If you happen to ride on a new Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway train in San Francisco sometime after 2017 you might be forgiven for thinking there’s something familiar — if you have owned or ridden in a BMW.
That’s because BMW DesignworksUSA, the design consultancy and subsidiary of BMW Group, has signed a contract to collaborate with BART to create the “Fleet of the Future”. The result will be all-new train cars for the famous transit system that first came into operation in 1973. At the time BART was regarded as one of the most advanced subway systems in the world. I remember being assigned to do a story on BART for a magazine in the UK, which kind of surprised me at the time considering that Europe has excellent train systems.
However now that the BART trains are coming up for their 40th birthday they are reaching the end of their life. BART is currently encouraging riders to submit ideas for improving the new train cars, which will then be provided to BMW DesignworksUSA.
Of course, many of the engineering features are specified in advance for safety and reliability, with little room for input. For example, according to BART there is “jerk limiting” – “the maximum allowable jerk shall be 2.0 mphpsps”, or miles per hour per second per second. In the specification, a jerk is not someone who takes up two seats on a crowded train. It’s a technical term describing how much the acceleration of the train changes as the train moves.
Suggestions received so far include room for bicycles, wider aisles and more seats. Riders are also in favor of getting rid of the fabric-covered seats and carpeting – with the idea that comfortable yet easier-to-clean surfaces would result in cleaner train car interiors. I wonder if BMW will be able to make hard seats as comfortable as seats in a BMW 1-series or 3-series?
You’re probably wondering why BMW is getting involved in this sort of project? In case you’re not aware, forty-year old DesignworksUSA, based in Newbury Park, near Los Angeles that has been owned by BMW since 1995, has done a lot of creative work outside of the car industry including designing interiors for busses, trains and aircraft as well as consumer products.
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