Rainwater Leaks Cause BART Equipment Failure In Transbay Tube; Delays Service
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Trains experienced major delays Friday morning after water from the ongoing storm caused an equipment failure in the Transbay Tube, BART officials said.
At about 5 a.m., water seeped through a ventilation system in the control room on the San Francisco side of the Transbay Tube causing components to shut down. Eventually train operators were forced to switch to manual mode causing system-wide delays.
"BART crews were put on heightened alert a few days ago when knew the storm was coming and we've been clearing out drains, removing vegetation and there was a lot of work we've been doing getting ready for the storm," BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.
"There's some stuff you just can't seem to predict will happen or things are going to act up because they're going to act up. And so right now what were're doing is were trying, obviously, to get the trains running back on time."
It is unknown when the problem will be resolved. A BART employee said trains are moving, but at about 15 to 20 minutes behind schedule.
BART has been experiencing many weather-related issues recently. Wet track make it more difficult for operators to accelerate and decelerate quickly. Sometimes, the rain causes the computers to think there is a train present when there isn't.
Trost said BART is trying to address these issues with an upgrade to its system.