which slides easily on the vinyl flooring and the surface provides assurance that proper sanitation can occur."

BART's Fleet of the Future cars will also have easy to clean floors and seats, agency officials said. That project involves ordering 1,081 new train cars, which will increase the number of seats in the fleet by nearly 50 percent.