Major BART delays reported after smoke leads to train evacuation at MacArthur station
BART officials warned passengers of major delays in all directions Monday after smoke on a train at MacArthur station required the evacuation of passengers from the vehicle.
Normal service was restored at MacArthur Station just before 4:30 p.m., about two hours after service was first interrupted. Delays were still expected, however.
The @SFBARTalert account on X initially posted about delays shortly after 2:30 p.m., upgrading the incident to major delays a few minutes later.
BART confirmed shortly before 3 p.m. that an eastbound train had to be taken out of service due to smoke and a possible fire on the train. All passengers were evacuated safely from the train and there were no injuries reported.
Passengers later informed CBS News Bay Area that they initiated the evacuation of the trains, pulling the emergency door levers to exit after smoke filled one or more of the train cars. The MacArthur station was temporarily closed during the incident.
The Oakland Fire Department confirmed that they had units respond to the station. Aerial footage showed a fire truck pulled up next to the train involved in the incident just outside the station platforms.
At 3:10 p.m., BART officials confirmed the agency has stopped service in downtown Oakland in the Antioch, Berryessa, Richmond and San Francisco directions. Service between Ashby, Rockridge, Lake Merritt and West Oakland stations was temporarily stopped. Passengers are advised to find alternate means of transportation.
Shortly before 4 p.m., BART resumed limited service in downtown Oakland in the SFO and Berryessa directions, but advised passengers that major delays would continue and that the Red Line would remain out of service.
About 30 minutes later, BART restored all service through MacArthur Station. However, delays were expected to persist in downtown Oakland in the Antioch, Berryessa, Richmond, and San Francisco directions.
BART officials later said that their initial investigation determined that a collector shoe -- a piece of equipment found on each train car -- interfered with the third rail, "causing smoke and likely electrical arcing, which is not a fire but can look like fire."
Monday's incident is the latest major problem to disrupt transit service for the agency in the less than a month. In late July, a power outage and a fire at a substation closed several East Bay stations and impacted service for several days.
In that service outage, firefighters extinguished the fire in a BART electrical room between 19th St. Oakland and Fruitvale stations hours after initial delays. About 300 passengers were evacuated, the fire department said. Two days later, the problems were persisting. On Aug. 8, the system suffered a network computer meltdown that for a time shut down multiple East Bay stations, severely delaying service on the Berryessa line.
Additional information and information on how to get around the service disruption can be found on the BART website.
