Network Fail Disrupts Transbay BART Service, Delaying Morning Commuters

BART service was temporarily disrupted Thursday morning after a computer hardware failure, according to the transit agency.

The issue temporarily shut down service between West Oakland and 24th Street, and halted Red and Green Lines, affecting thousands of riders during the morning commute. Service was restored just before 9 a.m.

Jenny Orbell, a BART rider in West Oakland, said she was going to have to take multiple buses to get to her office in downtown San Francisco, where she has to deliver a presentation at 11:30 a.m.

“Hopefully I’ll make it in time,” she said, noting that there also were no Ubers picking up from the station. “Not ideal.”

BART said a computer network hardware failure caused the service failure, but that it was able to restore service after cutting to another device.

The meltdown is the second service disruption on BART this week, after an RV fire in West Oakland sizzled critical radio communication cables, and the latest in a series of major incidents affecting service in the past year, as the agency deals with a major financial crisis.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

KQED’s Blanca Torres contributed to this report.