SAN FRANCISCO’s Bay Area Rapid Transit District has awarded a Letter of Intent to Harmon Industries Inc for installation of Advanced Automatic Train Control equipment over the next three years, at a cost of approximately $40m. The work will be done in conjunction with construction of BART’s airport extension, which is due to open in 2001.
AATC uses radio data links to determine the location, speed and direction of moving vehicles. The installation will reduce BART headways to as little as 90s, with trains running at up to 130 km/h.
The Sverdrup/Conco consortium has submitted a low bid of $68·6m for construction of the terminus of the airport extension. Millbrae Intermodal Station will provide interchange between BART, Caltrain and local buses, and will have parking spaces for 3000 vehicles. The station will have five platforms, three for BART and two for Caltrain, and an overhead concourse with ticketing facilities. The station is expected to be handling 33 000 passengers a day by 2010.
- On January 8 the Caltrain board approved an order for 13 double-deck coaches and six cab cars from Sumitomo Corp of America for $35m. Due for delivery by 2000, they will be similar to Caltrain’s 73 existing gallery cars but will have space for bicycles, built-in wheelchair lifts and handicapped-accessible toilets. A US$4m renovation of Caltrain’s 23-year-old San Francisco terminus is to be completed in August. The concourse will be widened and enclosed by a glass roof, and a link will be built to the Muni Metro light rail extension which opened on January 10. o
