The Green Caltrain blog is sponsored by BayRail Alliance, an all-volunteer non-profit organization supporting green rail transit in the Bay Area. This blog and BayRail have no affiliation with Caltrain.New Caltrain cars
To my surprise a new rail car is already in service. Caltrain ordered 8 new Bombardier cars to supplement the fleet. Caltrain placed these cars in service ahead of the original schedule as some older Gallery cars are still out of service due to a product defect.
The new car at the left look almost identical the older Bombardier car at the right, except with larger windows.
The new car features vinyl seat covers, which hopefully will be kept cleaner overtime. A problem with cloth seat covers is that they trap dust, odor and dirt overtime. The older Bombardier cars are starting to smell bad because of that. Otherwise the seating configuration is the same as the older cars.
The windows are larger on the new cars. For some reasons, Caltrain has included overhead racks on the new cars. It is very easy to hit your head against the overhead rack when you try to stand up. Even Norm Mineta, then Secretary of Transportation, accidentally bumped his head against the rack when he publicly rode on the Baby Bullet a few years ago.
