BART To Try Vinyl Seats on 100 Cars

BART will install vinyl-covered, cushioned seats to replace the old fabric-covered ones on 100 cars, BART officials announced Thursday.

Members of the public expressed a preference for easier-to-clean vinyl seats in a series of "seat labs" conducted by BART earlier this year. Cleanliness was rated "very important" by 81 percent of respondents, BART officials said.

The announcement followed a unanimous vote by the BART board of directors Thursday to spend $1,945,234 on the new-seat trial.

BART General Manager Grace Crunican was quoted in a BART news release saying, “The fabric seats were considered a real attraction when BART began service in 1972, but we’re now carrying 370,000 riders each weekday and those seats are getting much more use now. This trial should give both customers and BART staff a chance to see if vinyl, cushioned seats strike a modern balance between cleanliness and comfort — an important consideration as we move toward replacing our oldest-in-the-nation train cars with the Fleet of the Future.”

BART said it will begin replacing the seats next spring. If riders like the new seats, it will more, the agency said.

For more information, a presentation to the board on the proposal Thursday can be found here.