5 Car Syndrome
BART's random 5 car train game, on the PBP line is getting silly at this point. I have heard the excuses and read a few as well, and I am here to tell you that it does not jive with reality.
How can you run 9 and 10 car trains , drop to 5 cars for the next run, then go go back to 9 and 10 cars 15 minutes later? It doesn't make correlate with the excuse of ridership and/or economics because it looks to be random at times; I have gotten on at times of the day where there normally was a 5 car train, but it turns out to be a 9 car train that day (and will be for several days).
Then I was told that BART makes adjustments for sporting events, which is stretching the truth. While BART may add some cars to some trains for events (and I have yet to witness it), it is unbelievable (no wait, I am talking about BART here) that they don't realize people will start going to a game 2-3 hours before it starts. I just don't get the logistics or logic of running 9-10 car trains up to 10:02, than start running 5 car trains here and there afterwards. If it were consistent 5 car trains, I would say that at least it was consistent, but there will be a 10:17 5 car train, than possibly a 9 car train at 10:32 and or 5 car at 10:47, but 10 car at 11:02. Sounds silly? Same thing I keep saying as well.
Well at least I can rest that I don't have to ride the Fremont line.
- yellowlinesucks's blog
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I bet if you had a schedule
I bet if you had a schedule the ones that were 5 cars were the normal trains for that time period... And the 9-10 car trains were the "Event" trains placed between the normal trains.
Also there are times, that a normal train may have a bad car and they may split the train if there are cars in the middle that can be an end.. They do that because they get a bonus for "on time" performance, and it takes less time to split a train and go.. Otherwise they would have to pull a train out that was not scheduled to go and they may end up dispatching the train late.
If you have a scanner you can listen to the trains, and usually the trains with the same run numbers at the same time of day will have the same number of cars daily.
I am always amused when a train gets 15 minutes behind schedule, they re-number all the trains on that line so that the "late" train is now "on time" since it took the slot of the train that is behind it.. And instead of a bunch of late trains there is only 1 "missing" train.. So basically they are "on time" other than the train that was "removed" aka "so late it's taking the slot behind. So the on time bonus is preserved..
It may appear "random", but I bet the different length trains were due to an event, or a train that may have replaced or split for whatever reason.
I have rode BART long enough to know nothing is random.. Not logical alot of the time, but not random.. They are also anal about trying to keep the scheduled trains on-time, so in an event you may get a train at a stupid time because they are more concerned about being ontime rather than what the passenger flow is..
Money and Safety is what the trains run on.. Transit gets more money for being on-time and safe, not for getting passengers from A - B quickly or efficently.
Welp time to get my car ready to drive into work tomorrow.. Spare the Air people, go ride public transit! Get out of my way.. Plug your nose while on the train, and the homeless and crazies will have an address for the day "Car 1234"
LMAO, now that makes more
LMAO, now that makes more sense to me than what I got from BART. We all get to the point of were we are on our ass during the day, and we all know it only takes minor things to bring BART to a grinding halt (even if only temporary).