Major BART delays reported due to smoke, possible fire on train at MacArthur station
BART officials warned passengers of major delays in all directions Monday afternoon due to smoke and a possible fire on a train at MacArthur station that required the evacuation of passengers from the vehicle.
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.
The Oakland Fire Department confirmed that they have units at the station.
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. There is currently no service between Ashby, Rockridge, Lake Merritt and West Oakland stations. 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. Currently service on the Red Line was not available.
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.
