BART to develop technology to protect trackside workers from trains

BART will spend $5 million and two years to develop technology to protect workers from being hit by moving trains -- as occurred in 2013 when a train struck and killed two people.

The transit district announced Tuesday that it received a $5 million federal grant to fund a pioneering safety system. Trains would be automatically stopped if employees working on tracks were in danger.

Transit officials said the project would improve worker safety, and also could enable BART to ask the state to relax restrictions that are making trains later on average.

"The first priority is safety. The idea is to take the human element out," said BART spokesman Jim Allison. "The technology is not that far fetched when you have Google testing driverless cars."

A BART train pulls into the Walnut Creek station in on Aug. 26, 2014. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

The train system and its employee unions for years have debated how to protect people who need to work on or near tracks when trains are running.

Before the double fatality in 2013 during a strike, BART used to have a "simple approval" process that put the onus on track side workers to be vigilant in looking out for trains whizzing by.

BART dropped the procedure after the accident.

Now the state Public Utilities Commission requires BART to routinely run trains slower when approaching work zones.

The new technology would selectively stop trains if a track side worker failed to signal back to headquarters that he had received notice of an approaching train.

New technology would run first on test tracks, and the state PUC would have to approve it before it is implemented, officials added.BART staffers will develop the new safeguards with assistance and oversight from UC Berkeley's Transportation Institute, Allison said.

Chris Finn, president of the union representing BART train operators, said it is important for safety designers to consult with transit employees to make sure the system is practical.

"Before you invest a lot in this system, you should consult with the operators, controllers, maintenance workers, and others," said Finn, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555.

BART Board President Tom Blalock said he has high hopes for the project.

"Not only could it save lives here at BART," Blalock said, "but we believe it can also protect track workers at any rail system nationwide once we have successfully demonstrate this technology."

Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267. Follow him at Twitter.com/deniscuff