The outage began at about 11:15 a.m., spokeswoman Fiona Chan said. Power was restored at about 12:45 p.m. to all but 3,000 customers affected by the outage, Chan said. The North Berkeley and downtown BART stations, which had been closed during the outage, got power back at that time.
BART trains ran at reduced speeds through Berkeley during the outage and did not stop at those two stations, agency spokesman Jim Allison.
Allison said the stations were reopened at about 1 p.m., and trains were expected to be running at full speed soon after. Delays were reported on the Richmond line in the Richmond, Fremont and Millbrae directions while the power was out.
Power was fully restored by 1:50 p.m.
The outage affected a portion of downtown Berkeley between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Fulton Street, from Cedar Street to Bancroft Way, Chan said.
The area from University Avenue south to Bancroft Way was also in the dark between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Shattuck Avenue.
Another area north of the university campus, from Hearst Avenue to Le Conte Avenue, was also impacted between Oxford Street and Highland Place.
The cause of the outage was still under investigation this afternoon, Chan said.
