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Bay Area Rapid Transit Sept. 18 accepted delivery of the last of 439 30-year-old cars that Bombardier Transportation has been completely renovating since 1998. Each car had logged more than a million miles of service.



BART officials began preliminary work on the car renovation program in the early 1990s when two cars were shipped to Delaware, where they were disassembled so workers could determine what work the cars required. (Delaware was the only location willing to take on the project.)



Preliminary engineering was completed in 1995; final design, in 1996. The program was originally slated for Dec. 31, 2002 completion at an estimated cost of $479.4 million. In addition to completing the job three months early, Bombardier also completed the work for $475 million.



But the car renovation program is only one part of a 10-year, billion-dollar-plus System-wide Renovation Program, which now is 60 percent complete. Other components include improvements to or renovation of fare equipment, stations and rail infrastructure.