False Alarm Prompts Rush Hour BART Delays

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KCBS/AP)  -- A falsely detected power outage inside BART's Transbay Tube Tuesday morning caused a relatively brief but major BART delay.

Service was interrupted about 7:30 a.m., but was restored just after 8:00 a.m., after BART officials determined the outage -- thought to be a downed substation within BART's Transbay Tube -- was a false alarm.

BART officials said there was one train inside at the time service was stopped, at the Transbay Tube's San Francisco end.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson told KCBS that at least seventeen trains were at least five minutes late to their destinations.

Johnson said a contractor working on the Oakland side of the tube appears to have hit a water line, which then flooded a BART computer room. The flood seems to have caused the system to register a power failure in the tube even though that was not the case, he said.

Johnson also said BART delays throughout the system of up to 35 minutes this morning can be expected because of the problem.

"Obviously in the middle of rush hour this is going to be a major service delay," he said.

When the power failure registered, passengers were off loaded at BART's West Oakland station. One train was reported to have left that station without passengers, while another opened its doors, filled with passengers, and then sat motionless for some time. No trains entered the Transbay Tube during the apparent outage.

At BART's Embarcadero station in San Francisco, KCBS Reporter Holly Quan said that a public address announcement told passengers to leave the station and head to the Transbay Terminal.

Quan said BART police officers assisting those milling about suggested getting a bus to travel to the East Bay, from the Transbay Terminal.

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