New BART rail cars could start service in time for Friday’s evening commute

The PUC sent a letter to BART approving 10 of the new cars that were unveiled in July. The PUC sent a letter to BART approving 10 of the new cars that were unveiled in July. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close New BART rail cars could start service in time for Friday’s evening commute 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

BART’s first 10 new rail cars have been approved to start carrying passengers by the state Public Utilities Commission and could be in service in time for the Friday evening commute.

The long-awaited approval came Wednesday night in a letter to BART General Manager Grace Crunican from Elizaveta Malashenko, director of the utilities commission’s safety and enforcement division.

“Congratulations on achieving this milestone,” Malashenko wrote.

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said Thursday that the new trains could start carrying passengers Friday afternoon after a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony and an inaugural ride with longtime BART employees, some passengers who rode the first BART trains in 1972 and elected officials aboard.

The new cars have three doors on each side for quicker passenger loading and unloading, modern signage and automated announcements. They have as many as five fewer seats than the current cars, which means more people will be crammed aboard during rush hour, in standing space.

The trains’ seats will be thinly covered plastic models. The cars include a couple of 21st century touches: “No vaping” signs and spring-loaded bike clamps instead of racks.

Also on each car are video monitors that will show maps, train location and upcoming stations.

BART’s original timeline called for the first of hundreds of new cars to go into service in 2016, but delays caused by electrical problems pushed the start date into November 2017. Then, the cars flunked a final test Nov. 3 when the train doors refused to open at the Bay Fair station.

The utilities commission ordered BART to fix the problem, then run the new 10-car train through the entire system, stopping at every station and making sure the doors opened. BART completed that test last week.

Still, things aren’t quite perfect. The commission’s letter of certification identifies two problems BART needs to fix: a chime sound that interrupts the start of an emergency announcement on the public address system, and window latches in the operator’s cab that don’t always keep the window shut.

According to the letter, the next 10 new BART cars, which have already been delivered, will have to undergo a similar systemwide test with PUC inspectors aboard, stopping at every station and opening and closing doors before they can begin service.

BART officials would say Thursday only that they expect those trains to be in service “soon.”

The rest of the new rail cars, being assembled by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier in Plattsburgh, N.Y., will face less stringent tests before they’re allowed to start carrying passengers, the state said. BART spokesman Jim Allison described those as standard acceptance tests of the propulsion, braking and automatic train control systems conducted on a test track.

“We do those for ourselves as well as the PUC,” he said. “We don’t want to accept a car that’s not working.”

BART’s $2.6 billion contract with Bombardier calls for it to deliver about 150 new cars every year until the transit system’s old fleet of 669 cars is replaced, and expanded to 775, by 2022. BART also hopes to find enough money to add another 306 cars to its fleet.

Michael Cabanatuan is a Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @ctuan