Heat caused big BART delays, some trains stopped

Byby Cornell Barnard KGO logo
Monday, June 8, 2015
Heat caused big BART delays, some trains stopped
On Monday the warm temperatures in the Bay Area caused some big delays on BART after electronics controlling the tracks overheated.

SAN BRUNO, Calif. (KGO) -- Monday's warm temperatures caused some big delays on BART after some electronics, controlling the tracks, overheated. It brought some trains to a halt.

BART rider Sarah Alexander said, "It was madness, so many people." She just wanted to get home to San Bruno on BART. She says she waited 45 minutes just for the BART train to get her closer to home.

Some waited an hour just to catch a train on the Daly City line out of San Francisco.

BART rider Vicky Long said, "Three, maybe four trains that went by before I got in one because it was so packed I couldn't get in."

BART blames the scorching heat for the delays. Track monitoring electronics overheated, when the air conditioning failed in a control room, causing computers to detect trains on the tracks which weren't there.

"Hot weather, rainy weather, either way there's a delay on BART. It doesn't matter," Alexander laughed.

Meantime, BART service was back on schedule by 7 p.m. when temperatures started to cool off.

Also during the Monday evening commute, a northbound Caltrain was taken out of service when its engine overheated in Menlo Park. Passengers and crew were taken off and moved to another train.