Passenger Trains > eBART pre-opening activity and DMU Display

I attended the eBART station dedication on 5/12 at the new Pittsburg Center station (Railroad Ave & Highway 4, Pittsburg CA) and for the first time was able to step aboard two of the new Stadler GTW Model 2/6 DMU trainsets. The events did not include free rides, but I picked up a lot of information from eBART staff on scene.

1) Each trainset (a total of eight trainsets will be in service) consists of three semi-permanently coupled units, a pair of passenger carrying cab units at each end of the consist and a diesel "power pod" sandwiched in the middle. The pod contains two low-emission diesels, generators, power converters, and drive motors for the 2-axle truck beneath the pod. The trucks beneath each cab end are unpowered. In revenue service, the interior doors and passageway thru the power pod can be used for emergencies only, but for this exhibition, people were allowed to pass thru the pod units. Passenger capacity for each trainset is 104 seated and 96 standing. Seats are lightly padded and vinyl covered. There are small luggage racks over the seats. More detailed specs at this link (Same model DMU in service in Ft Worth area) http://www.apta.com/mc/rail/previous/2012/logistics/Documents/APTA-Rail-Conference-DCTA-Stadler.pdf

2) Platforms can handle trains with up to three coupled trainsets per train. BART fully expects to run some multi-unit trains.

3) Hours and headway objectives will match service on BART's Pittsburg Bay Point to SFO-Millbrae line. The objective will be to always have a BART train across the platform when eBART trains arrive at the transfer station, and similarly in the opposite direction. Normally, there will be at least one spare DMU trainset in the siding at Pittsburg Transfer to help maintain headways when arriving BART trains run late.

4) My personal biggest discovery of the day was a new station where I did not expect one. Previously, I had assumed the cross-platform transfers from BART to eBART would happen at Pittsburg Bay Point, BART's end-of-the-line terminal station. Silly me. Because Pittsburg Bay Point station is built in a freeway median, there was insufficient room to expand the platform to accommodate eBART. So, a totally new station, crews call it Pittsburg Transfer, was built in the Highway 4 median about a half mile east of the PBP station. The new station will be for BART to eBART cross platform transfers ONLY. No one will be allowed to enter or exit the system at that point, it has no official name, it is not shown in the fare tables, you cannot buy a ticket to it, nor can you enter or exit the system there. The ONLY thing you can do at Pittsburg Transfer is change trains between BART and eBART. Pittsburg Transfer (as opposed to Pittsburg Center) was NOT open to the public on 12 May, but I presume it has only two tracks and a center platform, one for BART and one for eBART.

5) In the initial eBART planning stages, there was no Pittsburg Center station - - - eBART trains would have run 10 miles non-stop from Pittsburg Bay Point all the way to Antioch. However, the City of Pittsburg vigorously objected, mounted effective political opposition, and created a special business tax district to help pay for the station, a process similar to that which Berkeley went through in 1968 to require BART's Berkeley trackage be built entirely in a subway. Way back then, BART's original plan was that the subway would be through downtown Berkeley only.

6) There is hardly any parking adjacent to the Pittsburg Center station, just a small drop-off zone being called a "Kiss-and-Ride". A 300-stall county "Park-and-Ride" lot, originally built for car to bus transfers, is about a quarter mile from the station and is being re-purposed as an eBART parking lot.

7) eBART comprises an independent operating unit within BART. Employees are covered by the same unions as BART, but under a separate eBART contract.

8) eBART revenue service will begin at 6:00 AM on Saturday 5/26, preceded by dedication of the new Antioch Hillside Station at 11:00 AM on Friday 5/25, and followed by FREE TRAIN RIDES from 1:00 PM until 8:00 PM on 5/25.

David Foote

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Shouldn't it be "dBart" because it uses Diesel Cars?

Funny you should ask. When I asked, I was told the "e" stands for East Contra Costa County extension. Who would have thunk it?

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The units look a lot like the Sprinter units in North San Diego County between Oceanside and Escondido.

Main spotting difference is the hard-to-miss power pod in the middle of eBART's Stadler GTW 2/6 trainsets. Sprinter uses the Siemens Desiro Model VT642 which has two cab units back to back and a shared truck in the middle. The Sprinter units have a diesel-mechanical power train with a five speed automatic transmission, while the Stadler units are diesel-electric.
David Foote

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Thanks for posting, this project has been a long time coming. Will have to sneak out there on one of my next business trips. I think I accidentally missed the North Concord stop a couple of times (either working on my laptop or sleeping) and ended up at Baypoint. I wonder how much it will help the traffic on Highway 4, which I've heard has been widened since I moved away.

Nathan

The employees operating the eBART trains are actual certified locomotive engineers as opposed to the train operators on BART trains. There is no crossover. The locomotive engineers came from other railroads. One that I talked to one day came from ACE.

Gary

Dumb question: why not merely extend BART as opposed to literally reinventing the BART wheel with yet ANOTHER set of equipment? This make three different types of equipment now.

Main reason was significantly higher construction costs for an electrified line and political pressure to get some kind of rail transit service into the explosively growing eastern Contra Costa County area which had long been paying supplemental sales taxes to BART.

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