I recently read a story about the unusual search for obsolete railroad equipment. It was entitled: “BART Turns To eBay For Parts To Keep System Limping Along”. The story was reported on the CBS SF Bay Area News on April 6, 2016.
BART is the acronym for Bay Area Rapid Transit System. This system of passenger railroad cars dates back to 1972. Many of the railroad parts used on the rapid transit system are now obsolete.
The rail agency found certain types of equipment (namely computer and electrical) available on eBay. These parts were often in better condition than their own failing equipment.
I researched a little a little further. I found another online article from The (San Jose) Mercury News dated March 25, 2016. The second article was entitled: “Has BART’s cutting-edge 1972 technology design come back to haunt it?”
The rapid transit rail system was designed over 45 years ago. Back then the system used principles “…developed for the aerospace industry rather than tried-and-true rail standards”.
Among other things, the system does not use the standard railroad track width. It track width deviates from the standard being nearly a foot wider. It also uses a flat-edge rail that tilts slightly inward.
Decisions such as these required parts to be custom made. Many of these parts are no longer available or supported. Decades later these parts can’t easily be repaired or replaced. This in turn may have led to the current challenges and incredibly expensive maintenance costs.
“Those one-of-a-kind systems lead to a dearth of readily available replacement parts. Maintenance crews often scavenge parts from old, out-of-service cars to avoid lengthy waits for orders to come in; sometimes mechanics are forced to manufacture the equipment themselves.”
The rail system was originally designed to carry 100,000 people per week. Yet according to BART’s own ” Fiscal Year 2016 Preliminary Budget Memo” ridership averages over 75,000 trips on a typical weekday.
Further, “In 2014, weekday ridership averaged over 410,000, with peak months as high as 440,000.” Some “Peak-hour, peak-direction trains now typically range from 120 to 140 passengers per car..” Thi is far above the system’s standard of 115 passengers per car.
Wikipedia reports on its rapid transit ridership systems list. The report indicates BART’s 140 mile system transported an average daily ridership of 452,600 for the fourth quarter of 2015.
At Kor-Pak we often run into similar requests to source hard to locate replacement parts. One of our specialty areas is the fabrication and replacement of obsolete parts in the freight and passenger rail industry. For more information, please visit our Railroad Industry page where you can also download our Rail Parts Catalog.