BART completes more trackwork while ridership is low

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) continues to mark progress with a plan to maximize capital rebuilding work while ridership remains low because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the agency reduced service hours in March, more track time has become available for workers to improve the system, BART officials said in a press release.

For example, an effort to replace aging power cables in downtown San Francisco is more rapidly advancing. Many of the 34.5-kilovolt electrical cables that provide power for trains have been in place since BART began service in the early 1970s.

The agency originally expected 7,000 feet of cable to be pulled during the past three months, but workers instead pulled 23,000 feet of new cable.

“Riders are gaining the benefit of a more reliable system and are having to endure fewer impacts to get it,” BART officials said. “The increased productivity means the project can potentially eliminate 35 future weekends when [we] would have had to delay riders by running single-track service through the work area.”

The agency also is replacing coverboards — curved fiberglass shields that protect the third rail — across its system. BART initially expected to complete 3.8 miles of coverboard replacements by now, but work is three months ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, the BART Police Department is launching a new initiative aimed at providing another way to reach officers. Text BART Police enables riders, employees and others to directly contact the department's dispatch center.