Hitachi Ltd. said Friday its U.S. unit won an order worth $798 million to renew a train control system of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District known as BART.

Hitachi Rail STS USA Inc. will replace the existing 48-year-old operating system with a digitally controlled unit. It is expected to allow trains to operate on tighter schedules and increase passenger capacity.

The project, slated to be completed in 2029, will enable the train operator to run as many as 30 ten-car trains per hour in each direction on the mainline between San Francisco and Oakland, up from the current 23.

BART expects the project to create roughly 500 new jobs, with nearly 8,800 potential direct and indirect jobs resulting from the investment, Hitachi said.

BART has average ridership of about 405,000 on a weekday, connecting the San Francisco Peninsula with Berkeley, Oakland and other cities in the East Bay area of Northern California.

==Kyodo

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