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In July, Berkeley-based writer Janet Goldberg published her first novel, “The Proprietor’s Song” (Regal House). The story opens with a description of navigation that propels the tale – and the reader’s mind – into motion.

“From northern California there are various routes to Death Valley,” reads the first sentence. The following paragraphs unravel “one of the more direct, less scenic routes” that carry one toward that storied desertscape.

It’s an engaging start to a novel that follows the winding, intertwining paths of its protagonists, who each set out, in one way or another, to seek those they have lost. And the motif of movement is an appropriate one for “The Proprietor’s Song;” Goldberg wrote nearly the entire novel on BART.

While teaching composition at the City College of San Francisco, Goldberg would routinely take BART from her home station, Rockridge, westward on the Yellow Line to Balboa Park Station. The ride takes just over an hour roundtrip.

Streaming past Berkeley and Oakland, the Transbay Tube and downtown San Francisco, Goldberg would write the novel’s tale on yellow legal pads, filling their pages as the train glided along the tracks.

“BART was a relaxing office that moved,” she said.

Goldberg said she found the smooth motion and the ambient noise of the train on tracks quite comforting and sometimes hypnotic. She compared scribbling on a BART train to writing in a public café or coffee shop, where many writers have famously penned their tomes, from TS Eliot and Fitzgerald to Gertrude Stein and Ginsberg.

“It’s actually hard to talk about,” she said of the train ride’s mesmerizing effect. “There’s something about simply being carried along someplace, and that movement makes the ideas and my hands move.”

While riding the train to Balboa Park for class, Goldberg said it was not uncommon to miss her stop – a family tradition of sorts, she said. Her father, while commuting on the Long Island Railroad to New York City, was known to roll right past his destination station.

“I guess it runs in the family,” Goldberg said.

When she isn’t writing, editing, or grading papers on BART, Goldberg said she spends her rides daydreaming and gazing out the windows.

Goldberg moved to the Bay Area in the 1980s. She has never owned a car.

“The last time I had a car in the driveway was when I lived with my parents in high school,” she said.

While living in San Francisco, Goldberg said she would regularly hop on the first Muni bus to cross her path and ride it wherever it took her. It wasn’t until she moved to Berkeley that she became a BART regular.  

Trains soon became her favorite mode of transportation.

“The Proprietor’s Song” was largely inspired by Goldberg’s love of California and the state’s awesome landscapes. She says she often looks at the windows of her BART train “at all the sights, whether they’re lovely or not so lovely; they’re a part of the Bay Area experience, and I never tire of it.”

Goldberg spent about two years developing and editing the novel. She said she largely “free wrote” it spontaneously and had “no idea what was going to happen from one page to the next.”

On the train, Goldberg would scratch out the words, which grew into sentences, then chapters, then a 166-page novel. She initially intended the work to be a short story, but that short story kept “getting longer and longer.”

After drafting the manuscript, Goldberg printed out typed-out sections and brought them on the train to edit longhand with a pen. She’d often look up from her work and notice fellow passengers staring at her.  

“If I have a seatmate, whether I’m writing or grading papers, I sometimes see them gazing over and looking at what I’m doing,” she said. “Sometimes they’ll even outright ask, ‘What are you doing?’”

Goldberg said when she revealed she was working on a novel, her fellow passengers became quite excited.

These days, Goldberg no longer commutes to CCSF. Now, she rides BART in the opposite direction of the city, to access a pool in Walnut Creek where she swims laps. She said she strongly believes in the importance of public transportation and would like to see it “bettered and expanded in this country.”

“I want to see local transit thriving,” she said. “I can’t stand dealing with Bay Area traffic and congestion.”

The iconic original BART car could have looked very different.

Industrial design firm Sundberg-Ferar, which created the concept and design of the original car, recently unearthed a trove of photographs from the 1960s that show BART in its earliest stages.  Among the images, selections of which we’ve included in this story, are numerous snapshots of early BART prototypes.

“Prototypes are a low-cost, low-risk way to test design ideas,” explained Lynnaea Haggard, Sundberg-Ferar’s Marketing Manager. “They’re the creation of artifacts for stakeholders to react to, which helps figure out what’s working and what’s not working.”

BART contracted Sundberg-Ferar to design cars for its budding mass rail system in the early 60s. By 1964, the firm had hit the ground running, starting with basic concept sketches. From there, Sundberg-Ferar built a series of car prototypes at 1/12th scale. To put that in perspective, the initial prototypes were about 5 3/4 feet long – pintsize compared to the actual cars, which measured 70 feet.

It’s worth briefly turning our attention to the sketching phase. Many of the original BART car concepts were designed by acclaimed visionary designer Syd Mead, who’s largely responsible for creating the look and feel of science fiction classics such as “Star Trek,” “Blade Runner,” and “Tron.”

“I worked on the original design for the BART system train cars. Sundberg-Ferar designed the BART system cars,” Mead said in a 2015 interview before his death in 2019. “I did all of the presentation renderings for that.”

