Today Arthur Mac’s, a local pizza, beer, and wings place, received BART A2 car 1203, part of their upcoming downtown Hayward location.

As per my records, A2 car 1203 was originally built by Rohr as A car 203 (line number approximately 156) and delivered to BART on March 19, 1973 (alongside A car 204). For most of the first half of 1973, Rohr delivered only A cars and 203 was one of over 80 A cars delivered during that timeframe. There’s not too much to say about the car during the first 30 years of service. It was “just another” A car roaming around the Bay Area, running on every line and stopping at every station.

Once again, the 1203 was another A2 car of the fleet, roaming around the system and racking up millions of miles and millions of riders. By 2023, the car reached 50 years of revenue service and one year later, it was among the final legacy cars in service, being part of the first of three trains to depart MacArthur station on the final run of the legacy fleet on 4/20/2024.

Joining a small fleet of cars with similar fates, the 1203 was assigned a new role instead of scrap – this one in particular was slated to become part of the new Hayward location of the Arthur Mac’s pizza joint. Slightly over two years later, today, May 7, 2026, the car left Hayward Yard to begin its next chapter.

The car left Hayward shop shortly before 9 am and arrived in downtown Hayward shortly afterwards – among the quickest trips for a retired legacy car.

A small contingent of the WRM team/bartchives was on scene to watch the departure and placement into the site, followed by checking out the car with the owners and contractors. The first step was to return BART-loaned equipment and as seen with the three WRM cars, we guided the contractor in removing the J hooks and blocks used to secure the car’s trucks – which were then returned back to the shop. Further inspection and knowledge-sharing included info on the side doors, best practices for HVAC decommissioning, facets of carborne ATC, and car electrical system info. Sierra Train House was also on scene for the delivery and at this rate, there is a small community of people with old BART cars – only the Bay Area would be cool enough to do something like that.

Overall, the car is in good condition (mind the damaged diffusers) and shows much promise for reuse. Ideas abound on modifications to the car to make it ready for arcade games and showcasing the history of BART its technology. Stay tuned for more exclusive updates on the 1203 in its new role alongside the other surviving legacy cars.

-ATP 5/7/26

The A car (1164) will have displays on BART test and repair equipment.

The B car (1834) will have displays of various BART things, including tickets, car parts and tools, maintenance equipment, and more. It will also have an HO scale model railroad of BART. I heard you like BART so we put a BART train in a BART train so you can BART while you BART.

The C car (329) will have a video theater and posters of BART’s history, including plenty from the 1990s expansions.

The cars are partially open to visitors when the museum is open, upon request. The BART team is usually at the museum once every other week. All we ask is to be mindful that the displays are still in progress and to not remove anything from the cars. We are planning a grand opening event in September 2026. Stay tuned for more details.

Additional side projects include assisting others that got (or will get) BART cars, including the Sierra Train House and Scraper Bike team.

Progress on the Legacy Fleet book continues, with the final data gathering efforts wrapping up in the coming months followed by a writing phase throughout the summer.

The Western Railway Museum recently received another giant gift from BART – a spare A2 car cab pod.

My understanding is that Bombardier made a few extra pods “just in case” and they were stored at the Hayward Test Track for several years. One such pod became the “1972” cab pod on display at the 50th anniversary event and Final Run.

With the retirement of the Legacy Fleet, the pods were deemed spare and available for reuse. WRM paid to transport one of them from Hayward to the Museum and it arrived in late February.

The plan is to have this cab pod on display in the Laflin Park at a future date. Currently it is stored “out back.”

WRM also has the cab pod of car 107. This was removed from the actual car 107 in the early 2000s as part of the midlife rehab. The A2 pod is slightly different, with relocated HVAC vents, improved communication equipment mounts/holes, etc.

Update 2/11/26: Ticket Vending Machines are running out of these cards. If you happen to be at one of the stations, it's best to ask the Station Agent which machine, if any, has them.

These limited edition Clipper cards are available at certain BART stations.

For a few times in 2023, BART allowed trains to run under Performance Level 1, maximum performance allowing revenue trains to reach almost 80 mph. One such time was right after the end of scheduled legacy fleet service in September 2023.

Here, this southbound train is passing over Washington Ave in San Leandro, between San Leandro station and Bay Fair Station. The late-running train received a PL1 in an attempt to catch up to the schedule, reaching 78 mph as seen in this picture taken from outside the cab.

PL1 usage ended shortly thereafter due to weather conditions and power concerns.

The first four Fleet of the Future D cars were pilot cars made to test the Fleet of the Future design before production. They have been extensively modified and rolled in revenue service. At least three of them remain in revenue service, and here is an update on all four of these cars for 2025.

Car 3001 has the distinction of being the first complete Fleet of the Future car. Nicknamed “Sandy” the car is quite a common sight on Green line trains. Here is Sandy on a Green line train to Berryessa on September 25, 2025, at Coliseum station.

Here is Sandy again at West Oakland, the trail car of a peak-commute 8 car Green line train on October 30, 2025.

Car 3002 is seen here on a Red line train to Millbrae on October 3, 2025, at MacArthur station.

