BART service restored after systemwide computer outage impacts San Francisco Bay Area morning commute
By Tim Fang
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SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) service has been fully restored Friday, after the agency dealt with a computer outage that shut down the entire system during the morning commute.
The agency announced shortly after 9:15 a.m. that service has been restored. Riders should expect “major delays” in service to all destinations.
Around 4:30 a.m., the agency first announced that the system was being suspended due to a train control system problem. Trains were not running into the 8 a.m. hour, forcing many commuters to hit the roads, use rideshares or use alternate transit systems.
“We just know that we couldn’t power up our train control as we usually do morning. And then what that means is we just can’t run safe train service. We may be able to run trains, but if we can’t see into the system, it’s not safe to do so,” BART spokesperson Alicia Trost told CBS News Bay Area after train service was restored. “So what happened was we started to reset servers, starting to send crews out, trying to identify what is causing the problem that prevented us from powering up.”
“Once those inspection trains went out and everything looked fine, then we were able to restore service,” Trost went on to say.
Additional details about the outage were not immediately available.
The Bay Bridge toll plaza, which usually sees lighter traffic on Friday compared to other weekdays, was crowded at the height of the morning commute and remained so into the 10 a.m. hour. Commuters on the San Mateo Bridge also dealt with heavier traffic than usual Friday morning.
Other agencies, including the San Francisco Bay Ferry, Caltrain, AC Transit and Muni provided mutual aid during the outage. Officials with the San Francisco Bay Ferry said they have placed larger ferries into service where possible.
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