Construction of the full-size prototype. Photo courtesy of Sundberg-Ferar.

In the interview, Mead revealed that in initial discussions, the idea was to have a spare cab (the place where the operator sits) on each end of each line “so when the train would go across the Bay and then it would come back, you wouldn’t have to change the whole train around. You could take the control cabin off the back, install another one on the front and then, and away you go.”

That never came to be because “it’s such an elaborate thing,” Mead said.

After the sketch phase, Sundberg-Ferar began building a variety of small prototypes with wood, using a natural metal finish on the outside to further refine and evaluate the design direction. The firm then constructed quarter-scale models and eventually a full-scale prototype that was delivered to California (Sundberg-Ferar was based in Detroit) on the back of not one, but two, trailers. That model was unveiled officially at BART’s Hayward Test Track in June 1965 – about seven years before the system opened for service.

Representatives speak at the BART car prototype unveiling in June 1965. Photo courtesy of Sundberg-Ferar.

The full-scale model was shipped around the Bay Area, with BART allowing members of the public to walk through and try out the feel of it for themselves.

“The experience of the vehicle was mission critical to adoption,” Haggard said.

Per BART historian Michael Healy’s book, “BART: The Dramatic History of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System,” spot surveys suggested that “visitors to the models were, for the most part, very impressed with the cushioned seats, the carpeted floors, and the clean, wide body.” Some people, Healy writes, compared the experience to “being on an airplane, only with picture windows.”

“New standards of attractiveness, efficiency, and comfortableness was the banner flag,” Haggard said. She noted that BART’s design considerations for the project included ensuring the train cars were comfortable, well-lit, temperature-controlled, and as quiet as possible on the tracks. 

Half of the final BART car prototype traveling on a trailer to California in 1965. Photo courtesy of Sundberg-Ferar.

Carl Sundberg, one of the cofounders of Sundberg-Ferar, had a direct hand in the creation of the prototype. His goal: design a train car for the people.

“This was not to be some newfangled train,” Haggard said. “Even though BART was implementing all these new technologies, that didn’t mean the car was going to look like some sort of spaceship.”

In fact, Sundberg wanted the BART car to look like anything but a relic of space travel. He’s quoted as saying, “We are not going to the moon or across the country. It doesn’t have to look like a projectile.”

For that reason, Sundberg didn’t want the public to expect anything streamlined, hence the iconic sloping nose of the cab.

“It had to be an honest design,” Haggard said. “A rapid transit vehicle should look like a rapid transit vehicle.”

Haggard called the project “the opportunity of a lifetime” for Sundberg-Ferar designers, who had the chance to build a mass rail car from the ground up with plenty of creative leeway on BART’s end. At this time, in the mid-1960s, BART was the first mass urban rail transit system built in the US since the early 20th century (The New York City Subway, for instance, opened in 1904).

Sundberg, above all else, wanted to design train cars with people in mind. Though human-centered design is now a well-accepted concept, it was novel at the turn of the century.

“It must be borne in mind that the object being worked on is going to be ridden in, sat upon, looked at, talked into, activated, operated, or in some way used by people individually or en masse,” wrote Henry Dreyfuss, an industrial designer, in November 1950. “If the point of contact between the product and people becomes a point of friction, then the designer has failed. If, on the other hand, people are made safer, more comfortable, more desirous of purchase, more efficient – or just plain happier – by contact with the product, then the designer has succeeded.”

With voices such as Dreyfuss’s painting a backdrop of design thought, Sundberg set out to apply the theory of human-centered design to the BART car.

“This is really the beginning of an era,” said Haggard. “BART is an amazing representation of what was a huge mindset shift in mass transit.”

Denser air filters like the one shown above are capable of blocking more particles

Read our January 2021 update: After successful pilot, denser filters will be added throughout BART’s fleet of train cars

October 2020 update: Midway through pilot, tests of new filters and UV light on BART show promise

The air you breathe while riding BART is filtered more effectively than that in the typical office or indoor setting like a grocery store or pharmacy, with an entire train car’s air being replaced about every 70 seconds.

That was the case before the Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s even more important now, as BART implements a 15-step Welcome Back Plan with a raft of new health and safety measures.  

Because the coronavirus spreads through droplets in the air when a person coughs, sneezes or even just talks, air filtration is key to stopping transmission. Wearing a mask is a first line of protection; BART’s Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system provides another safety layer.

“The BART fleet’s ventilation systems provide passengers with about 4,000 cubic feet per minute of air per car, or about 50 air changes per hour, which is substantial when compared with other public spaces,” said Daniel Cheng, Senior Vehicle Systems Engineer.  “All the air is filtered before entering the passenger area.”

BART is also pushing the envelope on what is possible in the area of filtration, with air exchange that compares favorably to other transit systems. Two new pilot projects are being tested at BART in August: a higher-grade, denser filter panel that will trap smaller particles, and an ultraviolet (UV-C) light source inside the HVAC unit that can zap a virus.

