BART announces what caused massive morning power outage last weekend

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- BART officials announced this morning at the Board of Directors meeting what caused Saturday morning's power outage.

A switch failed which overwhelmed the system, according to Tamar Allen, the Assistant General Manager of Operations

It happened at 2:45 a.m. on Saturday. Service wasn't fully restored until 11:00 A.M.

ORIGINAL STORY: Full BART service restored after systemwide shutdown caused by computer problems

BART pointed out today in its report that this is rare. Allen said the last time a network switch failed was in March of 2006.

BART also reported this morning they were already working on two improvements that would have prevented the shutdown. They are now accelerating these efforts.

"First, upgrading computer hardware and the network infrastructure to take advantage of emerging technology, protocols and standards for data management and cyber security. Second, establishing a remote redundant network disaster recovery center which would protect revenue service in the event of a network failure. This data center is expected to be fully built out within a month and fully operational within a couple of months," Allen explained.

The switch has been repaired.

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The Board of Directors had a few questions. One focus was how officials communicated with customers that morning.

Some Directors said they heard many stories about people waiting in the rain for a train that never came.

Bart officials say they apologize for the inconvenience and regret that this happened.

RELATED: Passengers, officials say a lot of work left to do after report shows BART made improvements

They say they communicated with station agents as soon as they could and admit something of this magnitude sometimes results in miscommunication.

They are doing all they can to protect against this and say that the redundant data center would have kept the system from shutting down.

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