Top 9 BART Disasters That Probably Made You Late To Work
(CBS SF) -- Just as the San Francisco fog rolls in most summer nights, BART trains are destined to be delayed.
Riders who depend on BART to ship them to and from work, school and appointments notice delays are becoming more common. And they're not the only ones.
A San Francisco Chronicle analysis of data on BART delays found that interruptions lasting 15 minutes or longer have increased by more than 26 percent since 2012.
Three years ago, BART boasted an impressive on-time performance rate of nearly 96 percent. But during that last three months of 2014, the rate dropped to about 87 percent -- the first time it's fallen below 90 percent in nearly a decade.
"We do have a lot more delays than we used to," Paul Oversier, BART's assistant general manager for operations, told the Chronicle. "What I would tell riders is we are an aging system, and we are at a fork in the road in terms of moving forward, finding money and making investments to bring all the systems, the cars, the structures and tracks and all the systems, up to date."
From helium balloons to deformed rails, we look back at some of the biggest BART disasters in the last year (in chronological order):
Train Loses A Wheel Part | Aug. 8, 2014
A BART train lost part of a wheel during the middle of rush hour Tuesday near the Pleasant Hill station, leading to a frustrating afternoon commute for many East Bay commuters.
Rain-Soaked Equipment | Oct. 25, 2014
Water intrusion, as a result of the rain overnight, impacted train control equipment and resulting in major delays between the Coliseum/Oakland Airport station and the Bay Fair station.
Smoky BART Train At San Francisco's 16th Street | April 27, 2015
A mechanical problem on a train caused smoke to fill the 16th Street Mission station platform.
10-Inch Crack Discovered In SF Tracks | May 6, 2015
A deformity was discovered in the trackway between the Civic Center station and 16th Street station in San Francisco. The company that inspected that section of rail noticed an anomaly in that area last September.
Helium Balloon Short-Circuits Electrical Lines | May 6, 2015
A mylar helium balloon contacted electrical lines, creating a short-circuit that cut power to 4,000 customers including BART stations and the BART tracks -- the same day a crack was discovered in the SF trackway.
Track Switch Problem | May 8, 2015
Bay Area Rapid Transit trains on the Fremont to Daly City and Dublin/Pleasanton to Daly City lines were experiencing 30-minute delays in all directions due to a track switch and power issue problem for the second time in one day.
Damaged Train Control Equipment | May 20, 2015
Work crews found and replaced a damaged receiver coil in the area between the West Oakland station and the Lake Merritt and 12th Street Oakland City Center stations. The system was delayed for several hours.
Heat Failure | June 8, 2015
A June heat wave caused equipment failure and delays throughout the BART system, plus the closure of a station in Berkeley for several hours.
Early Morning Train Fire | July 9, 2015
A fire on a train injured 3 people and closed multiple stations in Alameda County.
HONORABLE MENTION
A large portion of BART delays and disruptions, particularly in January, were from the #BlackLivesMatter police brutality protests, which forced closures at several stations in the East Bay and San Francisco.