Live updates: BART says service restored following systemwide outage

There has been a lot of concerns about BART's outdated train control system. But BART officials say that wasn't the problem Friday morning.

BART officials say Friday morning's outage impacted 40,000 commuters. A typical Friday morning serves about 160,000 passengers.

There has been a lot of concerns about BART's outdated train control system. But BART officials say that wasn't the problem Friday morning.

BART Spokesperson Alicia Trost says BART wasn't able to power up its control system to get the trains running early Friday morning. The system is run by a computer network made up of thousands of devices like routers and switches, which keep the trains on track.

She says the root cause has to do with network devices not communicating properly with each other. More specifically, the backup system interfering with the main system.

"The crew isolated the exact devices that were not properly communicating, and they disconnected them, and that is what allowed everything to work as normal," Trost said.

BART officials say they are still investigating what happened. However, they do not anticipate that any of Friday's issues will impact service over the weekend.

State Senator Scott Wiener, a staunch advocate for more transit funding in the Bay Area, spoke with ABC7 about Friday's BART shutdown and how vital the system is.

He said incidents like this present a clear example of what our commutes would be like without BART.

Watch the full interview here.

We are still monitoring how the commute is into the city right now after that shutdown.

Getting to San Francisco was almost mission impossible for many commuters Friday morning. But BART trains are now rolling through the Transbay Tube

With all the trains halted in the morning, commuters pivoted to buses.

The Salesforce Transit Center was busier than normal, and AC Transit buses were crowded with riders familiar with bus service.

Everyone was late. "I come from Alameda," said one commuter, Artemis Gaitanos. "I was on my way to Fruitvale BART Station. Unfortunately, it's caused me about a 45-minute delay to get to work in the city. There was a lot of traffic leaving the island and coming into the city."

ABC7 News was there when the first train arrived into Embarcadero Station from the East Bay at about 9:45 a.m. - along with a lot of relieved faces.

Some commuters took the systemwide BART outage as a chance to try out the San Francisco Bay Ferry.

ABC7 News talked with one man who works the overnight shift and he ended up stuck in the city trying to figure out how to get home.

His option: the ferry.

And despite the dramatic increase in commute time, he was able to see a bright side with the sudden schedule shift. He is heading to Concord and hopefully arrived in the East Bay as service slowly returned.