"Is it really hot in here," a fellow BART rider mused aloud during a trip I took from Rockridge to San Francisco last week, "or did I just hit menopause?" While that rider's reproductive clock will remain a mystery, one thing is certain: 230 cars in BART's fleet are "under-designed" to manage temperatures, resulting in cars that are heated to a temperature many find uncomfortable.
According to the Chron, when BART's thirtysomething (or more!) year-old cars were rehabbed and modernized in the '90s, those 230...weren't. These cars, with their elderly heating and air conditioning systems and poorly functioning temperature sensors end up running as much as 10-15 degrees hotter than the other 439 cars in BART's fleet.
One rider, 34-year-old Natalie Burney, tells the Chron she's started opting for Muni over BART (how often do you hear that?) because the heat can be "unbearable."
BART says they're working on the issue. Until then, mop the sweat from your brow and review the many features of their Fleet of The Future, expected at a BART station near you some time in 2017.
