Passenger Trains > BART Oakland Airport Connector - Inside

A few times, SHED47 has risked his life walking the streets of Oakland to get some great photos of the new BART Oakland Airport Connector. A couple months ago, I was able to tour the new BART Oakland Airport Connector system from the inside. The OAC is now expected to open approximately the first week of December. The cable driven tram system was very costly to build and will replace a bus connection that linked the Oakland Airport with the BART Coliseum Station. Now, if you ever had the need to exit the Coliseum BART station to get to the bus, you would appreciate this new tram system. From that stand point, it is well worth it.
Photo #1 – A view under the “tracks” looking out on the newly planted “garden”. This is looking toward the airport from the control building, which is located about halfway between that airport and the BART station. When the cables are moving at full speed, they make quite a loud harmonic noise. I would hate to be staying at the old fleabag looking motel on the right. It must get pretty loud inside the motel rooms. Either the rooms had more insulation added or the occupants don’t stay in the rooms long enough to notice.

Photo #2 – A view inside the shop building. This is one of two drive propulsion units that run the cables. The system is divided up into two separate cables. One cable runs from the control building to the airport and back, while the other cable runs from the control building to the Coliseum BART station and back. The trains stop adjacent to the control building for about one minute while the trains physically relinquish connection from one cable and connect to the next one, to continue the trip. This propulsion unit is sitting on a section of rail so that it can be moved to keep the optimum tension on the cable. As the cable wears out and stretches, the unit will move backwards (to the right) to keep up the tension. On heavy use days, around holidays, the unit will move forward (to the left), to release tension.

Photo #3 – If you want to shoot the entire roster of the OAC trains, you would just need to wait around in one good spot for about 30 minutes. But to get the Siemens-Dopplemayr switch engines, it will be a whole nother thing. A view from inside the shop, you can see one of the two identical electric switchers (one on each side). There is an electrical third rail type system on the outside of the tramway that runs the length of the OAC. It is somewhat protected so that it is (more) difficult for a worker to come into contact. This provides electrical power to the trains for lighting and allows the switchers to be able to run out and retrieve a train in the event of a cable failure, as well as move them around inside the shop.

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Photo #4 – Another view of the garden outside the control building. The building was constructed with the possibility of adding a future passenger connection station at this location. The lot now being used for construction storage, could be turned into a parking lot. There is no current funding for this, but the idea is that if there is enough future interest from the rental car companies, this could be turned into a rental car station. This would allow the rental car companies to do away with the shuttle buses.

Photo #5 – A view of the inside of one of the train cars at the Oakland Airport station. You are looking at the “new” Oakland Airport tower, which is located a long ways from the terminal. It is in a spot where it can serve the main airport and the general aviation North Field (or as I called it as a child, the “little airport”). The train cars are still being tested and are not running continually, so no “test” rides are available. The car interiors are still covered to prevent damage while simulated loads are placed in the cars.

Photo #6 – A view through the station window at the Oakland Airport Station. You can see the cable system as well as the electrical rails on the left side of the tramway. The large hanger in the background is the old World Airways hanger. United used it for quite a few years after wards and now it has basically been empty for many years.

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Photo #7 – A view through the station window at the Oakland Coliseum Station, looking toward the Coliseum BART station. A walkway connects to the two stations. There are fare gates in between where the OAC will deduct $6 from your BART ticket. From here the only way out is into the BART station where you will have to pay for entry into the main BART system. While I was there, the UP Long street Job went by, but I was not in position to get any photos.

Photo #8 – Another view of the train as it arrives at the control building over the setting sun. The engineers were still hard at work into the evening testing the train control system. The train cars are somewhat reconfigurable. They can break apart the current 3 car trains to make 4 car trains (not a 5 minute thing though), although fewer train sets would be available. They can also, in the future, buy more cars if service demands, to make longer trains. The stations are set up to accept the longer trains. Dopplemayr has the contract to operate the system for the next several years (don’t remember exact numbers) after which the contract can be extended or BART can take over full operation. eBART in East Contra Costa County will essentially work the same way when it is completed.

Gary

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Thanks Gary for an excellent report and pictures.

Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/14 09:33 by MartyBernard.

Thanks for the photo's & thorough reporting. Hopefully this new connector will be handy for any BART users brave enough to get off & transfer at Coliseum Station...As for "the old fleabag motel" seen on the right side of photo #1, that's not just any fleabag motel, that's the notorious former Edgewater Adult Resort. From the photo, it appears to still retain it's garish purple & burnt orange exterior paint job. I wonder if the inside still has padded walls & shag rugs...

Desmond Praetzel, "4451 Puff"

P.S. I only know this because of news articles & passing it several times en route to OAK.

All i got from this how much u guys hate OAKLAND!

I wonder how much it will cost to repaint all those little nooks and crannies of steelwork in 10-15 years? Why not a protective rust coating?? Looks expensive.

coach Wrote:
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> I wonder how much it will cost to repaint all
> those little nooks and crannies of steelwork in
> 10-15 years? Why not a protective rust coating??
> Looks expensive.


Because the Germans don't like rust...

Frontrunner Wrote:
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> All i got from this how much u guys hate OAKLAND!

I grew up in Oakland and if work did not require me to still go there a few days week, I would avoid it as much as possible. Almost all of the interesting train watching went away years ago (WP, SP, etc). There are a lot of fairly dangerous areas, even during the day. I realize that there are some good areas of Oakland, but not enough to make it a place where I would want to go. Murders are down a bit right now, but that could change almost overnight. That does not mean that there haven't been recent shootings, just that fewer people have died. The police department is down to the lowest level in many many years. You get the idea. I really don't recommend it as a place to go rail fanning. There are better areas outside of town.

That is my view of Oakland.

Gary