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Note: This is a section of the book Legacy Fleet: The Story of BART's Old Cars. You can reserve a copy of this upcoming book here.  BART was designed to bring a new generation of rapid transit for the people of the Bay Area, utilizing cutting edge technology and a deep attention to passenger comfort, which in turn was to solve traffic congestion. The great effort placed into these aspects, alongside the related struggles, inspired an entirely new generation of public transit throughout the US, and to an extent, throughout the world. Even in the most unexpected of places, deep behind the Iron Curtain, engineers in the country of Romania found inspiration from BART’s Legacy Fleet and used it to design their subway cars for the Bucharest Metro. These cars inaugurated service on Day 1 in 1979 and are still in service 45 years later. Romania is a country in Eastern Europe, roughly double the size of Pennsylvania, bordering the countries of Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria, alongside the Black Sea. After WWII, the country was occupied by the Soviets and became a socialist republic and part of the Eastern Bloc. Under the Ceaușescu regime, Romania pursued a foreign policy independent of the USSR and included a few instances of Romanian technology imported into the US. Times would change in 1989 and into the 1990s, including the fall of the communist regime, but the subway cars built during that time would continue to move the masses decades onwards.
Development, including mass demolitions and reconstruction of existing and even historic parts of Bucharest (under the “systemization program”) necessitated the construction of a subway system the capital city. Indeed, time would tell that the subway system would be in many cases built to connect giant planned apartment blocks to giant factories and used to shuttle workers to and from their jobs – and the system as a whole had considerable distances between stations even in the Old Town. The local public transit company of Bucharest, Întreprinderea de Transport București (ITB) sent delegations to the Metros of Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev in 1974, but decided against USSR support or “friendly aid” in designing their rapid transit cars and even construction of the system. Needless to say, the system as a whole is a bit more spartan than some notable Soviet metros, but there are a few reminders of those eastern systems, such as giant mirrors and time and headway clocks. The project for the rapid transit system was spun off into the newly formed Bucharest Metro Company (Intreprinderii Metroul Bucuresti - IMB) in 1975, and tasked with designing and building the line and revenue cars.   Early design work for the cars, including general dimensions and shape was refined in 1973 and 1974. Engineers said they were inspired by the BART A cars and designed their subway cars initially with a similar front and a carbody taper towards the roof. This design evolved from early renderings into what became full width cab windshield with side cab doors. Even with newer generations of rapid transit cars, designers used the same approach. As such, even the newest of the Bucharest metro cars have become a sort of a visual evolution from BART.  The side doors were based of Vienna metro cars, of which Vienna sent over the drawings of the pneumatic installation used for the doors in 1979 – basically when the system opened. Some electrical equipment was also imported from Siemens and “assimilated” into use. Outside of these aspects, the cars were by and large home-designed and home-built. For example engineers designed the cars’ trucks and gearbox using lessons learned from the V3A tram car also used in Bucharest.  By and large, the cars were home-designed and home-built. Engineer Stelian Canjeatra recalled the end of the Austrian exchange trip, Florin Tansescu (director at ICPE, and member of Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party) said “Brothers: that’s about it, now we have to manage absolutely alone.” The project continued with Romanian technology and budget, ever mindful of the economical limitations under the Communist Bloc. The cars used DC motors with resistor (rheostatic) control, but even then they were fraught with problems impacting the start of service and pushing it back from May 1st to August 23rd and even further. A commission formed of specialists across academia and industries identified the causes of the problems and possible solutions. One major problem was short circuiting generating small fires during propulsion mode, while changing propulsion steps. The device used to contour the force automatically, called the „oromax” was nicknamed by the shops as the „petromax” due to its tendency to catch fire. Interim solutions were to lower the max speed from 80 to 65 km/h alongside various improvements, including bringing in replacement parts from AEG without official “management approval” but even the the security agencies also quietly understood the importance of getting the parts into the country quietly. The Metro history notes that ICPE Director, Dr. Florin Tanasescu; Head of the rolling stock service, Engineer Octavian Udriste; and Minister of the automotive industry at the time, Ion Avram, reported to the management (the party) that the metro was ready to be put into service “experimentally with the public”.  Whole lot of pressure for that operator in that cab The Bucharest Metro opened to passengers on November 19th, 1979 on what is now the M1 line on 8.1 km from Semănătoarea (an agricultural machinery factory, the station since renamed after the Romanian inventor „Petrache Poenaru”) to Timpuri Noi (New Times, also named after a nearby factory), and carried 175,000 passengers on Day One. This was considered the “burn-in period” and as such, the system claims to be the only rapid transit system in the world to have carried passengers during such a phase until the grand opening on December 19th, 1979 – in which the dictator was convinced that the subway was safe enough for him to ride.  Regarding terminology, there are a few terms specific to these cars which are useful to know:
 Series 2 on left, series 1 on right The cars were built in two distinct series alongside 2 pairs of prototype cars:
