BART Replaces Old Carpet with Vinyl Flooring

San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has finished replacing the carpeting in its fleet of train cars with rolled-out vinyl flooring.

BART started replacing the carpet in 2008 but only had funding for 200 cars. The latest project involved redoing the flooring in 389 cars. In June, the agency removed the last car in operation with carpeting; it was put back into service later that month with vinyl flooring.

“Now, whatever spills and debris that gets left behind during revenue service can effectively be cleaned and the overall car appearance can be brought back to standard each day,” said BART Assistant Maintenance Superintendent Jeff Baker. “Our cleaning crews can easily sweep debris out from under the seats which slides easily on the vinyl flooring, and the surface provides assurance that proper sanitation can occur.”

The decision to replace the carpet with vinyl was based on the resilience, cleanliness and ease of maintenance of the material.