Transbay BART Service Back on Track After Temporary Repairs

By Bay City News Service

Initial repair work has been completed this morning to ease congested BART service traveling through the Transbay Tube after maintenance vehicles damaged the tracks earlier today, agency officials said.

Temporary repairs were completed around 8:45 a.m., allowing full train service to start safely running at 9 a.m. between San Francisco and Oakland. Previously trains had to single-track, causing delays of up to 40 minutes, officials said.

The accident that spurred the delays happened around 2:35 a.m. when one maintenance vehicle rear-ended the other, damaging 380 feet of the third rail on the Transbay Tube tracks that take trains from San Francisco to the East Bay, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.

No one was injured in the collision, which involved a rail grinder and another vehicle, she said. At 11:30 a.m., trains will single-track once again to finish the repair work, BART officials said.

The single-tracking will cause delays of about 20 to 30 minutes for passengers between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., BART officials said.

All repair work is expected to be completed before the evening commute. Many commuters took to social media to post comments about long delays and crowds waiting at BART stations this morning.

One Twitter user posted just before 9 a.m., "Life is not fun right now. Stuck at (MacArthur station) in a crowded train."   

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