BART trains stopped between Richmond, Berkeley after emergency
BERKELEY — The morning commute brought more headaches for BART riders Friday after major delays developed on the red and orange lines in all directions following what officials called a “major medical emergency” near Berkeley, officials said.
The trouble began about 6:30 a.m. following the incident near the North Berkeley station, BART spokesperson Michelle Robertson said.
BART did not specify the emergency. Generally in the past, the agency has equated the phrase “major medical emergency” with a train colliding with a person on the tracks.
The incident shut down the entire red-line service sporadically until about 8 a.m., when it re-opened between the Millbrae and MacArthur stations, Robertson said. The orange line was running between all stations from Richmond to the Berryessa station in San Jose.
BART passengers on the red line coming from Richmond to Millbrae could take an orange line Berryessa-bound train and transfer at MacArthur station and board a yellow-line train from Antioch to the San Francisco Airport. Passengers coming from Millbrae could transfer from a yellow-line train to a Richmond-bound orange-line train at 19th Street.
Trains on the orange line between Richmond and Berkeley were single-tracked through those cities, Robertson said.
AC Transit was honoring BART tickets between downtown Berkeley and Richmond.
It was the second consecutive day that a medical emergency on the tracks disrupted service, and continued a recent trend of tough commutes for BART passengers.
On Wednesday, unscheduled track maintenance forced BART to close the red line and part of its green line early in the commute. A fire near the tracks closed service between the Daly City and Balboa Park stations on May 27, the day BART opened after a week-long closure of the green line caused by another fire near the San Leandro station.
Before those incidents, BART had to shut down its entire system for more than five hours on May 9. A network connectivity issue with BART’s computer system that prevented operators in the control system from seeing all trains on the track caused that shutdown.
BART did not have an estimate on how long the delay would last.
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