Every rapid transit system reflects the city in which it runs, of which Bucharest Metro reflects the pace of the city and the country. There are several stories about “leadership” of the Ceaușescu regime making routing changes based on personal preferences and pressure to “build quickly and work harder” rather than focus on quality. For example, engineers recall “indications” from “the management” (aka the opinion of First Lady Elena Ceaușescu) saying to not build Piața Romană station since the workers and students of the area needed to get more exercise. Needless to say the station was built with the expectation of existing at a later date, and following public demand, opened a couple years after the M2 opened. Other examples include strange curves resulting in detours around personally important buildings and redesigns of stations while under construction. During the 1990s, construction stagnated due to major political and socioeconomic changes in the country following the end of the Ceaușescu regime. The last Astra IVA cars were built in 1992. Starting in the mid 1990s, there were several attempts at modernizing the cars, including the Albastre, AC Motor, Middle Cars, and REM 183 projects. The Albastre (Blue Cars”) was a project to modernize 21 pairs of cars by FAUR, Electroputere Craiova, and REC for the M3 between 1994 and 1996. The modernization of these cars was completed but abandoned during trials due to the incompatibility of the cars across rebuilders alongside the original cars and overall unreliability of the cars. These cars were instead replaced by the new Bombardier cars. The requirements of the loan used to finance the project required the cars to stay on the property for at least 25 years, of which they remain parked inside the IMGB depot. The cars were as follows: 016, 019, 025, 026, 027, 029, 036, 038, 041, 044, 047, 050, 052, 064, 074, 082, 085, 088, 090, 141. Three cars, REM 018, 023, and 163 were modernized by Electroputere Craiova S.A. with thyristor control and AC motors, and painted in a new red livery. This modernization was also not a success in the long run and the cars are stored in the Militari Depot. Five cars were converted by Astra Arad into mid-train cars without driving cabs in 1995. This project was similarly abandoned in 1997, and the cars were simply dumped at the Arad yard. REM 183, car A, was modernized by Alstom in 2008 as a prototype for a modernization project for a 45 further pairs. Due to financial and technological limitations, the project was similarly abandoned. The changes with the 183 included a new front and livery inside and outside, LED displays, new windows, and new interior. Outside of these major changes, there were a handful of small scope modernization projects including one in 2000 adding carborne computers and paint scheme changes for cars for the M4. Additionally, 45 REM were upgraded between 2011 and 2014 with new electrical and pneumatic components, of which these cars remain in service.  The 45 REMs (15 TEMs) currently operational are:
*For some reason, nobody seems to share what the missing 2 TEM are – if they are indeed still in service. As of August 2024 I am happy to report that I have ridden about half of the operational fleet. In regards to route construction, progress resumed with the opening of the M4 in 2000 and the addition of ADtranz/Bombardier Movia 346 (BM2 and BM21) cars from 2002 to 2006 . Romania joined the EY in 2007 and used EU funds for further expansion of the system including the opening of the M5 in 2020.  The BM2 cars were designed in Sweden and represent a new generation of technology including IGBT propulsion, ATP and ATO capability, lower energy consumption, carborne intercommunication corridors, door sensors, etc. There are 18 trainsets of 6 cars of the BM2 order, built between 2001 and 2003 and numbered 10xx-20xx (the 1s and 2s represent opposite ends of the same trainset). Of the 6 cars, the end cars are trailers and all 4 middle cars are powered, with the furthest most middle cars having pantographs for yard moves (in which there is no third rail, for safety). The consists are numbered as followed: R1-MP1-M1-M2- MP2-R2. These cars were designed for use on the M2 and named after various flowers. Two further orders of Bombardier cars were titled the BM21, for use on the M1 and M3. They were built from 2006 to 2008 as 26 6 car trainsets, divided into an order for 20 trainsets and 6 trainsets. These cars differ slightly from the BM2 cars as-built, including LED information signs located inside the end of the cars providing next stop and transfer information, and an additional bar added in the middle of each row of seats. These cars were named after European cities. The onboarding of the Bombardier cars resulted in the scrapping of 100 Astra IVA cars.  The third generation of rolling stock for the Bucharest Metro were the CAF “Inneo” BM3 cars, designed for use on the M2 line. The first 16 trainsets were ordered in 2011 for a price of 97 million Euros, followed by an option for an additional 8 exercised in 2014. Early problems with the cars including a lack of platform clearance due to “platforms being built too wide.” The cars, numbered 1301-2301 to 1324-2324 are named after Romanian rivers. The CAF cars resulted in the retirement of 48 Astra IVA cars, reducing the fleet of 45 active cars. The contract for 13 BM4 cars, with an option for a further 17, was awarded to Alstom in 2020 for use on the M5 line. The cars are delayed and due to enter service in 2024 or 2025, and feature better noise insulation, LED lighting, passenger information systems, and space for bikes and persons with reduced mobility. The cars are part of the Alstom Metropolis brand and named after Romanian counties.  In the meantime, the old Astra IVA cars have soldered on, now (Summer 2024) assigned to the M4. Like the BART cars, they’ve grown with the system and if they were persons, have seen just about everything. They are heavily tagged, perhaps the most graffitied rapid transit cars in the world. Vandals come from throughout Europe to tag the cars, and even Metrorex’s Director General admitted that the cost of cleaning them off was too high to justify. Cars newer than these do not have any comparative levels of graffiti.  Even with their tattered appearance, the cars have lasted 45 years in revenue service which a handful of time remaining. They have gained the respectable nickname „Bătrâna doamnă” (“old lady”) through their „marea aventuă” (“great adventure”). It was only through a trip to visit a lifelong friend in Romania, combined with my personal interest in rapid transit, alongside the interest of a few Romanians sharing bits and pieces on their own internal national railroad forum, that this wonderful story of BART serving as inspiration has been told. Sources:
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"The Two Bagger" is meant to be a place to store more "blog" style posts on various cars, pictures, and random tidbits/trivia. At BART, a "two bagger" is a rather informal name for a two car train. Two car trains rolled in revenue service back in 1972. Archives
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