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Rail News Home Communication and Signal

1/10/2020



Rail News: Communication and Signal

BART awards contract for new CBTC system


Hitachi Rail will install a communications-based train control system on the BART system over the next 11 years.
Photo – BART Facebook

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Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) board yesterday awarded a $798 million contract to Hitachi Rail STS USA Inc. to replace the agency’s 47-year-old, fixed-block train control system with a modern communications-based train control system (CBTC).

CBTC will enable BART to more precisely detect train location, allowing the agency to run more trains closer together. Doing so will effectively add capacity and decrease travel times, BART officials said in a press release. 

The train control system will be installed over the next 11 years.

“This will be a pivotal project in BART’s history,” said BART General Manager Bob Powers. “We will now be able to eliminate aged and obsolete equipment. Modernizing our train control system will help us to support future ridership in the busiest sections of our system.”

Funding for the train control system will come from local, state and federal sources, including $400 million from Measure RR, a voter-approved measure to provide bond funding to rebuild BART infrastructure. Major funding also is anticipated to come from the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant program. 

In addition to the main contract, Hitachi Rail has been awarded nearly $82 million in contracts to design, build and support CBTC for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)’s BART Silicon Valley extension between Alameda County and Santa Clara County, California. The VTA will provide the funding for that work.

 



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