HAYWARD, Calif. (KGO) — A suspected act of vandalism shut down BART service between the East and South Bay, derailing the Friday commute for countless riders.
“It’s a problem,” Pittsburg resident Richard Dawkins said. “I’m originally from New York, so with the systems here, at this point now, they have to have a protocol in case that happens.”
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At the South Hayward station, fare gates were down and a sign informed people about the service disruption.
A suspected act of vandalism shut down BART service between the East and South Bay, derailing the Friday morning commute for countless riders.
BART service was stopped between Hayward and Berryessa in San Jose because of equipment that was vandalized and was restored just before 3 p.m. Friday.
Riders at the Hayward station trying to travel south were left stranded and trying to figure out how to get to work.
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“We need this system to be a little bit more reliable,” Oakland resident Christopher Ney said. “I feel like over time it’s getting worse and worse.”
BART Spokesperson Chris Filippi said this is different from past service disruptions they’ve had.
“There’s no indication at this point that it is a networking issue,” Filippi said. “All indications are that there was damage that was done to wayside equipment. That’s equipment in the trackway. And we do have our crews responding and we are looking into this as a possible case of vandalism.”
BART crews needed most of Friday to make the very complicated repair to the ‘significant damage.’
“When this sort of thing happens, we can’t run trains safely because it has the potential to impact multiple systems that we rely upon,” said Fillippi.
Other recent disruptions include October 20 and 27, when there were issues on the Transbay Tube.
On September 5, there was a computer-related issue that caused systemwide delays.
On August 29, riders were left stranded after the brakes overheated and smoke filled the Transbay Tube.
And on May 20, there was a fire on the tracks, shutting down the Green Line service for days.
BART admits there have been system wide issues but says Friday’s outage is different.
“There is nothing to connect this incident with the prior incident’s this is an act of vandalism. This is someone coming on to BART property and doing damage in a malicious way and impacting so many people,” said Fillippi.
BART police are investigating the suspected vandalism.
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