A computer upgrade shut down BART

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Public infrastructure is requested and funded by the government, not voluntarily done by companies that happen to base themselves nearby. Sounds more of an issue of government.

BART is unique and doesn't share much in the way of infrastructure with any other public transit system. You can't build a scalable startup targeting BART because you'd have a maximum of one customer.

The Boring Company has attempted to develop tunnel boring technology which theoretically could someday allow for cheaper expansion of all subway and light rail systems. Although in practice they haven't accomplished much and their existing projects aren't even used for rail transit.

https://www.boringcompany.com/

There are also several eVTOL startups aiming to improve quality of life through rapid point-to-point transportation. But I doubt they'll succeed on any widespread basis due to battery and noise limitations.

This is government procurement being broken not the companies themselves.

The problem with the US is it's been taken over by finance capitalists, and lets be honest, VC's are finance capitalists. And finance capitalists are essentially slumlords.

Their first reflex when it comes to paying for infrastructure and maintenance is to think what that'll do to their short term CAP rates. And then they get angry.

There isn't much different about bart. Slightly wider wheel spacing and such are things anyone making trains can handle.

the real problem is thinking they are different or that they need to innovate. Trains are common and they need not innovation but minor improvements over time.

> BART is unique and doesn't share much in the way of infrastructure with any other public transit system. You can't build a scalable startup targeting BART because you'd have a maximum of one customer.

The notion of a startup running BART is fucking horrifying.

I didn't read the comment criticizing VC's for not investing in BART or a company to make BART better, I read it as a criticism of the American system for letting things like VC's and other rich entities/people lock up unconscionable amounts of wealth for either hoarding or funding stupid shit as opposed to make sure our country still functions and people can eat.

And please just spare me the capitalist apologia. I get it, people wanna be rich. On balance I don't give a shit, get as rich as you can, just as long as it doesn't require millions of people to suffer so you can. If you having objectively, factually, more than anyone needs to be happy requires a ton of people to go without necessities, IMO, that is not a right you should have, and I don't care how communist that makes me.

You could take 90% of Bezos', Musk's, or Gates' wealth and they would still never have to work again and live in exceptional luxury. There is no goddamn reason in the world to let them keep it while we have people starving.

I've heard that makes procurement way more difficult, you can't just order a train car in the standard gauge from many manufacturers. It's like big and tall sizing, yes, any place can make it, but there just isn't that large volume to create a liquid market.

But is this a problem that can account of the day-to-day difficulties of managing and using BART? Yes, procuring new train cars is more difficult (and likely more expensive), but BART has lots of other problems to tackle.

The problem isn't just the rolling stock. Everything in BART is at least somewhat custom including control systems and software. Very little can be shared with public transit systems in other metro areas so there are no economies of scale. Thus BART has to do a lot in house or depend on a limited set of specialized vendors at great expense.

If you had to buy a special car to be allowed to drive on Bay Area roads because they weren't the same as the roads in Chicago or Boston then a Honda Civic would cost $1M.

  There isn't much different about bart.

Basically everything on BART is unique to BART. Odd loading gauge. Odd track gauge. Lightweight aluminum chassis so none of the aerial infrastructure is designed to carry a heavier, more traditional car. Multi-part wheels with aluminum hubs to make extra noise. Non-standard traction voltage so BART struggled mightily to find replacement thyristors for the old cars. BART still struggles to keep their electric substations running. The original signaling system makes some sense, but trying to replace it with another NIH product in the 90s made zero sense. The original trains had glass with compound curves and BART could not find a vendor who could reliably recreate them. The current trains indicate ADA seating with the color green, reserving blue for the regular seats.

If it can be made differently or done differently BART will absolutely try to do so.

  the real problem is thinking they are different or that they need to innovate. 

Yep NIH is a huge problem for BART.

  then a Honda Civic would cost $1M.

For $1M you could build a single San Francisco Cable Car. Plus it's built locally.

Or intentionally designed by the original contractors for lock-in, like an Apple product or a John Deere tractor.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45142101 and marked it off topic.

A cable car is a lot simpler than a civic - the complex parts are in the engine house elsewhere. the cable car is bigger but it has no engine, transmission and other such parts