Drainage System Failure Floods San Francisco's Embarcadero Station, Disrupting Commute
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The drainage system at San Francisco's Embarcadero Station failed during a Muni test of their fire suppression equipment early Thursday, sending a waterfall cascading onto the Muni and BART platforms, disrupting service during the morning rush hour.
The leak started at about 3 a.m. For a while during the peak of the morning commute, neither BART nor Muni were stopping at the Embarcadero station.
The water was coming from the Muni platform one floor up. Muni had been testing its fire suppression system overnight when the station's drainage system malfunctioned.
Video and images provided by BART showed water was falling from the Muni level of the station.
Muni trains were still not stopping at the busy Embarcadero Station at 9:12 a.m. while BART was stopping but experiencing at least 10-minute delays system-wide.
"We were doing overnight testing of the fire suppression system and the drainage system at the Embarcadero Station malfunctioned causing the station and the tracks in the area to be flooded," said Muni spokesman Paul Rose. "We were able to stop the water, stop the flooding, but we are not going to start service back up at the station until we make the full repairs to the drainage system."
As water cascaded from the Muni level to the BART level, Muni trains started to bypass the station around 5:30 a.m. For travelers on the L, M and J lines heading inbound, the final stop is the Montgomery station until further notice. Meanwhile, the N and T lines are skipping Embarcadero and otherwise operating normally.
"We don't know how much water (poured into the Embarcadero Station), but it caused us to drain the area and bypass the station," Rose said. "Once the cleanup is done, we'll resume service."
BART trains also bypassed Embarcadero Station but resumed service to the station around 6:35 a.m., BART officials said.
Muni service was restored to the Embarcadero Station at around 3:30 p.m.
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