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Applications now open to give retired BART legacy train cars new life

BART is now accepting applications for proposals to re-use BART’s legacy train cars. While the majority of BART’s retired train cars will be recycled and used for parts, museums, nonprofits, agencies and the general public are now invited to submit their ideas for giving an undetermined number of the old cars a new life.

This is the first phase of the project to donate legacy fleet cars to the public. In this phase, BART is accepting applications for pre-qualification. If an applicant is determined to be pre-qualified, it will advance to the next phase: Request for Proposals.

A link to the application system is now live at https://www.bart.gov/legacycars. Applicants should review our Pre-Qualification for Proposals Brochure about the proposal process, timeline and car measurements before applying.

The deadline for Pre-Qualification Applications is March 12, 2021 at 5pm PST.

There are a number of key criteria for anyone considering obtaining a legacy car – the project must not cost BART any money once the car has been prepared for delivery. Successful proposers must pay the costs of getting the train car from BART’s property to their own site including transportation fees (rental of flatbed truck and mileage), crane rental to offload the car, labor and other expenses. That’s estimated to cost $8,000- $10,000 per car.

While that is one critical criterium, it’s not the only one. A project selection committee will review applications and make selections based on proposals meeting all the required criteria, including a plan for their final disposition after the project use is done and the community benefits.

The notifications of successful pre-qualifications are scheduled to be sent in June. The notification of “Award of Proposals” is scheduled for December, with the first cars being turned over to awardees expected sometime in 2022.

BART is retiring all legacy fleet cars, some of which have been carrying passengers for almost 50 years, as it replaces them with 775 new Fleet of the Future cars.