BART Electrical Fire Leads To Ongoing Troubles Between Richmond, Berkeley

RICHMOND (CBS SF/BCN) -- BART service on the busy Richmond line came to a halt during Monday morning's commute as crews dealt with an electrical fire, and service continued to have issues well into the afternoon.

Transit officials sent out an alert at about 6:30 a.m. reporting the electrical fire between the Richmond and Downtown Berkeley stations. An AC Transit bus bridge has been set up to help stranded commuters get to their destinations elsewhere in the East Bay and San Francisco with ridership steadily increasing as more companies are returning to office work.

Later Monday morning at around 8:42 a.m., limited service had been established on the line.

Millbrae passengers were advised to board a Berryessa train and transfer at MacArthur to a Millbrae train. Passengers traveling from Millbrae to Richmond can board an Antioch train and transfer at 19th St. to a Richmond train.

As of 6:30 p.m., the system continued to have issues.

There was no ETA as to when the trains would return to normal service.

When asked if Monday's issue was related to a Sunday disruption of service in the same line, BART spokesman Jim Allison told KPIX 5 it was "too soon to determine."

"I took it Thursday, Friday, and today and every time I've had a delay," said Erica Hennes of El Cerrito, who was dealing with issues while trying to use the system on Monday.

"I'm a little disappointed there's a delay but still grateful for BART.  I just have to do a little extra planning for my trip," said El Cerrito resident Lydia Zane.

On Sunday, a power outage caused lengthy travel delays on the line. Power was restored as of 11:45 a.m., but BART ran only Orange Line trains (Richmond to Berryessa) on the line for several hours.

The delays come as BART ridership is climbing, but still less than one-third of pre-pandemic levels at 28% according to the agency's latest data.

Kenny Choi contributed to this report.

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