San Francisco BART’s Fleet of the Future trains are now not only carrying riders on all regularly scheduled trips, but the project also is coming in hundreds of millions of dollars under budget thanks to tight project management, according to the agency.

Thanks to a revised schedule, and an accelerated monthly delivery rate of new railcars, the project is expected to cost $394 million less than when the contract was awarded in 2012.

“There’s no question the Fleet of the Future project is a success story,” said Project Manager John Garnham. “Riders love the newer, cleaner modern feel of the cars and now we have great budget news for the project.”

The Fleet Future

The original contract awarded for 775 cars forecasted a project cost of $2.584 billion, but an October 2023 financial update lowered the forecast by 15%, to $2.190 billion.

Over the course of 11 years, BART and its manufacturer, Alstom, have increased the pace of making and delivering the cars, resulting in significant savings.

The original delivery schedule called for the delivery of 10 cars a month, but BART worked with Alstom to increase the rate to 16 cars a month, saving more than $100 million.

Increased Savings

Another big cost saver was BART’s decision to have its own experienced staff do more of the engineering work in house.

The project team has included engineers who have successfully completed new railcar projects at other agencies.

The delivery schedule is now faster than ever — 20 cars a month are being delivered to BART — and, as of December 31, 672 of the 775 cars are on BART property.