BART Train Service Disrupted by Technical Glitch, Affecting Thousands of Commuters

BART train operations were brought to a standstill for four hours on Friday morning due to a computer networking issue, forcing crews to mobilize urgently and passengers to seek alternative routes to home, work, and the airport.

This disruption had a significant impact, even prompting the New York Times to issue a breaking news alert. Although train services were back on track by 9:15 a.m., commuters had already faced considerable inconvenience.

Speaking to KTVU after the turmoil subsided, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost shed light on the situation.

Overnight maintenance had concluded as usual, but as morning staff attempted to activate the control center, it became clear “things were not powering up as they usually do,” Trost revealed. The core issue was that the control center staff “could not see the board,” which displays the track circuits. “Without that visibility, we won’t run the trains,” she explained. “The network devices were not communicating with each other.”

Crews eventually managed a “hard reset,” allowing the devices to reboot. Trost emphasized that there was no evidence to suggest external interference. Current insights do not indicate why the problem happened, nor whether outdated networking devices might be to blame, she noted.

Trost encouraged support for BART, as well as bus and ferry services, underscoring the necessity of all these public transit options in such a large region.

On a typical Friday, BART transports around 140,000 passengers. The widespread service halt was initially reported at 4:25 a.m., roughly 30 minutes before train operations were scheduled to commence at 5 a.m., a critical time for many starting or concluding their work shifts.