Filters in air conditioning systems are rated by their ability to block different-sized particles, a rating known as their minimum efficiency reporting value, or MERV, on a scale from 1 to 20.  BART cars currently use MERV-8 filters, which can trap particles between 3 and 10 microns in size and are changed out approximately every three months.

The MERV-14 at left has denser folds than the MERV-8 at right

One of the pilot projects, in five train cars, will test new filters rated at MERV-14 – a denser, tighter weave of materials that will choke off even smaller particles. It’s a careful calculus because if filters are too dense, the air can’t get through without overworking the underlying machinery, which would defeat the purpose if the trains can’t run.

Ben Holland, Manager of Vehicle Systems Engineering, said the MERV-14s passed a component test in the controlled atmosphere of the maintenance shop, and will now be testing in moving train cars.

“What we’re going to evaluate is how quickly do these denser filters become clogged,” he said. “We’ll be asking, ‘How long do they hold up? How long are they effective? Can we stay on the schedule for their preventive maintenance?’ “

The science is not settled on the potential role of particles called aerosols that are smaller than most respiratory droplets. That’s where the ultraviolet light pilot – along with enhanced cleaning and a mask requirement – can help even more.

There’s a solid track record for using ultraviolet light in the ventilation ducts of health care settings to kill microorganisms, Holland said. UV-C light is being tested in one train car.

“UV-C is a proven technology, it’s just not been proven in a dynamic environment,” like a moving BART train, Holland said. HVAC units on BART cars are situated in the undercarriage of the trains and are subject to wear and tear on the rails.

Photo at right: ultraviolet light (UV-C) mounted inside an HVAC unit as part of a BART pilot project

“All of the equipment is underneath the car,” he said. “When the UV lights get bumped around on our rails, are they going to survive?” Crews will monitor the pilot car’s performance over coming weeks and months.

Passengers will not be able to see the new filters or UV-C light on the pilot cars because of their placement underneath the train. (And workers must use personal protective equipment when working with the ultraviolet light, which can damage eyes and skin if left unprotected.)

Overall, the air in BART trains at a given moment is about 75% filtered and 25% fresh air drawn from outside the car (it’s 80/20% on legacy trains and 70/30% on Fleet of the Future trains).

Intake vents draw in air from the outside the car and treat it in the HVAC units, then push the mixed, filtered, cooled air (or warmed during winter) back into the train via vents in the window frame on legacy cars or in the ceiling on new trains. The idea is that larger respiratory drops will be dragged down to fall on floors or other surfaces thanks to gravity. BART’s stepped-up cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces in cars helps further to reduce the chances of transmission.

BART’s not stopping there in the search for good ideas.

“We’ve basically opened the door to talk to anybody and everybody” who has technologies to consider, Holland said. “Going to MERV-14 is more expensive, but it’s not impossible. Installing UV bulbs in HVAC units is relatively expensive, but also highly effective. We’re looking to do things that are practical and effective.”

Fleet of the Future trains have a modernized HVAC system which, in addition to other benefits, includes: total air flow increased from 4000 cubic feet per minute to 4300; supply air ducts on the ceiling for better air flow and more cooling for standees; improved design against refrigerant leakage; and switching from an ozone-depleting refrigerant to an environmentally friendly one.

The modern HVAC units also continually communicate their performance status to the train operator and can provide fault logs and diagnostic functions to help with troubleshooting.

Diagram above: How ventilation works on BART cars, with air being fully exchanged about every 70 seconds

BART, which travels in five different counties with different jurisdictional health orders, requires face coverings for anyone on the trains. Station Agents, BART Police Officers, Civilian Ambassadors and more are handing out free masks to anyone who needs one.

Ridership is slowly creeping up again, after dropping to less than 10% of ridership before the pandemic hit. BART publishes crowding charts every week based on historical data that show social distancing is possible on most trains.

ASHRAE, the professional society for HVAC engineers, has issued guidance that aligns with what BART is testing; the group says MERV-14 filters are preferred in transportation settings, but must first be tested.

“Increased filter efficiency generally results in increased pressure drop through the filter,” ASHRAE says. “Ensure HVAC systems can handle filter upgrades without negative impacts to pressure differentials and/or air flow rates prior to changing filters.”

“A higher pressure drop (from a denser filter) puts more strain on the system; the ventilation system requires more effort to push air through it,” said Moana Reynau, Project Manager at PAE of San Francisco and the communications chair for the Golden Gate ASHRAE chapter.

BART also is keeping in mind worker safety, as employees who install, inspect or replace HVAC filters must have adequate personal protective equipment, or PPE, to keep them safe, as well. 

“We are very open to new ideas,” Holland said. “One of the takeaways (of Covid-19) is that we are constantly looking at new technologies and evaluating them.”