BART statement on Advanced Automatic Train Control lawsuit

Regrettably, after nearly four years of protracted negotiations, General Electric Transportation Systems Global Signaling (GETS GS), a business unit of General Electric, has left BART with no option but to sue it for breach and termination of its 1998 contract with BART in which GETS GS promised to design and deliver a technological improvement to the BART transit system.

Over the course of the last nine years, BART made a very substantial investment in the development and implementation of a next-generation, communications based train control technology called Advanced Automatic Train Control, or AATC.

If perfected, AATC would allow BART to run trains closer together and at greater average speeds, thereby significantly increasing the ridership capacity of the BART system at a cost far less than the cost of physically expanding the system by building another Transbay Tube or more trackway.

Unfortunately, GETS GS has refused to honor its contractual commitment to develop a safe and functional AATC system for BART, and GETS GS has abandoned the project.

BART will not let GETS GS just walk away from its contractual responsibilities. We will fight vigorously to protect the investment the taxpayers and riders have made in this critically important technology.