All BART service resumes after systemwide shutdown causes commuting nightmare

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- BART has resumed all service hours after all trains were stopped Friday morning because of an issue with its computer system.

Riders experienced major delays to all destinations as services came back online, but BART says this should not carry over into Saturday.

It was a tough Friday morning across the Bay Area if you rely on BART. With no trains rolling, commuters had to pivot to their cars or buses to get into San Francisco from the East Bay and Peninsula.

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

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Having no transbay BART service sent thousands of riders jumping into their cars and crowding the Bay Bridge toll plaza. There was no Friday light commute here.

For many, the ferry was the fastest option in the morning with traffic on the bridge.

Hundreds waited in line to cross from the East Bay into San Francisco at the Jack London Square ferry station -- people with suitcases, laptops in hand, taking work meetings while standing waiting for the next ferry to arrive.

There has been a lot of concerns about BART's outdated train control system.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, saying the root cause had to do with network devices not communicating properly with each other.

BART posted on X just before 4:30 a.m. that the systemwide suspension was due to a train control system problem. It is impacting all 50 BART stations.

RELATED: BART shutdown 'only a taste of what's to come' if not funded, Sen. Wiener says in grave warning

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

BART spokesperson Chris Filippi apologized for the inconvenience to commuters and said they do not know when service will resume, but there is an all-hands-on-deck response.

ABC7 also spoke with BART Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost, who explained the computer outage issue.

"What's the issue is our train control computer cannot turn on properly, so that the staff in the control center can see everything, and that's obviously not safe," Trost said. "So we're not going to run service until all those things happen."

Trost said they were resetting servers.

The last time service at all 50 stations was shut down was 2019, when a similar computer system problem impacted service for hours.

INTERVIEW: BART spokesperson explains systemwide shutdown

ABC7 heard from BART spokesperson Alicia Trost on the systemwide shutdown due to a computer networking problem.

ALTERNATE COMMUTING OPTIONS

BART asked commuters to find other forms of transportation Friday morning.

BART rerouted people to the AC Transit Transbay Bus Service.

Commuters also had the option to take the San Francisco Bay Ferry.

Many people got into their cars and drove this morning following the shutdown, but that caused a backup on I-80 at the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza.

Stay with ABC7 News for updates on this developing story.