Also at MacArthur, here is 3003 on a Yellow line train on June 5, 2025.

It appears 3004 has not been in service this year. Here is a picture of it back in March 2024, midtrain on a Yellow line train.

D car 3042 was the 103rd Fleet of the Future car built and entered service in November 2019. For those first few months of service, it was a mostly unremarkable run-of-the-mill D car.
 
During 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, BART reduced service and emphasized social distancing at stations and on trains. The District laid out 15 steps to encourage ridership recovery and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Step 4 was “The newer BART cars may have some seats rearranged to make it easier for riders to spread out and harder to transmit the virus.”
 
To test out this idea, D car 3042 became the pilot car with all sideways (all longitudinal) seats.

BART picture of 3042 in the shop before entering service. To note, the seating configuration changed a few times.

D car 3042 reentered service in summer 2020 with the new seating mod. It was in service on the opening day of Milpitas and Berryessa stations in June 2020.

It appears there were about 39 seats in the 2020/2021 configuration, which were later reduced to about 36 seats due to the replacement of the bike rack and installation of a second one in 2022.

The car was in regular revenue service through part of 2024 and as of 2025 appears to be relegated to non-revenue activities, assisting in the testing of new train control equipment.

BART’s first electrically powered railcars were fluted metal boxes, and hardly the awaited streamlined revenue cars. These 3 cars, named A, B, and C, were rolling labs to evaluate different types of technology to be used on the BART system. The first one was lab car C, sometimes called “Clara” or “Claire” and was the most conventional car, using equipment most similar to other rapid transit cars of the day. It was delivered March 24, 1965 and started rolling on April 7th, followed by further tests including automatic operation on May 12, 1965.
 
The car was rebuilt to test the Westinghouse ATC system ahead of the delivery of Rohr revenue cars. Once deliveries picked up in 1972, the car was stored and finally decommissioned in December 1982.

Here is a picture of Old Clara taken 60 years ago.

BART records record the date receipt of the final Rohr A/B car a half century ago, on July 31, 1975. The car with the honors was 276, built as part of the final order for 26 A (#251-276) cars and 74 B (#701-774) cars bringing the fleet size to about 450 cars as outlined in the 1962 composite report.

The fourth, final order of Rohr cars were built during a time of significant unreliably with the fleet, and as such the A cars were delivered without ATO equipment. The Board of Directors even rejected a Westinghouse contract to supply the 26 cars with ATO equipment and the cars were stored after delivery. With A to B conversions (800 series), the cars eventually entered service in the latter half of the 1970s with the last A car being 253 in August 1979.

Here is a BART photo of 276 in the yard in the latter half of the 1990s/very early 2000s.

The 276 lasted until 2001, in which it was rebuilt by ADtranz into A2 car 1276.  After about 22 more years of service, it was retired in November 2023 and scrapped, making it the 558th Legacy Car to meet the end of the line.

The Western Railway Museum’s BART Legacy Fleet has reached its milestone of the first car available for public inside viewing – C1 car 329 is now available and open to the public during guided Carbarn 3 Tours.
 
Since its arrival at the Museum in October 2024, the car has received a host of TLC. Work on the car includes:

• Upgrading car auxiliary electrical systems to run off Carbarn power (instead of 1000 volt third rail power and the car’s inverter)
• Replacing burnt out light bulbs (exterior trouble light and headlights)
• Replacing graffitied mylar window film with new film
• Replacing selected ads with ads from the 1980s/1990s (when the car first entered service)
• Cleaning the car, including replacing dozens of heavily tagged and etched seats, stained doors, ceilings, and more.
• Modifying doors to prevent visitors from falling out the non-walkway side, and from getting locked out/in from the walkway side.
• Replacing broken parts and currently working on replacing and crafting replacement pieces.

 
However, the car will always be a work in progress, so please understand not everything has been repaired and replaced. The car is cleaner than when it exited service in May 2023, so it’s still worthy of a visit.
 
The car is available under a docent-led tour of Carbarn 3 at the Western Railway Museum. I can’t guarantee there will be a docent available for this tour every day the museum is open. However, please feel free to contact me and I will tell you when I will be at the museum next.
 
Currently, I will be at the museum on June 29th (Sunday).

And of course, I want to cordially thank everyone who has helped out at the museum, especially those that have worked on prepping the cars for delivery and that recent stretch to making them accessible. It has been an excellent example of teamwork and dedication, leveraging many different talents from several people to complete numerous key items, such as crafting custom dollies to deliver the cars, upgraded car electrical systems to ensure decades of reliable performance, and cleaned and repaired the car to ensure the 329 is the finest remaining example of a fully-complete BART C car.
 
In addition, I want to thank the BART employees that have helped the museum preserve these cars, extending an unparalleled level of support in ensuring that the legacy fleet is preserved in full, not just through three cars, but an extensive collection of parts, tools, equipment, signage, and many other things, that help the museum maintain the fleet and capture the overall world that the legacy fleet ran in.

Progress Made and Work Remains with the BART Legacy Fleet preserved at the Western Railway Museum.